TMI FACILITATORS - The Mussar Institute

These experienced Mussar professionals are currently facilitating TMI courses, are graduates of the Manchim Advanced Facilitator Training program, and are certified to facilitate all courses from The Mussar Institute.

Robert Barris

About Robert

Robert is the co-author of Mussar in Action, with Alan Morinis, translating into English various selections from the Alei Shur, the writings of Rav Wolbe. He is a practicing psychiatrist since 1984. He is shomer Shabbat and integrates Orthodox practice with Jewish renewal. Robert has had a serious mindfulness practice for many years. He has been active in TMI for the past ten years as a former board member and as the facilitator of several TMI distance va’adim. Robert’s interests include lifestyle medicine (particularly nutrition and exercise), the martial arts, and playing with his grandchildren.

Ken Birenbaum

About Ken

Ken has been a student of Mussar since 2010, and a Mussar facilitator since 2012. After taking the Manchim facilitator training program as a student he taught that program for 2 years. He has taken and facilitated each of the Mussar Institute’s courses from beginner to advanced, and especially enjoys witnessing Mussar's transformative effects on new eyes.

He was President of his synagogue, Congregation Shaare Emeth, in St. Louis, Missouri, and served on the Boards of the Saul Mirowitz Jewish Day School, The Union for Reform Judaism, and as a Board member and Treasurer of the Mussar Institute

Howard Brill

About Howard

Rabbi Todd Doctor

About Todd

Rabbi Todd Doctor, a Houston native, is a dedicated educator who passionately believes that knowledge empowers individuals and shape lives. He received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin. Rabbi Doctor went on to earn his Rabbinical Ordination from Zeigler School of Rabbinic Studies, Masters of Arts Degree in Rabbinic Studies, and Masters of Arts Degree in Education from the Fingerhut School of Education at the University of Judaism (AJU).

Rabbi Doctor has served as a teacher, consultant and educational leader for a number of Jewish schools and agencies, across the country. Rabbi Doctor founded Minds of Tomorrow to mentor and coach a variety of age groups and those of diverse religious backgrounds. He is committed to creating innovative approaches designed to enable children, adults, families, and groups to achieve their full potential by becoming conscious of who they are as a person through the process of mentoring and coaching to consciousness.

Rabbi Doctor moved to Galveston in 2011. He is married to Sarah Shabot and they have two fabulous children, Caleb and Jacob, and their dog, Dudley.

Rabbi Judith Edelstein

About Judith

Rabbi Edelstein is a post-denominational teacher, spiritual leader, counselor, and writer who has worked in synagogues, long-term care facilities, and Jewish organizations. She said, "The practice of highlighting different middot enabled me to see my own areas of strength in addition to characteristics that required constant vigilance. This focus created an opportunity for me to be conscious of traits that needed only fine-tuning and those that demanded much more.

Sandy Greenstein

About Sandy

Sandy is Co-President of the Board of The Mussar Institute. He has more than 30 years of experience in manufacturing, construction, and risk management-loss control. He lives in beautiful Thousand Oaks, Calif. He believes strongly in Mussar’s path of Jewish character development and spiritual growth. and that by practicing Mussar and as a Mussar Facilitator, he has helped close the gap between his ideals and the life he actually leads.

Barbara Grosh

About Barbara

Barbara Grosh began studying Mussar in 2009, after watching her husband increase in joy, trust, kindness, and equanimity through Mussar practice. She trained to become a facilitator in 2015 and has been leading va'adim in Rochester, NY ever since. She takes great joy in watching her va'ad members report positive changes in their lives. She traveled with TMI in Israel in 2017 and 2020. She is such a promoter of the value of Mussar practice that she has been invited to lead va'adim in surprising places like churches, neighborhood centers, and vocational training centers aimed at rehabilitating people leaving prison. She greatly values the community of learners that is TMI.

