I stumbled upon a beautiful Rambam, in his letter to his son Rabbi Avraham.
He says, “Do not disgrace your soul with machloket/arguments. It destroys the body, the soul, and the money. And what is left after Machloket? “
That is a powerful line.
Body, soul, and money- we are supposed to love God with these three things, and machloket takes it all away.
“I saw people that were white and became black, I saw families that were wiped away. I saw ministers that lost their posts of greatness. I saw great cities shaken to their core. I saw groups that became dispersed. I saw men of faith that were lost. I saw honorables that were disgraced. All because of machloket. Prophets prophesized, wise people shared their wisdom, philosophers searched, all to describe the evils of machloket. They did not reach the end.”
“Therefore,” he says, “Hate it and run from it. Stay away from those that love it, those that redeem it and those that are its friends..”
He’s speaking poetically, saying that machloket has those that love it, and those that redeem it, which means that when the machloket starts dissipating, they are there to stoke the coals.
So don’t only stay away from machloket, but stay away from its ambassadors as well.
He continues on and says that, Even if it is somebody that is related to you, if he loves argument and contention, make believe that he is a stranger. Stay away from his closeness, lest you be caught up in his sin.
These are the words the great Rishon, the Ramban. And who is he talking to? His son, who was also a great Rishon. He is giving fatherly advice to his son, from all of his knowledge. The Rambam was a man of halacha and when he speaks words of mussar, it comes from his heart.
One of the great rabbis once said, What a Rishon says without a source has the entire Torah behind it.
It’s his feelings and emotions.
The Rambam is sharing these loving words with his son. “Don’t taint your soul,” he says, with the same term used for eating unkosher food.
As the saying goes, “People are more careful with what goes into their mouths than what goes out of their mouths.”
We have to be sensitive to this great evil, which is a destroyer of the body, like disease. It’s a destroyer of the soul, like any other sin. And it’s also a destroyer of money. People always want a segula for parnasa, and here we have the Rambam saying, machloket destroys money. We have seen it destroy businesses, and it takes people away from their greatness. It destroys cities and takes everything apart. And yet, with all of that, it is still alive and well. Let us pay heed to this concept, and stay far away from machloket and its ambassadors.
Have a wonderful day.