This Hanukkah,

Give the Gift of Mussar!

Light up the souls of the people you love with the gift of one of our Mussar classes — for yourself or a loved one:

Seeds of Mussar,

With Cathy Schechter

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This introductory Mussar 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.

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Paul Celan: A Mussar Poet,

With Rabbi Joshua Boettiger

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In this 3-class series, we will be studying the Emmanuel Levinas of the poetry world: Paul Celan. He was a German-speaking Romanian Jew, a Holocuast survivor, and an extraordinarily innovative 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. 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.'

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Whatever Exists Exists in God: Spinoza's Ethics as a Platform for Mussar Practice,

With Rabbi Ira Stone

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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.

This class is open to both new and returning students.

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Foundations I, With Sandra

Wortzel & Geoffrey Basik

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A smiling middle-aged man with glasses, a beard, and wearing a brown hat and a blue striped shirt, standing in front of a colorful painting.

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?

This class is designed for students who have a very beginner knowledge of Mussar, but it is also open to new students.

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