MUSSAR PROGRAM ClASS #2 - JewishPathways.com

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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