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Mussar is a discipline of steady personal character refinement. Our Mussar Master, Messiah Yeshua taught us how we should bring good fruit as a demonstration of our purposeful lives.  Mussar is one important component of being a disciple and light of Messiah.

You are the light of the world.  A city that sits on the mountain will not be hidden, nor do people kindle a lamp just to put it under the bushel measure, but on the menorah, to illuminate all who are in the house.  So also, shine your light before sons of men, so that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5:14-16, DHE)

3 Stages of Practice

Rav Yisrael Salanter identified 3 stages in the practice of Mussar.  It is through these internal changes that self-transformation can become evident and the work of Mussar can be said to be active.

Sensitivity – become sensitive to the soul traits inside you.  Heighten your awareness.  It means being aware of the seed of a thought, word, feeling or deed as early as possible in its cycle of germination and birth.  As you go through each day, recognize when your middah is being challenged and how you respond to the situation.

Self-Restraint – Be aware of your behavioral patterns and reign in potentially damaging behavior.  Lust? ->look the other way    Lie? -> Learn silence

Transformation – Rework problematic soul traits to the root so that it is not a barrier to the soul.  “Turn from evil…” (Tehillim 34:15)

“External motions instigate internal motions.”  Rav Chaim Luzzatto
 

Revealing the Unconscious and Getting to Work

Below are the ways in which one gets to work practicing Mussar:

meditation (hitbonenut)

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  • this is best performed in the morning before the days' duties

  • find a quiet spot to sit in where you will be undisturbed for at least 10 minutes

  • allocate the time to meditate as a necessity, like you would to eat breakfast or shower

  • find a comfortable space on the floor and breathe in and out  - and notice your breath

  • when your breath becomes uncalculated and a natural rhythm, you are ready to proceed

  • say, think or feel shlema (wholeness) – focus and block out external noises and mind noise

  • don’t wander, come back if necessary in your meditation

  • at the end of the day write what distracts you during your meditation in your journal as it will illuminate what middot are your working points in your morning mantra

silence and retreat (hitbodedut)

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  • Before you begin each day, remind yourself of the soul trait that you are working on by viewing the daily reminder phrase (one that flashes through the website, card beside bed, on mirror..whatever works)…..read it aloud and repeat it several times to get it into your head

  • Three methods to help achieve the practice of Mussar:  visualizations, contemplations, impassioned chanting (hitpa’alut). These practices are done in retreat from the world.  They leave their mark at a deep level, not intellectual'

diary practices (cheshbon hanefesh)

  • keep a cheshbon hanefesh (accounting of the soul diary) and write in it nightly before you retire

  • at bedtime pull out diary and record incidents, thoughts, experiences that relate to the soul quality being worked on

  • all kabbalot (exercises, acts) will be recorded or listed as not recorded or done

  • record any role played in an event related to the middah (soul trait)

  • no beat-ups or praise – just the facts

  • no prose, just enough to bring you to introspection regarding the middah in question

  • mental accounting will not do; it is extremely important to write it down as it provides a tangible practice

  • no recording on Shabbat, just Motzei Shabbat (after Havdalah)

  • don’t miss nights….be diligent as this is important to have a thorough accounting of your progress

  • record something in the last 24 hours that tells you something about one of your traits

  • bechirah(choice) points are places where choice is alive and there is a mini battle…identify these bechirah points and realize your work

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communal

  • Integrate text study and working with a chevrutah (partner) in study once a week.

  • The power of a chevruta is that it emboldens true Mussar practitioners to stay connected and committed.  By joining with another person, you maintain a certain level of accountability to stay with the practice of Mussar, as well have someone to learn with, dialogue about trouble areas, and share victories in middah progress.

exercises (kabbalot)

  • Perform acts that support the middah that is being focused on for the week - for in this you will strengthen yourself and your resolve to grow and hone the character trait.


history of mussar

The Mussar movement was a Jewish ethical, educational and cultural movement that developed in 19th century Eastern Europe, particularly among Orthodox Lithuanian Jews. The Hebrew term Mussar (מוּסַר), is from the book of Proverbs 1:2 meaning instruction, discipline, or conduct. The term was used by the Mussar movement to refer to efforts to further ethical and spiritual discipline. The Mussar Movement made significant contributions to Jewish ethics.

The history of Mussar begins here with a short history of a few divinely inspired men...

Early leaders of the Mussar Movement

The Mussar movement arose among the non-Hasidic Lithuanian Jews, and became a trend in their Talmudic schools. The founding is attributed to Rabbi Yisrael Lipkan Salanter (1810–1883); however, the roots of the movement was formed on ideas previously in classical Mussar literature and with ideas from such figures as the Gaon of Vilna (Rabbi Elijah ben Solomon of Vilna) and Rabbi Yosef Zundel. Before the founding of the Mussar movement, Mussar was a practice of the solitary seeker. Thanks to Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, it became the basis for a popular/ethical movement after this period of time through the diligent proliferation of this knowledge by his students.

Rabbi Yisrael Salanter

Yisrael Salanter

Rabbi Yisrael Lipkin Salanter was a promising young rabbi with an incredible knowledge of Jewish law living in Salantai, Lithuania.  He was initially inspired to dedicate his life to the cause of spreading Mussar by his teacher Rabbi Yosef Zundel Salant (1786–1866), who was a student of Rabbi Chaim Volozhin and Akiva Eiger.[1] These rabbis were profoundly good-hearted and filled with humble behavior and simple lifestyle that attracted Rabbi Yisrael's interest. It was Rabbi Yosef Zundel who urged Salanter to focus himself on Mussar and continue in the study of Mussar.

Widely recognized as a rabbi of exceptional wisdom and teaching, Rabbi Yisrael Salanter became head of the yeshivah in Vilna (Vilnius) at the age of thirty, where he quickly became well known in the community for his tremendous scholarship.[2] He soon gave this post to open up his own Yeshiva at the Nevyozer Kloiz where he emphasized moral teachings based on the ethics taught in traditional Jewish rabbinic works. He referred to his approach as the mussar approach, using the Hebrew word for ethics.

Despite the prohibition against doing work on Shabbat, Rabbi Yisrael Salanter set an example for the Lithuanian Jewish community during the cholera epidemic of 1848. He set up a system that any necessary relief work on Shabbat for Jews was done by Jews.  While there were those who wanted such work to be done on Shabbat by non-Jews, Rabbi Salanter believed and maintained that both Jewish ethics and law mandated that pikuah nefesh, saving a life, was paramount to the laws of the Torah. During Yom Kippur, Rabbi Salanter ordered that Jews that year must not abide by the traditional fast, lest they make themselves vulnerable to the cholera epidemic and die.

Between 1844-46, Rabbi Yisrael Salanter began laying the foundation for his Mussar work around the age of 36 and departing from some traditional methods of his predecessors. He began initiatives in the printing of Mussar works, started giving shi’urs (lessons) on the subject of Mussar and created a special place to study Mussar works.3 By 1850 he left Vilna for Kovno where he founded a yeshiva based on Mussar and attempted to pass down information and teaching of Mussar to his students, who would serve as the basis cell of his movement.

His students numbered 150 and Mussar was well on its way to becoming a movement.  His extraordinary work regarding the study of Torah and Jewish ethics have brought us an invaluable gift which, in many contemporary circles in Judaism today, is experiencing a revival.

 

REFERENCES

1. Rabbi Israel Salanter and the Mussar Movement: Seeking the Torah of Truth by I. Etkes, page 69

2. ibid.,page 79

3. ibid., page 86