Mussar

Mussar teachings are the wisdom of nullifying materialism through instruction in despising and detesting all physical and material matters.

Mussar Teachings and Establishment of the Mussar Movement[edit | edit source]

Mussar seforim existed in Yiddishkeit for over a thousand years, and it is to these that the following Rebbeim's references speak.

Rav Yaakov Galinsky, one of the speakers of Mussar teachings, merited to receive instructions and guidance from the Rebbe.

In the recent generation, the founders of the Mussar movement were the gedolei Lithuania - Rabbi Yisroel Salanter, his talmid the Alter of Slabodka, and others.

The foundation of this approach is based on "sur meira" (turn from evil), uprooting bad middos from a person's nefesh, and dedicating specific time each day to working on middos. This differs from Chassidus, which focuses primarily on contemplation of Hashem's greatness and transforming evil to good through "asei tov" (do good).

Not all Lithuanian gedolim agreed with this approach, and many other Lithuanian gedolim (like the Brisk dynasty including Rabbi Chaim of Brisk and Rabbi Yitzchak Zev Soloveitchik) opposed this approach, claiming that mussar is included in Torah itself.

Even in our generation there were and are Lithuanian rabbonim who follow the approach of the baalei mussar, among them Rabbi Binyamin Yehoshua Zilber, Rabbi Avigdor Miller, Rabbi Aryeh Leib Friedman, Rabbi Yaakov Galinsky, and others.

Chabad's Relationship to the Mussar Movement[edit | edit source]

Among Chabad chassidim it was recognized that Rabbi Yisroel Salanter wasn't just another gaon like other gedolei Yisroel in Lithuania, but that he was actually mamash a Rebbe in Yiddishkeit, having influence on his mekuravim in elevated ways and lofty visions. Those sons of Zamut and Lithuania who were close to Reb Yisroel were not seen by Chabad chassidim as just regular misnagdim, "weltishe yidden" who didn't want to acknowledge Chassidus - they appeared to them more like a type of chassidim, except they had their own unique path, misnagdishe chassidim.

And they would say: "Once in several generations, Hashem's mercy was bestowed upon the lonely misnagdim, and He sent down to them from heaven a Rebbe's neshama (Rabbi Yisroel Salanter), and even that they made intellectual."

They also tell that once at a rabbinic gathering in Petersburg, the Rebbe Maharash and Rabbi Yisroel Salanter stayed at the same lodging. The Rebbe Maharash arrived with many chassidim, while Rabbi Yisroel Salanter came alone. At one point, the Rebbe Maharash entered his room and saw him sitting alone learning mussar. He said to him: "If his honor sits alone, and his talmidim from Zamut and Lithuania aren't present, in which worlds are they found?"

Famous Mussar Seforim[edit | edit source]

Early Editions:[edit | edit source]

Chovos Halevavos by Rabbeinu Bachya ibn Pekuda
Shaarei Teshuva by Rabbeinu Yonah of Gerona
Orchos Tzadikim
Menoras HaMaor by Rabbi Yitzchak Aboab
Sefer Charedim by Rabbi Eliezer Azkari
Reishis Chochma by Rabbi Eliyahu de Vidas
Shnei Luchos HaBris
Mesilas Yesharim by the Ramchal
Shevet Mussar by Rabbi Eliyahu of Izmir

From the Mussar Movement:[edit | edit source]

Ohr Yisroel by Rabbi Yisroel Salanter
Letters of Rabbi Yisroel Salanter
Kochvei Ohr by Rabbi Itzele Blazer
Daas Chochma U'Mussar by the Saba of Kelm
Beis Kelm
Madregas Ha'Adam by the Saba of Novardok
Chochma U'Mussar by Rabbi Yerucham Leibowitz of Mir
Ahavas Meisharim V'Yesodei HaDaas by Rabbi Moshe Rosenstein of Lomza
Ohr Yahel by Rabbi Leib Chasman
Toras Avraham by Rabbi Avraham Grodzinski, Mashgiach of Slabodka Yeshiva
Michtav M'Eliyahu by Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler of Ponevezh
Ohr Yechezkel by Rabbi Yechezkel Levenstein of Ponevezh
Lev Eliyahu by Rabbi Eliyahu Lopian
Sifsei Chaim by Rabbi Chaim Friedlander of Ponevezh
And more

