By Janis Siegel, JTNews Correspondent
Springtime prompts many of us to lose weight, get in shape, clear out our closets, or take up a new hobby. But it can also be a great time to improve our spiritual selves by learning the ancient Jewish practice of Mussar. The second annual Mussar Kallah will take place on June 6 at Congregation Beth Shalom in Seattle.
Just like physical exercise, every person can begin at his or her own level and apply these life-changing middot, or character traits, in their daily lives to become a better person.
Or, as Dr. Alan Morinis, the Vancouver, B.C.-based Mussar practitioner, founder and director of The Mussar Institute, and author of Everyday Holiness: The Jewish Spiritual Path of Mussar (Trumpeter, 2008) who will be teaching in Seattle in June, writes, you can become “the finest version of the person you already are.”
“You can take on one trait a week, making that the focus,” Morinis told JTNews from his home in Vancouver. “The exercises are woven into your daily life. There is a morning phrase that you repeat to yourself that brings the trait to consciousness. Then, there are exercises during the day that you assign to yourself which have to do with practicing that trait. Then, in the evening, you keep a journal.”
For example, he said, if you’re waiting in a long line at Starbuck’s, and you are working on patience, you can take the opportunity to practice that chosen spiritual trait.
Dr. Shirah Bell, director of the Mussar Institute and a Beth Shalom member who will be leading a one-hour, introductory preview session on the basics of Mussar before the afternoon classes, sums it up this way: “Rabbi Israel Salanter, who is credited with making Mussar into a movement in Lithuania in the mid-1800s, called Mussar ‘The Torah of the Heart,’” Bell told JTNews. “In the Torah we are told to love Hashem (God), to love our neighbor, not to take revenge, and not to be tightfisted. Yet, it is often difficult…to act in ways consistent with the Torah. Mussar addresses the integrity of ‘the inner life.’”
The word Mussar originally appears in the Book of Proverbs, said Morinis. However, its meaning is a point of debate.
“It can mean instruction, tradition, reproof, reproach, suffering or bindings,” he said. “In modern Hebrew it means ethics. But the real core of Mussar is a practical discipline that provides a pathway for fulfilling what Jewish tradition tells us is the highest purpose of the human life.”
This year, the focus of the gathering will be on the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself, found in the Book of Leviticus.
Rabbi Ira Stone, spiritual leader of the Philadelphia Mussar Institute at Temple Beth Zion-Beth Israel in Philadelphia, and a former Beth Shalom rabbi, will teach on this topic at the Kallah.
Stone writes articles on theology and rabbinical topics. He also writes books of poetry. His latest book is A Responsible Life: The Spiritual Path of Mussar (Aviv Press, 2007).
Stone has a Twitter feed called WebMussar and offers an array of resources for individuals and families on his Web site, mussarleadership.org.
“The goal of spiritual life is the transformation of human personality, such that the central virtue of the Torah, V’ahavta l’rayecha kamocha, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’ can be enacted,” wrote Stone in the Jewish journal, Sh’ma. “How to achieve this transformation became the central question of Jewish spirituality.”
According to Morinis, this commandment, which Rabbi Akiva identified as the fundamental principle of Torah and Jewish life, is something we all struggle with from time to time.
“The idea of loving your neighbor is a very good idea until you actually know who your neighbor is,” Morinis said. “Then it gets challenging. It could be the people closest to you in your family, it could be politics, or it could be your literal neighbor.”
Bell agreed.
“Everyone struggles with relationships,” Bell said. “Going to a therapist can be helpful, but what if you want to work on the question spiritually? Mussar teaches that problems and struggles open opportunities to refine ourselves, to take a next step in our spiritual journey. Mussar practice is optimistic, and provides a way to turn events and circumstances that are often mundane or even unpleasant into uplifting and virtuous explorations.”
The afternoon study will consist of mostly small group exercises, using discussion and problem solving to work through spiritual dilemmas.
Morinis uses 15 characteristics in his Mussar teaching approach for these group sessions. He also offers an independent study program, “Middah A Month,” on his Web site, www.mussarinstitute.org. After signing up, 2010 students can practice the virtues of truth, humility, order, cleanliness, patience, compassion, love, yirah (fear or reverence), responsibility, hospitality, and zeal.
“Many Jews think that they have to go ‘elsewhere’ to find guidance for working on their inner life,” Bell said. “I certainly did. I explored Hinduism, Buddhism and then, through some blessed events, found my way back to Judaism and to Mussar.”
Though the kallah takes place at Beth Shalom, its appeal has a broad reach: Eight Seattle-area congregations and Rabbi Stone’s Philadelphia congregation have signed on as sponsors, as have seven other local Jewish organizations.