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In This Issue

Welcome –Jeff Agron
Through A Mussar Lens – By Alan Morinis
Everyday Holiness: The Course – By Shirah Bell
Donations
Upcoming Events and Announcements

As the song goes “Summertime, and the living is easy.”  It’s a small step from “easy” to “lazy.” Where I live (in Florida) it is so hot and humid in the summer that it is tempting to slow down and sink into laziness. So, I have been thinking about the middah of laziness, or sloth. As I finished up the school year for both my kids and myself, and began to prepare for the next, it was good to slow down a bit and rejuvenate my soul and body. 

Read more.

Through A Mussar Lens
By Alan Morinis

Another day, the sky falls again. A Wall Street firm fails, General Motors goes into bankruptcy, home foreclosures hit record levels, more people lose their jobs, and the fall-out shows up in rates of alcoholism, domestic abuse and suicide. Remember when people used to say (and believe): “What’s good for General Motors is good for America.” That doesn’t bode well for the future, does it?

We are living in such a difficult time, and as certain as the sun will rise tomorrow, it is sure that bad news will arrive on my porch with a thud.

Read entire article.

By Shirah Bell, Director of Everyday Holiness Program

When I write about Mussar I like to emphasize what I think of as successes. But we all know that we learn more from our mistakes so I will share a recent one. A close friend lost something I had entrusted to him and then responded by saying it wasn’t his responsibility. I felt betrayed, but decided to put into practice what I had read from the Chazon Ish about the “ideal person”:
On the one hand, he blames himself every step of the way for lack of perfection of his character traits, and on the other, he excuses his fellow man completely, even if the latter is laden with many sins.

I put myself in my friend’s shoes, and understood what might have led him to deny responsibility. I told myself, I excuse him completely. I wrote him a brief email releasing him from responsibility. Then I attempted to go on with our friendship as if nothing had happened. It didn’t work. He brought up the incident each time we talked, and I found myself on edge, wanting to blame him, but reminding myself that I had excused him and therefore needed to keep quiet. I asked myself, “What is wrong here?”

Read entire article.

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