I thought I was going to get through the whole verse today, but it’s not looking good, is it?
Rabbi (Jehudah the Prince) was in the habit of saying: “In choosing the right path, see that it is one which is honorable to thyself and without offence to others. Be as scrupulous about the lightest command as about the weightiest, for no man knoweth the result of his actions. Weigh the present temporal disadvantages of a dutiful course against the reward of the future, and the present desirable fruits of a sinful deed against the injury to thine immortal soul. In general, consider three things and thou wilt never fall into sin: remember that there is above thee an all-seeing eye, an all-hearing ear, and a record of all thine actions.”
This is just good advice. Not only in the sense of being fearful of that something after death, the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns, but just trying to think long-term about consequences of actions. The present temporal disadvantages (Mr. Herford has loss often seem incredibly large, but that’s just the perspective tricking you. Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear, and rewards in the future are larger than they appear now.
On the other hand, I’m not so keen on the theodicy here. Or, rather, I find it hard not to infer, from the text, that the speaker views Divine reward and punishment as altogether just. I find that position difficult, at least for ideas of justice that correlate with our secular ideas of justice. I’m not saying it’s bad advice, just that the terms it’s couched in seem to go along with victim-blaming of the kind that blames Katrina on homosexuals. I’d prefer to take it down to the level of the first two (or to the level that I read the first two); if you decide to neglect a mitvah or to actively break a commandment, don’t do it without thinking.
Or, more generally, everything you do has an ethical component. You can’t just shrug off the ethical implications of your clothing purchases, your diet, your table manners, your work habits, all of the things you do. Or at least if you do shrug them off, you do so at a substantial risk, at least in terms of the Divine Creator.
And I have to say, I’m regularly surprised by how honest most people are. How many laptops are not stolen from my library everyday, how often a thumb drive or mobile phone is turned in to the Lost and Found, how few books are stolen. I shouldn’t be surprised, really, anymore, but I still am, and that’s nice for me.
Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.