I am having difficulty in understand the meaning of Tzadik. Maimonides says "One whose merit surpasses his iniquity is a tzadik". I have trouble in understanding this sentence. Can someone explain the meaning of the word, what Maimonides means by this sentence? Also how does one become a Tzadik?
Answer
The statement of Maimonides to which you refer is from his Yad Hachazaka, Repentence [or: Return] chapter 3. There he writes (in my own loose translation):
Everyone has merits and sins. Someone whose merits are more than his sins is a tzadik. Someone whose sins are more than his merits is a rasha. Half and half, he's a benoni [=middle person].
So, too, the country: If all her denizens' merits are more than their sins, she is a tzadik. If their sins are more, she's a rasha. And so with the world as a whole....
This balance is not according to the count of the merits and sins, but according to their 'weight': some merits balance out many sins... and some sins balance out many merits.... And they are weighed according only to the mind of God, who knows how to weigh them correctly.
How to become a tzadik, you ask? Do what God wants, and avoid doing what he doesn't want.
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