The Mensch Antidote - Rx as per Dr. Salanter

It’s hard to believe that two weeks have passed since my fourth visit to Prague. I continue to find Prague a magical, beautiful and inspiring place. Over the course of my visits, beginning in 2005, I have never forgotten the painful side of the history of Prague’s Jewish community, especially in the last century. Nevertheless, her Judaic legacy and the magnificence of the city’s Jewish Quarter never fail to grab hold of my heartstrings, as well as my thirst for deepening my own Jewish learning. Now, two weeks removed from this most recent visit, I was transported back to Prague’s Jewish Quarter as I sat reading a biography of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter (1809-83), founder of the

Mussar Movement in 19^th century Eastern Europe. It’s a book which has sat on my shelf for years. This summer I decided I had to seize that opportunity to finally read Immanuel Etkes’ Rabbi Israel Salanter and the Mussar Movement: Seeking the Torah of Truth. Reading it has proven to be a grounding and fortifying experience as I work to deepen and expand my own study and practice of Mussar.

I have written (and spoken) on previous occasions about my growing appreciation for Mussar and how I find its study and practice not only meaningful but in many ways, a spiritual antidote to the complexities of the times in which we are living. Borrowing from David Brooks’ 2015 book, The Road to Character which I devoured the summer after it appeared in print, I have taken to calling Mussar the Jewish Road to Character. I hope Mr. Brooks does not mind my adaptation.

This morning, my characterization of Mussar as the “Jewish Road to Character” was made renewed for me, as I read the following statement in Etkes’ biography of Rabbi Salanter in which he quotes Salanter himself as saying: “The MaHaRal of Prague created a golem, and it was a great wonder. But how much more wonderful is it to transform a corporeal human being into a mensch!”  Wow, I thought, as I read those words. The Founder of Mussar as a movement just reached through the centuries to connect my visit to Prague two weeks ago (where I visited the MaHaRal’s synagogue and burial site) and my study and practice of Mussar.

One cannot visit the city of Prague and her Jewish Quarter without the ever-present reminders of Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel (known by the acronym MaHaRal – Moreinu HaRav Loew – “our Master and Teacher”) and his Golem (about which I have previously written here.)  The legend of the Golem – recreated time and again by one author after another, including Elie Wiesel, has resonance for our own times. Indeed, the group educator with the NFTY group with which I toured the Jewish Quarter offered that Rabbi Judah Loew was the forebearer of Jewish creators such as Stan Lee and Jerry Siegel who gave us so many of the superheroes who continue to fill our cineplex screens even these days.

But Rabbi Yisrael’s statement, that beyond the creation of (possibly) fictitious superheroes, more important is the creation of menschen – people of integrity and honor struck me as an important reminder for our times. No superhero (or political figure!) will ultimately lead us through the challenges and divisions of our times. Indeed, Mussar is a path through which our Jewish tradition facilitates an individual’s road to strengthening her or his own integrity and character. Part of what I most love about this authentic Jewish spiritual practice is that, in line with so much else in our tradition, it is most efficacious and meaningful when it is practiced and studied in hevruta -- with a partner.

In its fuller context, the Mussar journey is also grounded in the embrace of a Va’ad – a group that comes together to share the study and practice, to support and reinforce one another’s individual journeys. With each passing day, as I read the news and grapple with the ever-broadening rift in our nation, I find myself girded by the teachings of Mussar. My study and practice guide my heart, mind, and soul towards light in the darkness, and, I pray, integrity, lest I fall into the stream of invective and negativity. In recent years, I have deeply appreciated the sacred opportunity to facilitate  Mussar groups in various communities around Boston, as well as to bring a bit of its path and practice to teens, at camp, in my former congregation, and at NFTY Institutes. I am grateful that next week I will begin another new chapter in this journey with the honor of guiding such a group over these summer months here in the Berkshires.

Mussar by itself will not change the world. It can, I believe, impact those of us who study and practice it, so that we do not fall prey to the noise, clamor, and incivility of our times. Mussar can strengthen us and enable us to focus on the integrity and character we wish to embody, or at the very least, that which we strive towards. Practicing and studying in hevruta and community can create circles, which expanding outward can, I hope, spread the values our tradition teaches us to pursue. Mussar can help us refocus so that we can see the world as it is, and work to create the world we dream of, in which the integrity and honor of each precious reflection of the image of the Divine is protected.