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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

My first introduction to the Mussar community came in San Francisco at Mussar Kallah III.  It was also my first board meeting of The Mussar Institute and the beginning of my involvement not just in Mussar, but in helping the Mussar Institute spread Mussar to a wider group. In just over a week, we will gather again as a community at the The Mussar Kallah at the JCC in New York. The event marks a wonderful opportunity to build new community and connect. One of the most inspiring aspects of the Kallah is the broad spectrum of Jews who come together to learn, pray and celebrate together, as the Kallah has a unique way of breaking down denominational and other boundaries.  In these times when we are often defined more by our differences, I am grateful for such a meaningful community and I am grateful for each soul who makes The Mussar Institute a community of learning like none other. So I urge you to come learn with our community and help build new community.

Each of you in the past month has received e-mails from TMI asking for help in furthering our short- and long-range goals. We have exciting new programs to offer, and in these difficult economic times, it is tempting, and understandable, to be tempted to reduce your charitable giving. Many of us are justifiably worried about the future.  However, we have only to look within our own Torah tradition and Mussar teachings for guidance in these unsure times. It is at this time of year, when we have just celebrated  the chag of Sukkot, that we are reminded of the uncertainty and fragility of our lives.  Even in such difficult time, or especially in such times, we are reminded that we are not relieved of our obligation for tzedakah. Indeed, this may be an appropriate time to work on the middah of nedivut, generosity. I ask us all to look within ourselves and help those institutions which are most important to us; those which have helped us and our people in fulfilling our potential of being an am kadosh, a holy people, of being created b’tzelem olohim, in the image of Hashem. Through our work, I am hopeful that each of us can find nedivut halev, a generosity of the heart.

Kein yehi ratzon, may this be Hashem’s will.

Jeff Agron
Co-President

By Alan Morinis

A story I heard over Yom Kippur has stayed with me, and I want to share it with you in the hope that it will help guide you in this tumultuous world in which it is very hard to find one’s bearings.

In synagogue one morning, a man who sits in front of me every day turned to me and said, “I learned the Yom Kippur prayers in the concentration camp.”

He’s an older man, and I knew he was a Holocaust survivor, but I had never asked and until that moment, he hadn’t volunteered any of his story to me. “How was that,” I asked?

Read entire article.

By Shirah Bell, Director of Everyday Holiness Program

“Worry is a betrayal of HaShem”

He’avar ayin the past is no more
He’atid adayin the future is yet to come
Ha’hoveh k’heref ayin the present is a fleeting moment
Da’agah mi’nayin why worry?

Rabbi Avraham Ibn Ezra, a 12th century sage from Spain asked this question: why worry? Popular as a song sung in Novarodock Mussar yeshivas in the 19th century, his words have become popular once again today as a melody played by wedding dance bands.

For me, however, it has not been easy to shake this trait from my heart. This year, preparing for the High Holidays, I thought through the people I needed to ask for forgiveness, and then came to the question “For what do I need to ask God’s forgiveness?” I had a number of answers, but what showed up as most fundamental was…worry.

Read entire article.

The Mussar Institute depends on the generosity of supporters. Please consider making a donation to honor someone or to remember a loved one.

Barbara Burney
Judith Golden
Caroline Isaacs
Rabbi Howard Shapiro
Deborah Steinberg
Nina and Gary Yarus

Donations gratefully accepted here.

Workshop With Alan

Alan will be leading a Mussar workshop at Am Kolel's retreat center, The Sanctuary, in Bealsville, MD, December 12-14. For more information contact 301-349-2799 or info@sanctuaryretreatcenter.com

Mussar Kallah VI - Click Here for more Information