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Class #2
Striving to attain
the level of human being.
by Alan Morinis
2007 JewishPathways.com
1
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.
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."
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Holiness as a Command
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.
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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.
Spiritual Blossoming
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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."]
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."
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.
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:
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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:
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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
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."
8
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.