Mussar Program Class #2

Striving to attain the level of “human being.”

by Alan Morinis

© 2007 JewishPathways.com

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So far in this course, we have defined Mussar and we have traced its history within the Jewish world over the past 1,000 years. The study and practice of Mussar comes with goals, and exploring these goals fills in the picture of what exactly Mussar is and how it applies to real life. In several places and in several ways, the Torah repeats a notion that we find stated most clearly in Leviticus 19:2: Kedoshim tihiyu – "You shall be holy." Here the Torah is pinpointing for us what a human life is really all about, as well as what we are meant to do on this earth. It is telling us that the job of a human being is to “be holy.” All of Mussar can be understood as an exploration of that injunction. So now: What does it mean to be holy? What is the path? What are the obstacles? At this point, we don't really know what the word "holy" means, and yet we can still be struck by this remarkable piece of guidance. Whatever it may be, holiness is surely an elevated state of being. The Torah's message is that you are here on Earth not to accumulate wealth, nor gain power, nor bask in prestige, nor acquire possessions, nor glory in accomplishments, nor revel in your beauty – but rather to bring forth this quality called "holiness." And since the Torah instructs us to do this, it must be within our potential to do so. We learn from this that spiritual elevation is to be our main aim in life, and that spiritual elevation is possible. Mussar is a Jewish way to pursue that spiritual elevation. In telling us that the job description of a human being is to be holy, the Torah is clearly addressing each and every one of us. The word kedoshim is written in the plural form. This message of spiritual elevation is meant to be heard and acted upon by each one of us, individually. No one can become holy on your behalf. No one can elevate your soul except you, in whom it was implanted.

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Holiness as a Command I have called the verse "You shall be holy" an "injunction," and in doing so, I chose my words carefully. It is noteworthy that when the rabbis combed through the Torah to seek out the commandments that are the backbone of Jewish life, none of the major codifiers identified "You shall be holy" as an actual commandment. This omission is classically explained by saying that holiness is the overarching and allencompassing goal of our lives, and so this injunction can't be brought down to the level of an ordinance on a par with, say, not eating meat with milk, or wearing fringes on the corners of clothing, or any other of the 613 mitzvot in the Torah. Mussar teachers have offered other explanations for why the Torah's directive to be holy is not considered a formal commandment. In the famous story of Adam and Eve, we read what sounds like an explicit commandment, as God tells them, "Of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, do not eat" (Genesis 2:17). Rabbi Yosef Yozel Hurwitz, who founded and led the Novardok school of Mussar, writes in his book, Madregos Ha'Adam ("The Levels of Man"), that this directive was not a commandment to Adam and Eve. Rather, it was an aitzah – God's good advice. The same could be said about the Torah's bidding, "You shall be holy." Not an injunction, this may also be advice. We need this advice to help us understand an impulse that we all already feel within ourselves – the drive to improve and to make something better of our lives. Don't we all feel that drive? Don't we all spend many hours each day fixing, cleaning, upgrading, improving, reconfiguring, and maintaining various aspects of our lives? We all commit so much time, thought and effort into making things better – because we are all born with an impulse to improve. Since we live in such materialistic times, we commonly express that impulse to make things better in a purely material way. We can be constantly busy – changing the color of our hair, straightening our

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teeth, washing the car, doing the laundry, upgrading the computer, buying the latest gizmo – spending innumerable hours and dollars trying to satisfy the inner call to improve. Because the Torah understands our inner lives, it knows that we have this drive, and it warns us not to make the terrible mistake of applying this drive solely within the material realm. The Torah's advice is to recognize that, more than anything, the impulse to improve is a spiritual urge, an innate drive toward spiritual refinement. And this impulse is squandered when it is used up on your clothes or your car. Instead, the Torah's counsel is aimed directly to the soul: Be holy!

