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An Introduction to Mussar
By Shirah Bell
The introductory Mussar course called Everyday Holiness has been available for three years now. The course is offered online, using the vast resources of the internet. It is designed for beginners in the field, and provides an introduction to the core Mussar teachings as well as many links for those who seek more advanced knowledge. You can begin the course at any time, and each person is assigned a study partner (or chevruta in Hebrew) with whom you meet on the telephone for about an hour for each lesson.
Besides the one-on-one learning sessions, the course includes an on-line discussion forum where participants share their learning and questions, a feature students of Mussar say is one of the most exciting features of the course. As course administrator, I have seen people discover amazing insights, which many have written about. One of those discoveries came from a student, who suddenly passed away from a heart attack before he had time to finish the course. While he was noted and lauded for his contributions to children’s psychiatry, his Mussar writings revealed his vulnerable side, in the context of working through some difficult issues in his employment of that time.
Yet even through those difficulties, he found valuable lessons for life. “Because I had studied and studied the Everyday Holiness Lesson 4 on gratitude, I understood this, too, was for the good. My meeting with my boss was more painful for him than for me, because I had found myself transformed, not angry, and appreciative of his support (which, in fact, I had not noticed before: I was angry at just about everything.) He started by acknowledging that part of the problem was his leadership, something that he has never owned before. He then described the plan he had devised to improve my productivity, and said he knew that I had the ability to improve my satisfaction ratings. I expressed my gratitude for his honesty and support.
“I felt so calm, so blessed, in many ways. What is so beautiful is that I was able to use my compassion for my boss' predicament, caught between the chairman, whom he couldn't argue with, and me.”
This is just one reflection of how the many lessons provided in Everyday Holiness have had a direct impact on peoples’ lives. Hundreds of students of all ages and all sorts of backgrounds have completed the 15 units of Everyday Holiness in the three years it has been offered, and they may have seen results of studying and practicing gratitude show up in their lives, as the student mentioned here. For someone else, perhaps you, the lessons on truth might have had the biggest impact, or generosity, or order. Which of the 15 lessons might have the greatest effect in your life?
I encourage you to look at the course outline and download the free lesson.
If you have any questions, please contact me at shirah@mussarinstitute.org
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