Judaism as a Path of Personal Transformation: the teachings of Mussar For if a king of flesh and blood stamps out many coins from one mold, they are all alike, but the Holy blessed One fashioned all people in the mold of the first human, and not one resembles the other. Sanhedrin 38b Whoever saves a life it is considered as if he saved an entire world. Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5; Yerushalmi 4:9, Babylonian Sanhedrin 37a. Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe’s (1914-2005) definition of spirituality: Building your interior world. Rabbi Yechezkel Levenstein (1895-1974), Mussar mashgiach of the Mir and Ponevezh yeshivas in the 1940: A person’s primary mission in this world is to purify and elevate the soul. Putting the two definitions together, “spirituality” can be defined as working on your interior world in order to purify and elevate whatever it is that exists in that inner realm of existence. You ought not say that teshuva applies only to sins that entail action, such as fornication, robbery, and theft. Rather, just as a person needs to repent from these, so too one needs to probe whichever bad character traits [de’ot ra’ot] one may have, and to repent from them: anger, enmity, envy, frivolity, the pursuit of wealth and honor, the pursuit of foods, and the like. From all of this, a person needs to repent. And these sins are more difficult than those that entail an action, for when a person becomes immersed in these, it is very difficult to part from them. And so says the verse “Let the evil person forsake his path, and the iniquitous person his thoughts” (Yeshayahu 55:7) Rambam, Hilkhot Teshuva 7:3. Dr. Alan Morinis www.mussarinstitute.org God said, “Since you all came for judgment before me on Rosh Hashana and you left [the judgment] in peace, I consider it as if you were created as a new being.’” Yerushalmi Rosh Hashana 21 Every person is fit to be righteous like Moshe Rabbeinu, or wicked like Yerovam…. There is no one who compels, decrees upon, or leads a person to either of these two paths. Instead, it is one’s own initiative and thought that guides to the path one desires…. This principle is a fundamental concept and a pillar [on which rests] the Torah and its commandment[s], as it is written: “Behold! I have set before you today life [and good, death and evil]”… (Deuteronomy / Devarim 30:15). Rambam, Hilchot Teshuva 5:2-3. Some Jews start doing teshuva during asseret yemei teshuva. The more pious ones start doing teshuva on Rosh Chodesh Elul. Real teshuva, however, is meant to begin right after Neilah, because it is meant to be a project we pursue all year long. R’ Yisroel Salanter (1810 – 1883); founder of the 19th century Mussar movement The foreskin of the heart is the source of an individual’s negative behavior and inclinations. To circumcise the foreskin of the heart is to rectify one’s own evil at its source. This is a kind of conversion: In the same way a gentile becomes Jewish through circumcision, so too does a Jew undergo conversion and becomes a more complete Jew, through circumcision of the heart. Slonimer Rebbe, Netivot Shalom 4:1 All of them [i.e., the methods for acquiring Torah listed in Pirkei Avot 6:6] taken together instill in one a new nature—that of being “master of a fine soul” – ba’al nefesh ha’yafeh.” Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv (1824 – 1898) known as the Alter of Kelm The goal is not that a ceremony be performed; the goal is that man be transformed; to worship the Holy in order to be holy.” R’ Abraham Joshua Heschel on the verse in Proverbs, “God asks for the heart” (Proverbs 23:26) in The Wisdom of Heschel, 269. Dr. Alan Morinis 2 www.mussarinstitute.org Sa’adia Gaon. Sefer De’ot v’Emunot, 10th section: “Concerning How it is Most Proper for a Human Being to Conduct Himself in the World” The human soul [nishmat adam] is the candle of God [ner HaShem]. Proverbs / Mishlei 20:27 One person is wrathful and always angry, and another even-tempered and never angry. Or, if he is, it is only very negligible over a period of many years. One person is exceedingly proud, and another exceedingly humble. One person is lustful, his lust never being sated, and another exceedingly pure-hearted, not desiring even the few things that the body needs. One person is expansive of temperament, unsatisfied with all the wealth in the world … and another is of constricted spirit, for whom even a trifle suffices and he does not rush to obtain all of his needs. One person afflicts himself with hunger and goes begging, consuming not even a penny's worth of his own without dire distress, and another is wantonly extravagant with his money. And, along the same lines, the other traits are found, such as cheerfulness and depression, stinginess and generosity, cruelty and