Dear Friends,

This special edition of our Yashar newsletter is given over to visioning the embryonic spiritual community that is emerging around Mussar learning and practice. My purpose is to invite your engagement (or deeper engagement) with this project, for the sake of the soul you are and for the sake of the Jewish people and the world.

Mussar offers guidance for spiritual living, and so this is an entirely appropriate time of year to take a reflective look at your life and what it needs, as Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur draw near. With that in mind, this edition of Yashar also includes a wonderful article by Rebbetzin Esther Reisman that will help open your heart to preparing for the approaching Holy Days.

MY VISION

Recently, I was sitting at lunch at a conclave when two long-time students approached me, one right after the other. Astonishingly, each wanted to convey almost the identical message, which was that after learning and practicing Mussar for several years, each had this to say: “I am not the same person I used to be. I am transformed.” That has been my experience too. Those of us who have walked some way on the path of transformation that is Mussar give thanks for the guidance of our ancestors who have helped us move closer to the lofty goals the Torah advises us are our potential. Those of us who have not yet embarked on the path, the door is open.

In the five years since Climbing Jacob’s Ladder was published I have introduced the venerable tradition of Mussar to thousands of people who had never heard of Mussar or, if they had some knowledge of it, tended to see it very differently from how I do. In the three months since the publication in May of my new book, Everyday Holiness, I have addressed thousands of people from Toronto to Malibu, Baltimore to Melbourne, Australia. Every one of these people is just like you and me. Every one embodies the potential of what a human being could and should be. Kedoshim tihiyu, the Torah says. “You shall be holy.” Mussar has been developing the perspectives and the methods to help us bring that holiness into our lives, as is our potential and our obligation.

This remains the vision. You shall be holy. The Torah states this vision in the plural, because it applies to each one of us, to you and to me. I have felt the call of this vision in my own life. Not to become holy, because everything tells me that we are already as holy as we could ever be. Not to acquire or achieve holiness, because our teachers caution us that holiness is not something to acquire, not a badge of accomplishment. Not to reach some fixed state where I can lean back and say, “Ahhh. Now I am holy” because holiness exists in an ephemeral state of process. Holiness: to take the next step to purify your heart, because the entirety of holiness lies in the choice to take that single purifying step.

I hold the vision of a Jewish world that is infused with spiritual values. I hold the vision of individuals who have taken the steps to liberate the light of holiness in their own lives.  I have dedicated my life to making that happen, and so far Ha’Kadosh Baruch Hu has blessed the endeavor.

THE MUSSAR INSTITUTE’S VISION

In pursuit of my vision, I have asked myself: what can I do to help you to internalize within your own perspective that the whole purpose of your life is to elevate and purify your soul? How can I help you orient yourself toward holiness? What tools do you need to take sure steps in that direction? How should these be delivered?

These questions have led to the creation of The Mussar Institute. TMI, as we call it, has been in existence for three years now, incorporated as a non-profit in Canada and the US. In that time, three focuses have emerged as the offerings of TMI:

• Courses: Hundreds have learned in the distance learning programs that have become a central piece of our work. In June, we launched “Everyday Holiness: the course” to parallel the launch of the book of the same title, and already nearly 60 students are enrolled in and working through the new course.
  
• Conferences: The annual Mussar Kallah has been a meeting place for students and wonderful teachers of Mussar. We’ve hosted these gatherings in New York, Houston, San Francisco, Chicago and Miami so far.
  
  
• Community: There are Mussar groups meeting in about 30 cities at this time, with new groups forming up all the time. There is also a national community taking shape. Everyone who engages in spiritual practice requires community for support and we hope to see the Mussar community grow in years to come.

Through these activities, this emerging community is offering something important and even essential to our contemporary Jewish community. It is addressing the spiritual hunger that is powerfully felt in the Jewish world and among Jews today.

In the second half of the 20th century, the Jewish community across the spectrum turned its back on our own spiritual traditions. There are reasons for the choices that were made, which were sensible at the time, but inevitably, a vacuum was created. As a result, too many Jews have felt Judaism to be unsatisfying. We have been deprived of the guidance we need to live valid and sustaining spiritual lives. Our community and its institutions are often as materialistic and misguided as the cultures within which we live. When Judaism does not matter to the soul, too many people find that Judaism does not matter.

The answer is not to run to other traditions, like spiritual bargain-hunters, nor to import the spiritual ideas and practices of others into our Jewish world. We have our own spirituality, complete with insights and practices. Our generation is charged with the task of reawakening the deep traditions of spiritual practice that have deep roots in Jewish revelation, thought, values, and practice.

TMI exists to help address this situation, and what it offers is not cheap, glib or trite like so much of what is being sold to us today as filler for the spiritual void. Rather Mussar is authentic, time-tested and profound. It transforms a person’s life. And as much as we all pray for peace and well-being in the world, the truth is that we can only change the world by changing ourselves. Tikkun olam (fixing the world) begins and needs to be accompanied by tikkun ha’middot (personal spiritual advancement). Otherwise, we will only repeat and repeat the same errors and failings.

TMI gives form to the vision of a Jewish world that is infused with spiritual values in which people are taking steps to liberate the radiant light of holiness in their own lives

YOUR VISION

And you? Am I right that you share the vision? That you, too, want to experience a Jewish world infused with spiritual values? That you want to advance spiritually in your personal inner life and in your relationships? That you would like to be part of a community of caring, supportive seekers, sharing guidance from the wisdom of the Jewish tradition? That you see the connection between working on your own personal spiritual curriculum (which, in your case, might mean your anger, or your impatience, or your greed, or your dullness, or your laziness, or ??) and fulfilling the promise of what this world could be?

If you and I are aligned in this vision and purpose, as I hope, then your personal engagement is as crucial to this project and community going forward as is mine. An enormous amount has been done, and all of it has been done by a very small band of people. I want to invite you, right now, to step up to your contribution and your engagement. Of course, only you can say what form this engagement will take, because it is you who must guide your own spiritual steps. Here are some suggestions:

• Pursue your own Mussar learning and practice by registering for one of TMI’s distance learning courses. Information and registration is available at www.mussarinstitute.org.

• Invite several friends to do a course with you. We will support your local group.

• If you have graduated from one of our distance learning courses, volunteer to be a Partner in Mussar, which means being a learning partner (chevruta) to a new student. Contact Shirah Bell (shirah@mussarinstitute.org) to volunteer.

• Invite me to visit your city or community to speak on Mussar and to inspire spiritual commitment in your community. Email info@mussarinstitute.org to find out what is involved.

• Resources are needed. We will soon be doing a fundraising campaign, but no need to wait for that. You can donate securely on-line at www.mussarinstitute.org.

• Buy and distribute copies of “Climbing Jacob’s Ladder” and “Everyday Holiness.” Available everywhere.

Or, have I missed what your contribution could be? My door is open, and I can be reached at alan@mussarinstitute.org to discuss what you can offer, and what you need.

There is no doubt that you will benefit from having a strong Jewish spiritual community, and that that community will benefit from what you have to offer. We will lift each other up, if you want it to happen and take the step.

Will you?

I wish you blessings in this holy season,

Alan

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