Nobody's Perfect (but some are less perfect than others)

Mussar began as a 19th century movement within eastern European Orthodox, non-Chasidic Jewry. The movement seems in part to have been formed as a response to Chasidism, which sought to enliven Jewish practice with ecstatic, personal elements. Mussar did the same, concentrating on ethical behavior and practice, deep introspection, meditation, isolation, community involvement, and strict Torah observance.



Alan Morinis’ Everyday Holiness is his follow up volume to Climbing Jacob’s Ladder. That book was about Morinis’ introduction and embrace of Mussar practice. Everyday Holiness shows that Morinis has now done his homework, read the Mussar texts, done the practices, and presented us with an introductory primer.

Everyday Holiness instructs us to do things we would normally do as good people if life and our own character faults did not so often trip us up: We should be kind, patient, soft spoken, not speak ill of others, not lie, have compassion, humility, patience, gratitude, a sense of order, and so forth. Easy things to read about and say, yet harder to live and practice. Mussar, with its strident attitude about action, will broker no theoretical life. Mussar must be lived.


If you want to try the Mussar program (or a portion of it) there is a section at the end with tips. If you want to read the original texts, The Palm Tree of Devorah, The Path of The Just, The Duties of the Heart, feel free to buckle down and get your exegesis on.


Morinis’ book, although a trifle lulling at times and prone to repetition, is a perfect start to the seemingly impossible task of making ourselves better than we are.

Mussar for the Masses

Alan Morinis, in his Climbing Jacob's Ladder, does us a service by presenting the little known movement within Judaism known as Mussar, which concentrats on ethical conduct and what we would now call “self-help.”

In a rabbinical Judaism dominated by study, ritual, and communal duties, Mussar often goes off the tracks, stressing internal development, meditation, withdrawing from public life, and actions that help the individual lessen negative traits.


Mussar is firmly connected to the world of Orthodox Judaism, and Morinis needed to travel to Far Rockaway to learn Mussar first hand from Rabbi Yechiel Yitzchok Perr, scion of a long line of Mussar rabbis. Morinis paints Rabbi Perr in very appealing shades, showing how Mussar is just as much, if not more, a movement of example rather than book learning (another way that it veers from traditional Jewish preoccupations).


Morinis does a good job showing what Mussar is, as well as providing practical examples of how to inject Mussar into the reader’s life.  He tries to show how one can use Mussar without being orthodox; it seems that Morinis wants Mussar to join Jewish Renewal and Neo-Hasidism: using elements of the original form of  religious or ethical movement, and fashioning it for a non-practicing (or semi-practicing) audience. 

This is born out by Morinis' founding of The Mussar Institute, which has the stated goal of teaching Mussar to the masses.