Introducing The Shabbat Effect by Alan Morinis
The Shabbat Effect reveals how one sacred day can transform every day. Stay connected for launch details, events, and exclusive updates.
"Observing a Sabbath means carving out one day per week that you intentionally design and cause to be infused with awareness, joy, peace, rest, pleasure, holiness, and the like, qualities that, through practice and experience, get ingrained in you, and thus become characteristic of who you are in general."
-Alan Morinis, The Shabbat Effect
What if One Day of Rest Could Transform Your Entire Life?
One of the most significant biblical mandates, so essential that it numbers among the Ten Commandments, is the directive to observe a weekly day of rest.
The Shabbat Effect reveals how the practice of a day set aside for rest brings about a deep, lasting, and pervasive transformation of character, not just on the seventh day but every day.
Rooted in the 1,100-year-old Jewish tradition of Mussar and enriched with contemporary sources, this user-friendly guide explores eight essential inner traits that can be transformed through a Shabbat practice. It offers a radical and moving exploration of how this rhythm can enhance and refine core traits of character.
You will find that it adds immeasurably to your enjoyment of life and offers a meaningful path toward fulfilling your highest potential.
Alan Morinis received his doctorate from Oxford University where he went on a Rhodes Scholarship.
He is one of the leading lights in the revival of the Jewish spiritual tradition of Mussar and is the author of Climbing Jacob’s Ladder (2002), Everyday Holiness (2007), and With Heart in Mind (2014). He is the founder of The Mussar Institute and a student of Rabbi Yechiel Yitzchok Perr, zt”l.
Alan will be on tour in early 2026.
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Bring Alan Morinis to Your Community For speaking engagements, or community events contact us at: shabbateffect@mussarinstitute.org
Books by Alan Morinis
Everyday Holiness
Experience profound and practical teachings to discover happiness, wisdom, and achieve your highest potential amid the struggles of everyday life. Each chapter features a key character trait (or quality of the soul) found in traditional Mussar teachings, including humility, generosity, gratitude, trust, patience, and enthusiasm.
With Heart in Mind
Alan shares weekly spiritual practices for developing a strong and open heart. In short, accessible chapters, this book describes 48 methods through which we can acquire Torah and straightforward practice. They include cultivating humility, joy, awe, goodheartedness, closeness with friends, not taking credit for oneself, judging others favorably, and so on. The fruits are a refined soul and a strong and open heart.
Climbing Jacob's Ladder
This book follows Alan Morinis’ journey to discover Mussar and his teacher’s guidance along the way. Jewish by birth but raised secular, Alan earned a doctorate at Oxford studying Hindu pilgrimage, trained in yoga with B.K.S. Iyengar, and took his first Buddhist meditation course in the Himalayas in 1974. But in 1997, after his film career stalled, he turned inward, and this time, toward his Jewish roots. In his search, he found Mussar, a 10th-century Jewish spiritual practice that grew into a movement in 19th-century Europe. He now shares its timeless wisdom, hoping Jews and non-Jews alike will use it to uncover their inner light.
Every Day, Holy Day
This is a practical guide for anyone seeking the transformative power of Mussar. Rooted in the Torah’s call to holiness, it offers a clear roadmap from Mussar masters to help you grow spiritually.
The book explores 26 middot, qualities like compassion, generosity, and equanimity, each studied for a week through daily teachings, affirmations, and exercises. With focused journaling, you’ll deepen awareness and actively build the traits that shape a meaningful life.