mercy, cowardliness and courage, and the like. Orchot Tzaddikim [Ways of the Righteous], Introduction; 1540 Dr. Alan Morinis 3 www.mussarinstitute.org Fear, Anger, and Judgment – Personal Responses to Political Reactions Chovot HaLevavot [Duties of the Heart] by Rabbi Bahya ibn Paquda Written in Arabic in Spain; 1080. “The Gate of Trust” Dr. Alan Morinis www.mussarinstitute.org Dr. Alan Morinis 2 www.mussarinstitute.org Messilat Yesharim [Path of the Just] by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto Published in Amsterdam; 1740. chapter 11: “The Particulars of Cleanliness” Dr. Alan Morinis 3 www.mussarinstitute.org Dr. Alan Morinis 4 www.mussarinstitute.org Dr. Alan Morinis 5 www.mussarinstitute.org Dr. Alan Morinis 6 www.mussarinstitute.org Dr. Alan Morinis 7 www.mussarinstitute.org Shaarei Yosher by Rabbi Shimon Yehudah haKohein Shkop (1860-1939) Published 1925; Translated by R’ Micha Berger Introduction Although at first glance it seems that feelings of love for oneself and feelings of love for others are like competing co-wives1 one to the other, we have the duty to try to delve into it, to find the means to unite them, since God expects both from us. This means [one must] explain and accept the truth of the quality of one’s “I”, for with it the statures of [different] people are differentiated, each according to their level. The entire “I” of a coarse and lowly person is restricted only to his substance and body. Above that one is someone who feels that his “I” is a synthesis of body and soul. And higher still is someone who can include in his “I” all of his household and family. Someone who walks according to the way of the Torah, his “I” includes the whole Jewish people, since in truth every Jewish person is only like a limb of the body of the nation of Israel. And there are more levels in this of a person who is whole, who can connect his soul to feel that all of the world and worlds are his “I”, and he himself is only one small limb in all of creation. Then, his self-love helps him love all of the Jewish people and [even] all of creation. 1 The term used here is that used for two wives in a polygamous marriage arrangement. “Tzaros”, literally, “troubles”. Dr. Alan Morinis 8 www.mussarinstitute.org Orot HaKodesh II: 444 Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (1865-1935) Four-Fold Song Some sing the Song of the Soul. Within their own soul, they discover everything, their complete spiritual fulfillment. Others sing the Song of the Nation. They leave the restricted circle of the individual soul… with sublime love, they cleave to Knesset Yisrael. They sing her songs, feel her pains, delight in her hopes, and contemplate her past and her future. Others allow their souls to expand beyond the people of Israel. They sing the Song of Humanity, reveling in the grandeur of the humankind, the illustriousness of His divine image. They aspire towards humanity’s ultimate goal, and yearn for its sublime fulfillment. From this source of life they draw inspiration for their universal thoughts and analyses, aspirations and visions. And some reach even higher in the expanse, until they unite with all of existence, with all creatures and all worlds. With all of them, they sing the Song of the Universe. Dr. Alan Morinis 9 www.mussarinstitute.org A TIMELINE OF MUSSAR HISTORY Sa’adia Gaon 933 Sefer Deot v’Emunot (The Book of Beliefs and 892-942 Opinions) R’ Bahya ibn Paquda 1080 Chovot Ha’Levavot (Duties of the Heart) 11th century R’ Shlomo ibn Gabirol 1045 Tikkun Middot Ha’Nefesh (Improvement of the 1021-1070 Traits of the Soul) R’ Moshe ben Maimon 1168 Shmoneh Perakim (Eight Chapters) 1138-1204 Avraham ben HaRambam 1230 Ha’Maspik l’Ovdei HaShem (Guide to Serving 1186-1237 God) Rabenu Yonah Gerondi 1250 Shaarei Teshuvah (Gates of Repentance) 1200-1263 Yechiel ben Yekutiel 1298 Ma'alot ha-Middot (Book of Higher Virtues) 13th century anonymous 1540 Orchot Tzaddikim (Ways of the Righteous) R’ Moshe Cordovero 1588 Tomer Devorah (Palm Tree of Deborah) 1522-1570 R’ Moshe Chaim Luzzatto 1740 Messilat Yesharim (Path of the Just) 1707-1746 R’ Yosef Zundel 1786-1865 R’ Menahem Mendel Leffin 1811 Cheshbon Ha’Nefesh (Accounting of the Soul) 1749-1826 R’ Eliezer Papo 1824 Pele Yoetz 1785-1826 Dr. Alan Morinis www.mussarinstitute.org R’ Yisrael Salanter 1890 Ohr Yisrael 1810-1883 R. Simcha Zissel Ziv Chochmah u’Mussar (Wisdom and Mussar) 1824-1898 R’ Nosson Zvi Finkel Ohr Ha’Tzafon (The Hidden Light) 1849-1927 R’ Yosef Yozel Hurwitz Madregas ha’Adam (The Levels of Man) 1849-1919 R’ Elya Lopian 1975 Lev Eliyahu (Elijah’s Heart) 1872-1970 R’ Yerucham Levovitz Da’as, Chochmah u’Mussar (Knowledge, Wisdom and 1875-1936 Mussar) R’ Eliyahu Dessler 1959-83 Michtav mi’Eliyahu (Strive for Truth!) 1892-1953 R’ Shlomo Wolbe 1968; 1998 Alei Shur 1914-2004 Dr.