[Avodah] Messilat Yesharim and Peer Pressure

[Liron Kopinsky]

A Rabbi I know from Los Angeles has started a project for Elul to get people
to read through Mesillat Yesharim during the month - about a chapter a day.
I've signed on, and as part of the project he started a blog (
http://elulbook.blogspot.com<http://elulbook.blogspot.com/2011/09/peer-pressure.html>)
for people to post their insights into the book.

Here is what I posted there - if anyone has an answer, I'd love to hear it:

 When describing the things that get in the way of proper Zehirut, Ramchal
names 3 reasons: Being too busy, not taking life seriously, and having bad
friends. Ramchal previously talked about being too busy as being the big
challenge to Zehirut, and being overly jovial and not taking things
seriously seems to be the direct opposite of Zehirut, so it makes sense why
Ramchal mentions these two here.

Having bad friends is interesting, however, as its opposite - having good
friends - is not mentioned as one of the positive ways of acquiring Zehirut.
This is strange because in Pirkei Avot (Chapter 2
<http://he.wikisource.org/wiki/%D7%9E%D7%A9%D7%A0%D7%94_%D7%90%D7%91%D7%95%D7%AA_%D7%91>)
it says "איזוהי דרך ישרה שידבק בה האדם" - "What is the straight path that a
person should stick to?" - and one of the answers given there is "חבר טוב" -
"a good friend." In the mishna this is contrasted with the question "What is
the bad path that a person should distance himself from?" with one of the
answers being "bad friends."

Why did Ramchal leave out positive peer pressure?


Kol Tuv,
Liron
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