In Parshat Nasso, the Torah introduces the nazirite—one who steps back from aspects of everyday life by abstaining from wine, refraining from haircuts, and avoiding contact with the dead.
The Torah calls the nazirite “holy,” yet when the vow ends, the nazirite must bring a sin offering. This suggests that the nazirite’s spiritually elevated life is somehow problematic. Why would a life of greater discipline require atonement?
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks explains this through the philosopher Maimonides’ distinction between two ideals: the saint and the sage. The saint tends toward extremes, seeking purity and separation from the compromises of society. The sage follows a middle path, balancing competing obligations while remaining engaged in the world. As Rabbi Jonathan Sacks notes, saints may be supremely virtuous as individuals, but “you cannot build a society out of saints alone.” Society depends on those who live in the world, not escape from it.
The saint and the sage do not only describe two types of people; they reflect two dimensions within each of us. One part longs to withdraw – to simplify and protect our inner life from noise and distraction. Another part recognizes our responsibilities toward family and community. However tempting withdrawal may feel, life cannot be built on inwardness alone.
Rabbi Sacks illustrates this through Maimonides himself, whom he calls “a sage who longed to be a saint.” Maimonides, he observes, preferred a life of quiet study, removed from communal burdens. Yet he chose otherwise, becoming a physician, a leader, and a central voice in Jewish law and thought. He understood that spiritual longing does not release a person from communal responsibility.
The rabbis capture the risk of losing that balance in a cautionary tale. Rabbi Elazar ben Arach was one of the outstanding sages of his generation. Yet Rabbi Elazar withdrew into isolation. Cut off from his peers, the rabbinic record tells, he forgot all the Torah he had studied. Inwardness, when severed from community, can diminish rather than deepen a person.
This may be the deeper message of the nazirite. The nazirite is called holy because the impulse toward restraint, inwardness, and purity has value. At times, stepping back can be necessary and can help restore a sense of balance.
But in Judaism, isolation is not meant to become a permanent way of life. This is why the nazirite must bring the sin offering—as a way of recognizing the spiritual cost that comes with withdrawing from the world. Holiness lies not in leaving the world, but in maintaining an inner religious life while remaining engaged in it.
Rabbi Dr. Mordechai Schiffman is an Assistant Professor at Yeshiva University’s Azrieli Graduate School, the Director of Leadership Scholars at the Sacks-Herenstein Center, an instructor at RIETS, and a Sacks Scholar. He holds a BA in psychology, an MS in Jewish Education, an MA in Jewish Philosophy, Rabbinic Ordination, and a doctorate in Psychology. Rabbi Dr. Schiffman also serves as the associate rabbi at Kingsway Jewish Center in Brooklyn, NY, and practices as a licensed psychologist. He is the author of Psyched for Torah: Cultivating Character and Well-Being Through the Weekly Parsha, and The Torah of Character: Psychological Growth Through the Weekly Parsha.
This essay was written as part of our collaboration with The Rabbi Sacks Legacy Sacks Scholars.
