Category Archives: Mussar

The middah of Simplicity

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My thoughts about histapkut, simplicity, are currently posted at madrega.com.

Here’s teaser:

Exercising histapkut helps one gain a level of maturity to approach life by realizing what is really important. This middah is very different than the concept of sameach b’chelko, “being happy with one’s lot”.

When I was in my teens, one of my favorite games to play with my friends was “Desert Island Discs”, based on the BBC Radio program. We were all big music fans and we would each come up with a list every six months of what ten albums we would want if we were on a desert island. Then we would…

To read this in its entirety or hear the recorded mp3 about this middah (record my me), you’ll have to go to madrega.com and register (for free) to join this exciting web-community designed for self-growth.
It’s easy to join and will only cost you time time you invest.

Sunday’s Salanter Selection

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Rabbi Yisrael Salanter says:
Persons who are in economic or other trouble will energetically seek to improve their lot.  Why should people, who are in one kind of moral trouble or another, likewise seek to extricate themselves from evil and pursue the path of morality?

From Ohr Yisrael (the collected letters of RYS complied by R Yitzchak Blazer)
Available in Hebrew or English

Book Review: EVERY DAY, HOLY DAY

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Every Day, Holy Day: 365 Days of Teachings and Practices from the Jewish Tradition of Mussar  is a recently published book by Alan Morinis (assisted by Rabbi Micha Berger). This book, Alan Morinis’ follow-up to Everyday Holiness, is designed to help one work on various character traits using an extensive collection on inspiriational and insightful quotes for each day of the year. I can’t even imagine all the work that went into collecting the quotes, but I can tell you that there are very few books written in English that give you such teachings at your fingertips.

The book unlocks the teachings of mussar in an easy to use and practical way. I’ve seen improvement in myself from just using it for the past two months.  Each page has a saying that relates to the given character trait of the week, a phrase that summarizes the idea and a practice to help you make each character trait part of your daily life. In addition, each page has space for you to write notes or keep a small journal.  Using the full year cycle, as suggested in the book, one will go through 26 (yes 26) different middos twice and there isn’t a quote/teaching repeated.
In Alan’s first book, Climbing Jacob’s Ladder, he took us on his own personal journey towards mussar that eventually lead him to Rabbi Yechiel Yitzchok Perr, the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Far Rockaway and personal examples of what he learned while spending time with Rabbi Perr.  Alan’s second book, Everyday Holiness, allowed readers to grow from mussar teaching and focus on “soul traits” (just the collection of footnotes in the book makes it worthwhile reading).  In Every Day, Holy Day Alan has moved from the arena of writing about his own growth and giving over those teachings to the reader.  He has now given his many students and readers an opportunity to work on making themselves better people and make the tradition of Mussar their own!

For the price this book is selling for on Amazon, this is a worthwhile investment for yourself or a great “just because” gift for a friend.

A number of pages are available currenltly on google books, here.
It’s available for puchase here, here, and here.

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz’s YK message highlights the Mussar Movement

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Rabbi Yakov Horowitz put out a message to day on his website, a message that he told over to his students that they should, “take time over Yom Kippur to reflect on what I see as the two overarching themes of the Mussar Movement – 1) to look inward with a critical eye in order to identify character flaws that need to be improved, and 2) to treat others with humility, kindness and courtesy at all times.”

The entire message can be read here.

The best T-shirt ever for my Elul

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I happen to like things that allow limited space for a given message, like t-shirts and bumperstickers.
On Wednesday I saw a brilliant T-shirt.  It captured an import foundation in personal growth.  Rav Yerucham Levovitz zt”l, the Mashgiach from the Mir (and a talmud of the Alter of Kelm, the Alter of Slobodka, and the Chofetz Chaim) said, “Woe to a person who is not aware of his faults, for he does not know what he has to correct. But double woe to a person who is not aware of his virtues, for he is lacking the tools for correcting himself“. 

What the Mashigach is saying is that if you don’t know exactly what your good points are, then you are lost. Without knowing exactly what those good points are, the things you excell at and make you who you are, then you can’t get anywhere.

When one reaches Elul, ok when I reach Elul, I usually attempt to figure out what I didn’t work on so much during the year. I look at my Cheshbon HaNefesh (I actually keep one online at http://www.joesgoals.com) and see what my “issues” and things I was struggling with were during the year and where I fell short. R Yerucham’s approach seems different. By focusing on our virtues we not only build up our confidence, but also become more aware of exactly what gifts Hashem decided to specifically give us. This idea is very in tune with the whole “Galus HaAdom” approach of Slobodka, finding the greatness within.

I think that using Elul as a time to bring out my strengths can only help me.  Usually my Elul is sort of a cannonball into a pool of introspection followed by endless laps by way of the Tikun HaMiddos stroke.  Using what virtues I might have to augment those things that I’m weak in brings me to the T-shirt.  Each of us has a “virture” or something that we are fairly good at.  If you don’t want to feel like a baal guyvah, then just accept that someone close to you feels that you are probably good at something.  Our goal is of figure it out and use that as a springboard in other areas.  Look at the T-Shirt below and think about how you would fill in the blank.