NUM33 Self-Denial. As familiar as some of us are with overindulgence, others know its opposite, which is self-denial. The Jewish tradition has been very consistent in raising as much opposition to asceticism as it does to self-indulgence. (Aesthetic voices can be found in the Jewish tradition. Pirkei Avot 6:4, for example, says "This is the way of the Torah: you shall eat bread with salt, drink a measurement of water, sleep on the ground, and live a life of pain." The main stream has developed a virtual consensus, however, and is not in favor.) Neither is seen to be a positive value or a spiritual practice. Hence we find there is no tradition of monasticism or celibacy in the Jewish world. The closest we come is the tradition of the nazir [this verse], which is the name given to people who take a temporary vow of abstinence from wine, haircutting, and contact with the dead (of whom Samson is the most famous example). But the abstinence of the nazir is more permitted then it is condoned, as we learn from the fact that the Torah demands a sacrifice of atonement for one who takes on Nazarite behavior: "And make atonement for him, for he sinned regarding the soul" (Numbers 6:11). The Talmudic sage Rabbi Elazar Ha'Kappar extends what we learn from this requirement for atonement: "If one who afflicted himself only with respect to wine is called a sinner, how much more so is the one who aesthetically refrains from everything considered a sinner!" (Nedarim 10a). Similarly, the law states that whoever fasts excessively is called a sinner (Ta'anit 11a), and the Jerusalem Talmud and asks: "Is it not sufficient what the Torah has forbidden you, that you seek to prohibit from yourself other things?" (Nedarim 9:1). Though not condoning asceticism, the Mussar teachers do speak of a kind of abstinence that is good and valuable. The ability to restrain ourselves is a necessary soul-trait and the very one that is often invoked to guide a person who seeks to counter the tendency to overindulge. (This is the trait of "abstinence," or p'rishut in Hebrew. See chapters 13-15 of The Path of the Just.) But this capacity to hold ourselves back is distinguished from asceticism. Abstinence can maintain or restore the middle way, whereas asceticism rejects it.