MUSSAR PROGRAM ClASS #2 - 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. 2
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 3
Page 1: Mussar Program Class #2 Striving to
Page 5 and 6: [The 16th century kabbalist, Rabbi
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MUSSAR PROGRAM ClASS #2 - JewishPathways.com

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