Rabbi Yisrael Salanter said:
Man’s true worth is measured by his middos.
Rabbi Yisrael Salanter said:
Man’s true worth is measured by his middos.
Poser, hypocrite, mussar-Marrano, wannabe. These are few labels that linger in my head right now, regarding myself. Assessment that one blew it is part of the risk of having “free choice”. Like my Hoover vacuum, I just suck it up and sometimes change the bag.
I attempt to be a “good Yid”. I make it minyan at least twice a day (working on 3 times), I think about my brachos when I make them, I learn (although not as much I should), yet I fall short. Part of, if not the real attraction I’ve always had to Mussar is that I’m not always a nice person. I usually keep myself in check but some days are easier than others. I am a so-so husband and am OK Abba most of the time. Usually I’m fairly patient with people (family included) but yesterday wasn’t one of those days. I was a creep. Lost it big time. There’s not much to say or write when all of the effort you make to treat others as betzlem Elokeim seems to fly out the window when you are in a bad mood.
“I’m sorry,” only goes so far, which is why I’m thankful that I have the Rambam’s Hilchos Teshuva to give me real steps, especially the whole until-you-are-in-the-same-place-and-don’t-make-the-same-mistake-you-haven’t-really-done-teshuva step. When it come to relationships, especially with those we love, there is constant retooling and recalibration, so those opportunities to see if you really did teshuva are plenty.
I get it. Chometz is akin to the Yetzer Hora. So, I guess I’ve been deep frying Jason’s Flavored bread crumbs in Japanese bread crumbs and then just breaking them for the heck of it, b/c I feel like my Yetzer is on overdrive. Time to turn of the engine and coast into the service station.
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Nothing should be a “given”, say what you need to say! -Mrs. Uberdox
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There is one of the most unbelievable opening sentences to anything that was ever written. Rebbe Yisrael Salanter, the first sentence in the Igeres Hamussar. “Ha’adam asur b’muskalo“, listen carefully, it’s a sentence for life. But not like they have in jail. A sentence for life to live with, to be free. “Ha’adam asur b’muskalo, v’chofshi b’dimyono.” In English, man is imprisoned by his mind, assur meaning imprisoned ,by what he knows, by his knowledge, by his neshama. V’chofshi b’dimyono, but his dimyon, imagination, his delusions of his guf, free him and give him the impression that he can make any choice that he likes.
My thanks to Dixie Yid for posting the orginal text of the shiur. Igeret HaMussar is available in English here. The mp3 can be purchased here.
Photo from here |
Dixie Yid posted the following based on Friday’s shiur from Rav Moshe Weinberger, rav of Cong. Aish Kodesh in Woodmere, NY.
From Rav Weinberger’s Shabbos shiur this morning:Rav Yisroel Salanter in Igeres Hamussar: “ha’adam asur b’muskalo, v’chofshi b’dimyono.” “Man is imprisoned by his intellect and free in his imagination.”
Rav Weinberger’s explanation: A person’s intellect and soul, to whom G-d’s reality is blazingly obvious, one is bound (“asur”) to do what is right and avoid what is wrong. To the intellect/soul, one can no more look at an inappropriate image than he could stick his hand in a fire or cut himself with a knife.
But the force of the imagination/fantasy/body makes a person feel “chofshi b’artzeinu,” free to do right or do wrong. But that feeling is pure dimyon, fantasy.
“Asur b’muskalo” is why a person says he “can’t” eat on Yom Kippur, and “chofshi b’dimyono” is why he feels it’s not so pashut that you can’t conceal income on his tax return.
IY”H may we all be zoche to attain the feeling of “I can’t” when it comes to doing anything against Hashem’s will!
I don’t get. I know, this isn’t the best way to start of a blog post, but really, I don’t get it.
I am not a rabbi, academic scholar, historian, or an author of a book on the Mussar movement. I am simply just writing down how I see things. Others, who are much more learned than I or more intellectual might have a totally different spin on this.
Over the years and even as recent as last week, I’ve shmoozed with people about learning mussar and why I feel it has “worked” for me. Those who have had a yeshiva high school background tend to have a very negative view of mussar or, as someone recently told me, feel that it’s meant to be studied on an individual basis and not as part of a group. When I then ask these people about their opinion of mussar, it’s almost exclusively regulated to them being made to feel guilty, not good enough, or like they are “nothing”. When suggesting to start a mussar va’ad (group dedicated to working on middos on a regular basis), the interest is slim to none.
This is the part that I don’t get. Let’s take a look at a very short list of talmidim of the Slobodka school of mussar (Yeshiva Knesses Yisrael) and the yeshivos in America they were associated with (in no particular order):
Of course there are plenty more, but these represent the roots of some of the more “major” yeshivos in America. These Rabbis were all products of Slobodka, where the concept of Gadlus haAdam, the greatness of man, was the modus operandi of the yeshiva. Yet, time after time, mussar gets a bad rap. Tochacha (rebuke) is mussar, but Mussar is not just rebuke, sort of like a square is a rhombus, but a rhombus isn’t… a square.
