Hasid or Tzaddik?

The Torah is not a series of disconnected tales.  It is stories, ideas and axioms intricately developed through the course of its many books.  For example, in the Garden of Eden humankind is limited by just one simple law: ‘Do not eat of that fruit.’  Noah, coming some ten generations later, is charged with seven laws which he and his descendents are obliged to follow.  As the Tree is gone, new laws govern human interaction with one another and the world.

One question posed by the ancient sages is, what view should we take of the strictures given by God?  Are they values that relate to the One?  Do they connect us to Him?  Or are they simply duties that must be followed?  To put this a different way, which is more worthy- to adhere to the laws because we fear God or understand that these laws are right by our own heightened sense of morality and thereby fulfill them?

A Hasid (a righteous individual, not a member of a sect) and a Tzaddik are paradigms of this question.  A Hasid is someone who follows the laws because he fears the Lord.  The Hasid has a sense of duty to God and will adhere to the halachot of Judaism because of yirat shamayim, Awe of Heaven.  A Hasid thinks, ‘My mind is too limited by its own boundaries to know what God wants of me.  He asks’, “What then do You ask of me, Lord?”  The Tzaddik, on the other hand, may be every bit as outwardly religious, but will act righteously because of his sense of what is correct.  Which is better?  To be a Hasid?  Or a Tzaddik?

A Hasid must be Jewish.  The word itself refers to someone who looks at the universe of God given dicta and zealously looks for opportunities to do the Divine Will.  A Tzaddik may be a Jew or non-Jew as they feel or intuit an awareness of what morality means.

It is implicit in the rabbinic mind that our faith does not trust humanity to make the right decisions about moral questions.  After all, the initial phases of the Torah are laden with tales of the descent of humankind into a great lacunae of goodness.  Think of the stories that are told from the episode of the Garden to the enslavement in Egypt.  The stories are of moral depravity and then the discovery of God and a higher authority. 

Yet, the question remains: Which is more praiseworthy—to be a Hasid or a Tzaddik?

In the Talmud, Mar son of Ravina declares, that “even a non-Jew who studies the Torah is comparable [in merit] to the Kohen Gadol.”  We know that non-Jews are not commanded to study Torah so it may then be assumed that reason or a personal compulsion to do “right” is greater than even an obligation carried out with fervor.  Even medieval heretic Baruch Spinoza came to the conclusion that “every person who accepts the authority of the seven commandments of Noah and applies oneself to their observance should be considered as one of the hasidei umot olam [a Hasid amongst the gentile nations].

There is no question that moral behavior is of paramount importance.  The outstanding philosophic question is what is the best route to get there?  The path of the Hasid?  Or Tzaddik?