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Section XV. Chapter Twelve: Worship.
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Many people say the finest thing a servant can occupy himself with in the abode of this world is worship of his Creator alone — by fasting by day and rising at night to praise and glorify; letting go of all the world, as his Creator will suffice him for his food, medicines, and all his needs.
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And we find that worship has sublime pleasure — as it says: 'For praise is pleasant and becoming' (Ps. 147:1); and joy and happiness — as it says: 'Serve the Lord with joy' (Ps. 100:2).
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And remembrance before the Creator of all at the time of reward — as it says: 'I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him' (Mal. 3:17).
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These people too — may God show you mercy — everything they described about worship of our Creator is absolutely true; indeed all attributes cannot reach it — as it says: 'Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; His greatness is unsearchable' (Ps. 145:3).
But what is objectionable
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— what is objectionable in them is their isolation in worship alone and their claim that one should not occupy oneself with anything else; for if he does not attend to food, the body cannot persist.
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And if he does not attend to offspring, worship ceases from its very root — for if the people of a generation all committed to this and then died, worship would die with them.
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Worship is meant for fathers and their sons and their sons' sons — as it says: 'That you may fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and commandments which I command you — you and your son and your son's son all the days of your life' (Deut. 6:2).
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Then let me clarify what escaped them: that worship consists of all the rational and revealed commandments — as it says: 'And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to keep the commandments of the Lord' (Deut. 10:12).
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What would the solitary worshiper do with the commandments about just weights and measures — it says: 'Just scales, just stones' (Lev. 19:36)? And what about judging with equity — it says: 'Do not distort justice, do not show partiality' (Deut. 16:19)?
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And what about permitted and forbidden foods — it says: 'These are the living creatures you may eat' (Lev. 11:2)? And purity and impurity — it says: 'to distinguish between the impure and the pure; and to instruct on the day of impurity and the day of purity' (Lev. 10:10–11)?
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And likewise the commandments about sowing, tithes, vows, and charity and their like. If you say he will learn these and teach them to others who will practice them — then those others are the worshipers, not him; through them God's worship is accomplished, not through him.
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As for what they said about relying on the Creator for bodily well-being and food — that is as they said. But they missed something: He has appointed for every thing a cause and a pattern, and one ought to seek through that path.
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If they were right that reliance is universal, then let them rely on Him also in the matter of worship to give them reward without worship —
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But if that is not permissible — because He has made worship the cause of reward — then there is no escaping earning, marrying, and the other pursuits He has made the causes of people's interests.
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Except that He may at times do something of this by way of a sign, without human intermediary — but He does not make it a running custom, lest He alter what He set as nature.