It could be argued that for some reason in America the “Novardok” derech didn’t really translate over in the United States. If the thrust of Slobodka was to build one up and show them their own inner greatness, then how did Mussar become so negative? I really don’t know. I have an idea, but it’s based on me being an outsider. I was zoche to spend a number of years learning in a yeshiva environment, post-high school, but I didn’t “go through the system”. Teenagers, by nature, rebel against authority. Even the frummest of the frum rebels in some way. It might be by taking upon chumros or by speeding or extending a shemoneh esray, but there’s some type of rebellion against the status quo going on.
I think most adults who when through the “system” probably got their mussar exposure at the wrong time. Had they been taught and exposed during elementary school to the concept that there’s a desire to grow towards greatness and perfecting middos, then the “average” adult might have a different view towards mussar (and if you you don’t read this blog regularly, by “mussar” I mean any learning that makes you a better Jew).
If I were to approach you after shul and say, “You need to improve A,B and C”, you’d probably walk away thinking, “Who is Neil Harris to tell me what I need to improve upon?”
However, if you were to see a flyer in you shul that stated, “How can you not afford to spend 15 minutes working on making yourself a better person?”, then you might give it a thought.
It’s not just the approach, it’s the timing. There’s no quick solution. No magic pill that will give you and your children what’s termed “good middos”. It’s simply a willingness to accept a shift in effort. I could easily spend two hours “beating” the levels on Star Wars Lego for Wii, but to sit for two hours and work on patience takes, well patience.
Working on who we are just doesn’t seem like it’s on the radar for the general observant public these days.
Rabbi Yisrael Salanter
While living in Mamel, R’ Yisrael instituted the practice of lighting the ovens in the beis medresh very early in the morning, so that the wagoners who crossed the border at night would be able to come in and warm themselves.
From Sparks of Mussar by R Chaim Ephraim Zaitchik
Sunday night my wife and I attended a beautiful chassunah in Minneapolis. The chosson was a close family and childhood friend from my hometown of Wichita, KS. The kallah resides in NJ (where they are now living). Aside from meeting a group of the kallah’s friends from NJ, the chosson had family and friends come in from across the county (and E”Y). The mesader kidushin came in from E”Y and is a grandson of Reb Yaakov zt”l (and also a former teacher of mine). Some of his friends were from his summer camp days, others from college, and some were people who he had grown close with on his journey to observant Judaism. In addition to that, my brother was also there. Also I met up with a very old friend who is now very involved in a very important aspect of outreach.
For me, there were a couple of things that stood out from the whole event.
I was asked to be an “aid” (witness) under the chupah, which was humbling, I also ended up meeting a gentleman who is a Rav and originally grew up in London. I asked him (based on the fact that he looked old enough to have grandchildren) if he had ever had any contact with either Rav Dessler zt’l or Rav Lopian zt”l. He told me that as a young boy he met both of these lighthouses of Mussar. He also commented that his his “day” being a “Rav” or Rosh Yeshiva was an earned title of kavod. Unlike today, he told me, when everyone gets called “Rosh Yeshiva” and if you write a sefer or speak somewhere, then you are considered “popular”. He also mentioned that the emphasis on chiztonius is much greater today than when he was growing up.
Dancing was insane. It was the first chassuna I had attended since getting up from aveilus. The fact that it was for a family friend made it even more emotion for me. To dance with the chosson and his family was amazing! Especially since they were not at my own wedding.
For me, there was also an element of introspection (possibly brought on by a few l’chaims, I admit). By default, until recently, I was pretty much the only one from my “generation” and peer group from Wichita that became observant. While I gravitated towards NCSY, the chosson joined Young Judea and was involved with their camps and post-high school programs. While his observance might be viewed as “recent”, it was obvious that there was visible hashgacha pratis involved in every step of his journey. It’s refreshing to see that and usually it’s easier to view Hashem’s involvement with others, than to see Hashem’s hand in our own lives. As I watched him interact with Rabbis he is close with, friends from his past, present, and future I felt a sense of comfort, I guess, in knowing that another Yid has found his place.
In a brief conversation with the old friend who is involved in kiruv, he confirmed something that my wife and I had known for a long time, that my current profession isn’t really where I should be putting my energy into. I’ve know this for a long time, and while I am very thankful that Hashem has given me an opportunity to receive a parnassah, that feeling of fulfillment isn’t really there. You know, I look in the mirror everyday and I see that I don’t have much hair left. It doesn’t bother me that much, because I know that this is just how it is. I will lose more hair and my yarmulka will just get bigger. I deal with it. But when you have someone else point out that you don’t have as much hair as did years ago, then it sort of gets to you. Not in a bad way, but there’s that outside confirmation of what you’ve known for a long time.
To give me even more food for thought, when we boarded the plane (towards the end of our Hebrew anniversary) we found out that we were the only two passengers. Once I got over the feeling of being a rock star, I sat back and thought about the fact that ultimately in my own marriage it’s really just my wife and I alone in the plane that Hashem is piloting. I also thought about something said over in the name of the Alter of Novaradok.
The Alter said that someone not familiar with a Torah lifestyle might look up at a plane flying in the sky and see how small it is. He might even not believe that there could be people living aboard a plane because, to him, it just looks so small. However, once someone has begun to learn Torah and keep mitzvos, he realizes that you can be above the ground and life. You realize that what seemed so small is really quite big and can travel great distances very quickly. I think this applies to myself, as well as the chosson.