Spiritual Blossoming What is holiness? An argument over the very verse we have been discussing – "You shall be holy" – addresses this question: The medieval commentator Rashi connects the directive to be holy to the warnings that we find in the previous chapter (Leviticus 18), which speak of sexual morality. Rashi finds a few verses in the Torah that demonstrate an explicit connection between the word kadosh ("holy") and sexual transgressions, and that grounds his view that kadosh means to separate from that which defiles. In Rashi's view, holiness is our default position. All we have to do to get there is to keep away from defilements. Ramban (Nachmanides), who followed Rashi by a century and a half, argues that the sort of avoidance that Rashi advocates can't possibly be enough to bring forth the light of holiness. He points out that there are many ways to stay within the letter of the law, and yet still behave like a complete rascal – for example, eating kosher food to gluttonous extremes, or indulging excessively in permitted sexual relations. He said famously that a person could be a "scoundrel with the license of the Torah." To forestall that possibility, the Torah gives us general guidance to elevate our inner lives in ways that can't be defined by law, and for which there can be no uniform standards.

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[The 16th century kabbalist, Rabbi Chaim Vital, explains in Sha'arey Kedusha 1:2: "The inner traits were not included in the 613 mitzvot, yet they are integral to them since they are a prerequisite to the mitzvot themselves. Therefore, the one who possesses inferior inner traits is worse off than one who is only committing transgressions. Since the inner traits are such an important foundation, they were not included in the mitzvot. Good inner traits lead to mitzvot. One should be more concerned about his inner traits than his mitzvot."] Ramban liberates holiness from being understood in a very narrow sense as a form of behavior. This concept is echoed by Ramchal (Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto), in the last chapter of Path of the Just, which is titled "An Explanation of the Trait of Holiness." Ramchal does not explain holiness, and this is no failure, because holiness cannot be defined in simple terms. Our language is limited to describing realities that are part of the same plane as language, and this is not true of holiness. Holiness has one foot in earthly reality and another in supernal realms, and so it defies definition. For the same reason, it also defies achievement. Yes, holiness can become a tangible presence in our lives, but despite that, we can never claim it as an accomplishment. As Ramchal says, "Holiness is a twofold matter. It begins in effort and ends in reward. It begins in striving and it ends in being given as a gift." Holiness is a spiritual blossoming. It is a quality that comes over a soul that has been made pure and elevated. We can't produce holiness like we can grow flowers or construct a machine, but it is certain that the efforts we do make increase our suitability to receive the gift of holiness. "Readying ourselves" is what Ramchal calls what we can do. If we have readied ourselves, and if providence delivers us the gift of holiness, then the heart is transformed and the person becomes, again in Ramchal's words, "a tabernacle, sanctuary and altar." Mussar is the way to fashion oneself into a vessel to contain this gift of holiness.

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Attaining Wholeness The Mussar teachers don't always speak of the goal of Mussar in terms of holiness. Sometimes they say that the purpose of Mussar practice is to help us move in a direction that is fully conceivable within this plane of reality: the goal of shlemut (or shlemus), literally "wholeness." Shlemut comes from the same root as the word shalom, which is usually translated as “peace.” That definition, however, lacks the connotation of wholeness that is prominent in shlemut, and implicit in peace. We are not ‘whole’ now, but we could be. As we address each inner factor that is incomplete or unbalanced, we take a step toward making ourselves more complete, or shalem. Again we find Ramchal illuminating this notion, in another source, Da’at Tevunot, where he writes: "The one stone on which the entire building rests is the concept that God wants each person to complete himself, body and soul..." We are created incomplete. This isn't a curse, but rather the starting point for our lives, because we are here on earth in order to complete the work of our own creation. Ramchal continues: God is certainly capable of making people (and all of Creation) absolutely complete. Furthermore, it would have made much more sense for Him to have done so, because insofar as God Himself is perfect in every way, it is fitting that His works should also be totally perfect. But in His great wisdom, He ruled it better to let people complete their own creation. So He ‘cut short’ His own trait of perfection, and out of His greatness and goodness He withheld Himself from His greatness in these creations, and made these creations incomplete. This was the way He wanted them made, according to His sublime plan...

