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Sunday’s Spark of Mussar
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Category Archives: Mussar
B’nai Machshava Tovah transalated online
I had posted briefly before about this project by Yaacov Dovid Shulman. Recently I’ve had an urge to reread his transation of B’nai Machshava Tovah by Rav Kalonymus Kalman Shapira z’tl. Reb Yaacov Dovid’s translation, titled, “Experiencing the Divine: A Practical Jewish Guide” is a very welcome change from the original translation.
What I am fascinated by is that the Guidance and Principles and the Rules of the Group are very similar to the concepts and goals of the ‘traditional’ mussar va’adim of the Mussar Movement.
The entire translation is available here. Comments are welcome.
Sunday’s Salanter Selection
Rabbi Yisrael Salanter use to say: When a child plays with a piece of wood in the bath, and he pretends that it is a ship, if we take the piece of wood away from him he has the same experience as an adult would have if a real ship of his sunk. For the child, the piece of wood is like an adult’s ship. When an adult interferes in a child’s play, he steals something from the child. (From Zeriah ubinyan bechinuch by R Shlomo Wolbe z”tl, translated as Planting and Building by R Leib Kelemen)
There are times when we ask our kids to stop playing a game or a Lego construction breaks and our children get upset. Until I read this, my reaction usually was, “It’s only a game.” or “You can build it again”. R Salanter shows great insight into the mind of a child, because what he is playing or pretending is his reality. Hopefully, showing sensitivity to our children when they are young will help them grow to be sensitive to others.
Sunday’s Spark of Mussar
Rav Yisrael Meir Kagen, the Chofetz Chaim
R’ Yisrael Salanter once spoke in Vilna about the severity of the sin of loshon hora, and proclaimed, “Would that some chochom would write a sefer about the laws of loshon hora.” R’ Yisrael Meir heard the words and undertook the task of writing the book, which he called Chofetz Chaim.
From Sparks of Mussar by R Chaim Ephraim Zaitchik
Sunday’s Salanter Selection
Rav Yisrael Lipkin of Salant said:
“All worries are forbidden, except when one worries about his worrying”
from Tnuas haMussar by R Dov Katz
Sunday’s Salanter Selection
Can a man walk if he does not have legs? Can he see if he does not have eyes? Likewise, without Mussar study, Torah and Divine service cannot be established within a man who is stricken with the disease of the yetzer hara.
-from Letter Three of Ohr Yisrael by Rav Yisrael Lipkin of Salant
Hisbodedus-Novardok style
A Simple Jew posted today about a new website by R Dovid Sears called “Solitude-Hisbodedus”. It has great reading material, including a very interesting profile of Novardok and it’s derech in Mussar. Here’s a sample
Just as he spent days and nights in hisbodedus (solitude and contemplation) in a room, or deep in the forest, so did he demand that his talmidim do the same. Thus, a room designated as the beis hamussar was installed in every Mussar-oriented yeshivah, where one could search his inner-self and study Mussar in privacy, whenever the need was felt.
The entire entry is available here .
Sunday’s Salanter Selection
“Mussar is the contemplation and examination of all the paths and actions of man. From Mussar one is protected from the trait of desire and the yetzer hara, which disturbs and stops every good and worthy thing.”
-from Letter One of Ohr Yisrael by Rav Yisrael Lipkin of Salant
Rav Yisrael Salanter and the first Ger Rebbe
Rav Yisrael Lipkin of Salant said “that perfecting one character trait is more difficult than learning all of Shas (the entire Talmud)”.
It is known that often Rav Yisrael would attend shiurm given by the Chidushei HaRim, Rav Yitzchak Meir Alter, who was the first Ger Rebbe. The Chidushei HaRim was known for finishing all of Shas every month, in depth. It is also know that he spent seven years working on the middah of having an Eyin Tovah (seeing the good in others). Parhaps the Chidushei HaRim’s avodah was what prompted Rav Yisrael to make the above statement?
Sunday’s Spark of Mussar
Rav Nosson Zvi Finkel, the Alter of Slabodka
The first resolution that R’ Nosson Zvi wrote down in his diary was “to try to be extremely careful of my fellowman’s honor, with patience, with a soft answer, never once to get excited… not to embarrass anyone in public… to find ways daily, at the very least weekly, of benefiting my friends.”
From Sparks of Mussar by R Chaim Ephraim Zaitchik