Separate Category:[edit | edit source]

The Mussar works of the Chazon Ish, who was not identified with the Mussar movement and even criticized some of their ideas, and the writings of his students:

Emunah U'Bitachon by the Chazon Ish
Igros Chazon Ish
Hisorerus - collection of the Chazon Ish's letters
Michtevei Hisorerus - collection of letters by Rabbi Chaim Greineman, nephew and student of the Chazon Ish
Orchos Yosher by Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, nephew and student of the Chazon Ish

The Mussar Approach Versus Chassidus[edit | edit source]

Chassidus includes within it the teachings of Mussar in terms of "do good," but has an additional advantage. While Mussar focuses on "turn from evil" and dealing with negative middos that change from time to time (as the yetzer hara intensifies its focus on specific areas in different times), Chassidus focuses on contemplation of Hashem's greatness, which never changes.

The Mussar approach, in contrast, deals with refining middos.

The Frierdiker Rebbe explains the concept of the Mussar approach in a sicha that was printed in Kuntres Toras HaChassidus:

"When a person behaves like an animal, he is worse than an animal. For an animal has no daas to desire and choose something higher than bodily desires and lusts. But a person who has daas to desire and choose something higher than bodily desires, such as good middos and intellectual pursuits, yet chooses physical desires, is more degraded and contaminated than, lehavdil, an animal.

The wisdom of nullifying materialism through teaching the disgust, abhorrence, and repulsion of physical pleasures and desires, and the greatness of the punishment of Gehinnom's suffering and the like, which a person will be punished for being drawn after bodily desires - this is the wisdom of Mussar."

Mussar, therefore, deals with "bandaging external wounds" - fixing the middos of pride, laziness, anger, and the like. An excellent example of this approach can be found in the Ramchal's Mesilas Yesharim.

Chassidus did not come to negate the other two approaches - Mussar and philosophical investigation - but to add to them.

Chassidus argues that one should not be satisfied with only appealing to human intellect or only dealing with "bandaging external wounds." While Chabad Chassidus does appeal to human intellect and requires clear intellectual understanding of the concepts it presents, these concepts themselves don't originate from human intellect but from the Divine.

Chassidus explains Divine levels as they descend from the upper worlds to below, in an organized and clear order, with metaphors that ensure a person doesn't, chas v'shalom, materialize the Divine concepts he's learning about, while still feeling connected to the material being learned so that it affects him properly.

As the Frierdiker Rebbe continues:

"However, Chassidus has an advantage in that it also awakens feelings of the heart to be affected to the degree required by the knowledge and understanding of that concept learned in Chassidus."

Breaking the Body[edit | edit source]

Unlike Mussar which advocates breaking the body through mortification and fasts, Chassidus explains that one should harness the body for avodas Hashem, as the Rambam states, "Having a healthy and whole body is from the ways of Hashem." As the Baal Shem Tov explains on the posuk "When you see the donkey of your enemy crouching under its burden and would refrain from helping it, you shall help along with him" - meaning: when you see the materiality of the body - which is your enemy, and you think you need to break it, you should know that you need to help along with it, specifically with the body.

However, Chassidus explains well that the body is "meshcha d'chivya" (the skin of the snake), and its vitality comes from the nefesh habehamis in the body (for a beinoni; for tzaddikim it's different, as their body is foreign to them, like Hillel who would say when going to the bathhouse that he was going to do chesed with the unfortunate one). Moreover, it interferes with avodas Hashem due to its coarseness and materiality. However, the ways of breaking the body in Chabad Chassidus are specifically through spiritual contemplation of human lowliness and wrongdoings, not through physical breaking of the body.