Start your Mussar Journey with CCM
CCM renews spiritual practice and Jewish text to transform relationships, awakening each person to their profound responsibility for the other. We offer introductory and continuing classes that focus on Mussar texts, theology, and practice. Students commit for a semester at a time; a complete curriculum is offered over four years. We also offer specialty classes open to new students each semester focused on different themes.
Check out the list of available classes below!
Available classes
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Weekly Mussar Meditations
10-10:30 a.m. ET | Wednesdays
Mussar is fundamentally a mindfulness practice; that is, in order to truly practice Mussar, one needs to be ever more aware of what is actually happening – not just immediately responding to projections, fears, and entitlements. I think some sort of meditation practice is necessary as a precursor to practicing Mussar, but increasingly I feel like it’s even more than that – Mussar is what meditation looks like when one leaves the cushion and enters the realm of relationship.
*Free & open to new students!
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Mussar of Aging, continued
7-8:30 p.m. CT, Monthly Mondays | Dec. 2025 - June 2026
Rabbi Harold Kravitz
Building on the Mussar of Aging Va'ad we offered Summer 2025, this will be an opportunity to look at additional middot and to further our practice. (In this course we will explore how we can apply the middot to our lives as we age or accompany aging relatives on their journey. Students will be paired in chevrutah for study outside of the class).
*This class is open to new and returning students
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Paul Celan: A Mussar Poet
8-9 p.m. ET, 3 Mondays | Jan. 5-19, 2026
In many ways, Paul Celan (1920-1970) was the Emmanuel Levinas of the poetry world. He was a German-speaking Romanian Jew, a Holocuast survivor, and an extraordinarily innovative and experimental poet. His poems go headlong towards the darkness of the Shoah and its aftermath; the simultaneous imperative of testimony after trauma and the impossibility of it. In this 3-class series, we will be studying some of his poetry, as well as looking at his extraordinary correspondence/chavruta with fellow survivor and esteemed poet Nelly Sachs.'
*Open to new and returning students
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Seeds of Mussar
3-4 p.m. CT, Mondays | Jan. 11 - Feb. 8, 2026
This class will introduce a method that focuses on refining our attributes so that they enable us to serve others with greater and greater joy. We work on our character attributes, not simply to take care of ourselves and enjoy more fulfilling lives, but to practice bearing responsibility for others. The Torah introduced the idea of loving our neighbor as ourselves thousands of years ago; this Mussar program provides each student with a personal operating manual toward meeting this overarching goal of Judaism.
*Introductory course intended for new students
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Foundations/Kibbush 1
7 p.m. ET, Tuesdays | Feb. 3 - April 28, 2026
Sandra Wortzel & Geoffrey Basik
Kibbush, which literally means “capture,” is the Mussar practice of self-restraint. This is a foundational step in Mussar practice and evokes the question: What is it that keeps us asleep, even as we desire to be awake to the needs of the other?
*Open to new and moderately experienced students
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Whatever Exists Exists in God: Spinoza's Ethics as a Platform for Mussar Practice
1-2 p.m. ET, Thursdays | Feb. 5 - March 26, 2026
For students and potential students of Mussar for whom traditional or conventional theologies are unsatisfactory, this class will offer The Ethics of Spinoza as an alternative. We will study excerpts from the five parts that make up The Ethics along with selected secondary sources. We will also consider some Mussar meditations and exercises that the study of The Ethics generates.
*Open to new and returning students
On-going Va’ads
(not open to new students, unless noted)
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Foundations: Kibbush 2
11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. CT Sundays, weekly | Sept. 7 - Dec. 7, 2025
Not open to new students; class will meet in person.
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Transformations/Tikkun 3
10-11:30 a.m. ET, Mondays | Sept. 8 - Dec. 15*
*Class will meet on the following dates: 9/8, 9/15, 10/6, 10/20, 11/3, 11/17, 12/1, 12/15
Not open to new students
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Tikkun of Aging
4:15-5:45 p.m. ET, Wednesdays | Sept. 10 - Dec. 17*
Using the Tikkun Middot, we will explore our maturing relationships with self and others.
*Class will meet on the following dates: 9/10, 9/17, 10/8, 10/22, 11/5, 11/19, 12/3, 12/17
Open to Temple Beth Hillel continuing students only; class will meet in person.
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Tomer Devorah Plus
7:30-9:30 p.m. ET, Mondays | Sept. 15 - Dec. 8
A continuation of Tomer Devorah; the class is currently up to Chapter 12 in a review of "Mesillat Yesharim."
*This class is for graduates of the CCM curriculum. New students should contact the madrich before registering at Martin.jacobs@verizon.net.
In addition to the classes listed above, CCM also offers:
Madrichim Training Course — available to those who have completed the 3-year CCM curriculum and who are accepted into the teacher training program. Available now to those pre-approved!
Rabbis Mussar Cohort — a year-long course offered to Rabbis with Mussar experience who are looking for deeper training and community.
Local Mussar classes — our madrichim are spread out throughout the United States and Canada, and many teach Mussar classes at their local synagogues.