There's one thing I still don't understand: Does God want us to enjoy ourselves or not?
I examined the classical sources and the message is mixed. Here I transcribe part of what I found: The biblical commandment, "You shall be holy" (Leviticus 19:2), is understood by the sages of the Talmud as a precept to "sanctify oneself by abstaining even from those things permitted" (Yevamot 20a); Nachmanides even counts this as one of the 613 precepts.
On the other hand, the Torah calls the Nazarene (a person who vows to abstain from drinking wine) a "sinner." What is the sin? The fact that he renounced one of the pleasures of God's world. "Is what the Torah has forbidden you not enough?" the Talmud explains, "that you must take on more prohibitions?" If a person is considered a "sinner" for abstaining from wine, the Talmud deduces, imagine what the Torah would say about the kind of people who are constantly fasting and mortifying themselves.
On the other hand, the Torah also calls the Nazarene "holy," forcing another Talmudic sage to use the same reasoning as his colleagues, but in reverse: if the Torah calls "holy" a person who abstains only from wine, imagine the praise it would give to one who abstains from all the pleasures of the world... (both opinions are cited in Nedarim 10a).
What do you think of this?: Pirkei Avot, Ethics of Our Fathers 6:4 says: "This is the path of the Torah: eat bread with salt, drink water sparingly, sleep on the floor, and live a life of suffering." Let's contrast this with the statement of Rav Nachman, who said that a point of halakha (Jewish law) can be properly understood after tasting a juicy breakfast (Bava Kama 72a), or the saying of Rabbi Hezkiah: "One will have to answer [in the heavenly judgment] for every thing that his eye saw and did not consume" (Talmud Yerushalmi, Kiddushin 4:12).
So, what is the correct perspective? Is it about conquering one's animalistic inclinations, transcending the mundane, revealing the supremacy of spirit over matter? Or should we find goodness and virtue in every part of God's world and in every aspect of His-given life?
I believe there may be a clue to the solution in biblical law regarding vows (Numbers 30), and how its deeper meaning is understood in Hasidic teachings. The Torah speaks of a young woman, on the cusp of maturity, who promises to abstain from some indulgence (for example, "I promise not to eat chocolate this week!"), and of the father's legal power to annul the vow.
The idea is that there are circumstances and stages in life where we are still in our "spiritual adolescence." In this state, "promises" are necessary because fully exploiting our natural material exceeds what we can safely handle. But in a more advanced state of spiritual maturity (represented by the "father" in the Torah narrative), these promises are nullified. Indeed, even when the "daughter" within us is struggling against our physical self, the "father" within us protects it.
That's the concept. How it's applied is another matter; as I said at the beginning, I haven't figured that out yet.
By Yanki Tauber, from www.chabad.org