Mussar Institute - Through a Mussar Lens

By Alan Morinis

We are mid-way through the month of Av and soon the month of Elul will be upon us. In the Mussar yeshivas in pre-WW II Europe, Elul was the month when all would be seized by a precious and intense fervor. Elul! Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are just around the corner. Elul! Time to prepare for those holy days, because in preparation lies the secret of success. Elul! Begin now the process of cleansing the heart that will climax in the awesome holy days ahead. Elul!

Can we only imagine what Elul was like in those distant times and places? No, we are more fortunate than that. One of the great Mussar leaders of that generation kept a diary in which he recorded what he saw, experienced and felt in Elul in the great Lithuanian Mussar yeshiva of Slabodka.

That leader was Rabbi Avrohom Eliyahu Kaplan. What did he see? That there was “great benefit to be acquired for one’s entire life in one Elul day in Slabodka.”

Rabbi Avrohom Eliyahu Kaplan was a gifted writer, poet and songwriter, and at the same time a learned student of Torah and a halachic (legal) decisor. Born in 1890, he was an extraordinarily close student of the Alter of Slabodka, and eventually came to head a yeshiva in Berlin. He died in 1924 at the age of 34, taken before he could deliver but a fraction of his promise.

Of him it was written: “One who has not heard him read the Pesach night Hallel in lofty ecstasy in the unique melody that he wrote yet in his youth—has not seen true Jewish life in our generation. One who has not seen him dance the Kotzker Rebbe’s dance in the joy of Sukkot—has not seen true Jewish joy in our generation. He was alive and gave life.” His talks: “ignited hearts with the lightning flashes of his ideas, heads were enwrapped in illumination, a purifying tremor enveloped all existence....”

Reb Avrohom Elya’s diary* opens to us what it was like for him to come to Slabodka in the month of Elul in the year 5673 (1913):

Excitedly and joyously I jumped from the train’s steps. Within me sparkled the happy thought: “Slabodka!...”

Even though I couldn’t find even one acquaintance among all the people that I saw in the terminal and that traveled with me in the tram car, they all seemed related to me. The streets through which I passed all gladdened my still heart, as if they were calling to me and saying: “Here you are, drawing closer to Slabodka. Another street, then another, the bridge, the sand, Yorburg Street—and, then... the Yeshiva, the Rav’s [Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel, the Alter of Slabodka] small house. And then... the Rav himself!” But who knows if he’s here? Perhaps he hasn’t yet returned home...

What great excitement and anticipation he conveys. And what he looks forward to is soon at hand. Although Rav Avrohom Elya correctly surmised that the Alter was not in town at the time of his arrival, he didn’t have long to wait.

That evening I heard a talk. He [the Alter] stood in the middle of the small room, next to the table, and around him they gathered. The students packed together. They yearned to hear and to understand. They gazed with eyes partly happy and partly anxious, a decent number of young men, and immediately my heart began to absorb the warmth...

Every day in Elul the Alter delivered a Mussar talk in the yeshiva, setting the mood and giving the guidance that would make the most of that special month.
The Alter added talk upon talk, like wood being built into a bonfire. He created the central furnace that would ignite his students’ hearts. As one of Reb Avrohom Elya’s friends describes:

“The man is amazing,” Shaul said as I came to him, “He is mighty beyond compare. Surrounded by youngsters, he immediately begins from where he left off two months ago... He speaks pleasantly, clearly, sincerely, and [yet it is] his silence [that] is [most] profound, sure and penetrating to the heart... When he is silent, it seems that he has nothing at all to relate about all that transpired with him through the entire summer, what he met and whom he saw. He forgets it all, forgets himself—and is silent... This restraint of all emotions upon careful consideration is true mightiness. Mighty!...”

Ah, here we are bereft. How many of us live in a setting in which we are privileged to have a great teacher share thoughts and guidance with us on a daily basis? So few. There are never many great teachers in any generation, and we live so dispersed. What then can we hope to achieve in our Elul that will soon be upon us?

Even within Rav Avrohom Elya’s record of the past there is still great hope and inspiration for us. The Alter spoke, but it was still up to his students to make the most of what Elul has to offer. Just like them, we too have the option to stoke the fires of anticipation in this month. And to build the heat that will cleanse the heart.
Will you yourself make a commitment to make the most of this Elul? Will you take that challenge? The starting point is to set aside some time every day to be quietly reflective on the year past and the year to come. What do you see? Who have you become? Who do you want to become? How will you get there? Set time to ask yourself these questions.

Even without the presence of a great teacher, if you commit to this daily practice, the cleansing fire and inspiration will build within the space you create.

We can take one other lesson from the Slabodka of a century ago that I want to highlight. We might lack the genius of the Alter to influence us, but just like they did, we have the option to create a supportive community for our spiritual practice. Spiritual work done alone can be perfectly valuable, but it is simply so much harder.

With whom can you share a spiritual Elul this year? Is there a community to join? A group to convene? A partner to secure? Here to is another challenge to you: with whom can you join to strengthen each other as you seek to purify your hearts?

Setting yourself time for self-examination and joining with others who are walking the journey with you are two great gifts you can give yourself this Elul. In doing so, you will walk in the footsteps of Rav Avrohom Elya and the great men and women of the generations who have come before us, and who have illumined the way.

Please do.

* the quotations from Rav Kaplan are translated by Rabbi Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer.

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