Does Enjoying Nature or Music Reduce Spiritual Merits in Judaism?

Yossi asks: “I was told that pleasure in this world minimizes a person's merit. If a person goes out to travel, to see rivers or beautiful landscapes, does this reduce his merits? After all, this is also a kind of spiritual pleasure. If someone listens to music, which is also a kind of spiritual pleasure, or plays music, does this take away from his merits in a significant way? If so, according to the Torah, must a person minimize pleasures altogether, which would make him depressed? Thank you in advance for your answer.”

* * *

Shalom,

God created beauty, fragrance, and taste in the world specifically so that we may enjoy them and be strengthened through them. Judaism is not opposed to enjoying the world. As our Sages said:
“In the future a person will have to give an accounting before God for all that his eyes saw but he did not partake of, though it was permitted and he could have enjoyed it, as it says (Ecclesiastes 2): ‘I withheld not my heart from any joy.’” (Yerushalmi Kiddushin 4:12).

The statement that “a person’s merits are reduced” applies only to situations where someone experiences a miraculous salvation. Therefore the Sages taught that one should not rely on miracles.

It is important to know that physical enjoyment can even become a springboard to spiritual growth. When the enjoyment is positive, not only does it not detract from one’s merits, but it can actually add to them.

For example, if you eat and drink in order to stay healthy and strong so you can fulfill God’s will, this itself is a mitzvah. Similarly, if you listen to music in order to calm your soul and bring yourself joy so that afterward you can study Torah and perform mitzvot with gladness, then you have turned that enjoyment into something holy and meritorious. If you enjoy a wonderful taste or fragrance and recite the proper blessing with intent to thank the Creator for His marvelous world, you are performing a mitzvah.

Maimonides explains this lofty idea (Hilchot De’ot 3:2–3): “A person must direct all his actions toward knowing God, blessed be He, alone. Whether he is sitting or standing, speaking or acting, all should be toward that end… So too, when he eats, drinks, or engages in intimacy, he should not set his heart only on pleasure, so that his eating and drinking are merely for taste, or his intimacy only for enjoyment. Rather, he should set his heart to eat and drink only to keep his body and limbs healthy… Whoever follows this path all his life is serving God constantly — even when he is doing business or engaging in marital relations, for his intention in all things is that his body be whole and strong to serve God.”

In the same way, when you look at fields, orchards, or beautiful scenery with the thought of praising the Creator who made them in His wisdom and abundant kindness, this too becomes an act of praise and gratitude, deepening your love for God. This is a great mitzvah and a profound moral lesson. As Maimonides writes in Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah 2:2: “How does one come to love and revere God? When a person contemplates His great and wondrous deeds and creations, and perceives in them His infinite wisdom, immediately he loves and praises and glorifies, and yearns with a great desire to know His great name, as David said: ‘My soul thirsts for the living God.’”

By contrast, when a person eats and drinks only for selfish enjoyment, chases honor and cravings, and recognizes no gratitude to the Creator, this is a negative trait, and an unproductive and ungrateful way of living. When one recognizes God, thanks Him for life’s pleasures, and keeps in mind the truly important things — Torah and mitzvot, then the pleasures of this world can help a person rise higher, and they themselves become merits.