"Don't be such a tzadik."

I've heard this many times, and think it's yeshivish in origin, possibly even Talmudic (paraphrased, of course). I was going to make it my signature, but sincerely didn't want to give forum-members, or worse, G-d forbid, new-comers, the wrong idea.

My main question is simply, who said it? But I also think it's a good topic for discussion.

If you could be tzadik, by all means, for the good of the universe, be one! But if you can't, my question (which I've already answered in my own mind) is, should you try to be?

Recovery is a dirty business. If you're in the pits, and clawing your way out, is it wrong to want an escalator? I've gone from couching this struggle in terms of the Yetzer HaRa and the elevation of my neshama, to plain, old-fashioned, just do what works, and don't over-think it -- or think too much about it at all. In other words, I'm finding that letting-go involves a certain degree of intellectual detachment, despite my natural curiosity to gaze into the abyss and figure this out. It's not for me to understand.

The recovery pros here seem to have adopted a similar mindset. I see them cut to the chase whenever the forum threads descend into too much pilpul. "How does this affect your recovery?", is the basic theme to which they always revert back.

אַל תְּהִי צַדִּיק הַרְבֵּה, וְאַל תִּתְחַכַּם יוֹתֵר, לָמָּה תִּשּׁוֹמֵם

קהלת ז' ט"ז

Well, that was easy! Haha.