Damaris Methner

About Damaris

Damaris Methner is a Mussar facilitator who is noted for her eco lyricism; illuminating the connection to the sacred shattered sparks of creation that exist in nature and the poetic expression of that relationship. Her writing on “hearthkeeping” articulates the application of Mussar to the role of caretaker. Damaris is a clinical psychologist. Her doctoral dissertation and research focused on the use of metacognition with learning disabled students. Metacognition is also the contemplative practice used in Mussar to access the superconscious, the highest “Soul” level of human consciousness

Sharon Schwartz

About Sharon

Sharon discovered Mussar through Alan Morinis’ book, Climbing Jacob's Ladde in 2008 and looked for a way to study with others in order to deepen her practice. She joined the first Manchim facilitator training group and soon after facilitated her first va'ad through Season of Mussar I and II. She went on to collaborate with Alan to adapt Path of the Soul for va’adim. In 2018, she joined the Facilitator Development Council and currently serves as its chair.

Sharon says, “I work with an amazing team of dedicated TMI volunteers, all devoted to making the facilitator experience as easy, comprehensive, and enriching as possible for all members of our Facilitator Network.”

Michael Selz

About Michael

Michael is a husband, father of two grown children, and a tech consultant. who has been on a Mussar journey for 11 years, beginning when a friend asked him to try it out with him during a difficult time in his life. In 2015, he trained with TMI as a facilitator and since that time has led local va'adim (plural of va’ad.) For the past three years, he has led 9th graders at Temple Emanu-El, Dallas in a semester-long Mussar teen program from TMI. This summer, he led a small va’ad in the Five Steps intro program.

Helaine Sheias

About Helaine

Helaine Sheias, Ph.D., made Aliyah to Israel in her teens, served in the IDF, and settled in Israel for more than two decades. She is a graduate of The Mussar Institute Yesod Facilitator Training Program and Manchim Advanced Facilitator Training. She has facilitated various TMI courses for the past three years guiding people to the sacred place within where unity integrates all polarities. This process facilitates circles of transformation and change by modeling spiritual awakening, and self-reflexive learning, or Hitlamdut.

Facilitating Mussar courses brings Helaine deep joy and a continuous sense of awe and wonder.

Rabbi Chasya Uriel Steinbauer

About Chasya

Rabbi Chasya Uriel Steinbauer has been studying Mussar and facilitating Mussar groups since she met Alan in 2001 before his first book was published. She taught Mussar at the JCC Manhattan from 2005 - 2013 and from 2008 - 2011 coordinated TMI'S Manchim Advanced Facilitator Training program. She has rabbinic leadership certification from Drisha Institute, an Orthodox women's yeshiva. In 2009, she founded the first egalitarian Mussar va'ad in Jerusalem at the Conservative Yeshiva. Currently, she directs the Kehilat Mussar at the Institute for Holiness in Israel, which she founded.

Nancy Weiss

About Nancy

Nancy is a depth psychotherapist, spiritual director, and Mussar facilitator dedicated to helping others discover unique pathways to their soul’s expression. She serves on the Mussar Institute Facilitator Council. As Coordinator of Manchim, the Advanced Facilitator Training Programco-wrote the course with Alan Morinis. A collage artist, poet, and SoulCollage® facilitator, Nancy guides people in bringing an expressive voice to the Mussar traits and spiritual principles. Her collage art appears in Midrashic Mirrors, which illustrates the richness of creating art to reflect the essence of each Torah portion.

Stephen Weiss

About Stephen

I am a physician and artist who has been taking portraits of spiritual leaders in small towns in California’s Central Valley for 15 years. Spiritual Leaders I have studied at The Mussar Institute for 4 years and completed Manchim Advanced Facilitator Training in 2020.

My father and I had a difficult relationship. After my sons were born, I understood that the only way I could have the father I wished for, was to be that father to my sons. After my father’s death, I did not know how to honor him. A teacher told me “honor the moment of conception, God’s holy spark.”

Mussar is choosing to live a better version of ourselves. Mussar guides us to our inner holiness and teaches us to honor the holiness in others.

Rabbi Harvey Winokur

About Harvey

Rabbi Winokur, a native of Nework, earned his B.A. at SUNY at Buffalo, and his M.A. and Ordination from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati. He is Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Kehillat Chaim, a Reform Congregation in Roswell, Georgia which he founded in 1982. Rabbi Winokur is a Facilitator/Trainer for Prepare-Enrich, an organization that administers premarital/marital needs assessments, a certified Spiritual Director, and a Trainer-Facilitator for The Mussar Institute.

Jason Winston

About Jason