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From this perspective, then, all of our weaknesses, failings and shortcomings are not simply flaws – they have a purpose. Rectifying each one is a step toward wholeness. In English, the relationship between wholeness and holiness is evident, even in the words themselves. Wholeness – shlemut – is not so much a reward as it is the fulfillment of the purpose of our lives. Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, who did so much to mark the way of the soul, speaks to the same issue in his book, Ohr Yisrael: The Midrash (Breishit Rabba 11:6) teaches: “Everything that came into being during the six days of Creation requires improvement – for example, the mustard seed needs to be sweetened... Also, man needs rectification.” Our world is a world of transformation. When we are improving and refining ourselves, we are in concert with the Divine plan – fulfilling our purpose for existing in this world... Not only is the human being created for this purpose, but he is also given the ability and capacity to attain this supreme goal. The Mussar teachers never make perfectly clear what constitutes wholeness. I perceive this an ideal state of being in which every inner trait is in perfect equilibrium. Maimonides writes about the shevil ha'zahav – the golden mean – which is a measure we can apply to each inner trait: When any trait tends toward the extreme, whether excess or deficiency, it is problematic. Only when the trait is in the mid-range, will it operate harmoniously and beneficially. And when all our traits are in that condition, then we can call ourselves whole. To whatever extent our lives manifest wholeness, that should not be thought of as a steady state in which we have come to a final and permanent completion. Life isn't like that, and we can only hope to be whole in any given moment and situation. That provides no assurance of how whole we will be in the next one.

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Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe, in his book Alei Shur, defined wholeness as the ability to withstand a test that life throws your way. You pass the test because of your wholeness, but that assessment pertains only to the particular test you are facing right then. The next moment is another lifetime, and your wholeness is entirely contingent on how you respond to that experience.

Be a Mensch The goals of Mussar that we have discussed so far – to be holy and whole – can seem to be more for the likes of tzaddikim than for you and me. Recognizing that we could fall into such thinking, the Mussar teachers have described the goals for spiritual practice in much more homely ways: When all is said and done, holiness and wholeness and any other elevated idea of the spiritual goal comes down to a simple Yiddish notion: You are supposed to be a mensch, i.e., "a decent human being." That one Yiddish word conveys the full measure of the integrity, honor and respect that a person can hope for in life. The great chassidic teacher, the Kotzker Rebbe (1787-1859), comments on the verse, "Be holy people to me." In Hebrew, the word "people" comes before "holy." On this the Kotzker Rebbe declared: "Fine, be holy. But remember – first one has to be a mensch." Rabbi Yisrael Salanter articulates this down-to-earth goal of Mussar in speaking about a golem, a supernatural creature of Jewish folklore: The Maharal of Prague created a golem, and this was a great wonder. But how much more wonderful is it to transform a corporeal human being into a mensch.

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In Lesson #1, you composed a list of your own traits that you identified were in some way not ideal. Take out your list and read it over now. Consider how you feel about these aspects of who you are and how you behave. Most of us feel very badly about the things we do that fall short in some way. For you, too? From a Mussar point of view, however, it is possible and even desirable to reconceive these "failings" not as simple shortcomings, but as a personal spiritual curriculum. Rectifying your traits is how you elevate your soul and make yourself whole, and that is a necessary part of what you are here on Earth to do. Instead of feeling badly about these aspects of your inner life, you could actually become excited and motivated by seeing these as thresholds for growth. Take 5 minutes each day to review each trait on your list and your reasons for putting it there. As you do, keep in mind that were it not for this bit of incompleteness, you would be deprived of the possibility to grow toward completion. Try to feel that each place where you are ‘not perfect’ is actually a gift, because it provides you with one spiritual step waiting to be climbed. In that way, you befriend your spiritual curriculum. Instead of feeling stuck with these terrible deficiencies, or putting energy into rationalizing and excusing who you are, you now see that there is a ladder before you, waiting for you to begin your climb, rung by rung. To ensure your steady progress in this area, do your 5-minute review at a set time each day. Turn off the phone, move away from the computer, and close the door to your room. The ability to create quiet, contemplative time will be a key to your success in this Mussar course. So best to begin right now, designating the daily time and space.

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