by Rabbi Marcia Plumb, co-founder of SoulBalanceMussar (UK), and A Soul in Balance: A Modern Mussar Center (USA)
Dear Fellow Mussarniks,
Someone recently asked me, ‘How can Mussar help us find hope in these difficult times? Isn’t self development a bit indulgent right now?’
For those who don’t know, Mussar is ancient Jewish wisdom which helps us change unhealthy habits through inner character development. It teaches us to look inward for self-growth.
The way I see it, inner growth is hope. Spiritual honing of our souls is the antidote to fear and powerlessness. When we cannot change the tragedies around us, but we continue to develop our inner spiritual lives; when we fine tune our ability to bring, rather than diminish, holiness, we are making a brit, a covenant, with the future.
We say to the future: ‘I will always have one eye on you, even though I have one eye on the past too. I will always walk toward you, and work for a better time.’
To the present we say: ‘You won’t beat me. Because I believe that I can continue to improve, I believe that the future can improve too.’
To the past, we say: ‘Our history is full of fleeing from tragedy. We may have a real or metaphoric suitcase packed just in case. But the future is on our side, always there with open arms.’
I may not be who I want to be right now, just like the present circumstances are not what I want them to be. But I won't give up on either.
As Jews, the very fact that we may always have our bags packed is a sign of hope. How could a bag that is needed because we have to flee from persecution be hopeful? A bag means we have packed the most essential things to make a new life elsewhere. A suitcase means that at some point, we will unpack it, settle in, and start again. We never give up on finding a home or daring to thrive there. Our faith in the future is eternal.
Mussar teaches that we never give up on our souls either. Our souls are our spiritual luggage, packed by God with everything we need to thrive on this earthly plane. We have the traits/middot of savlanut/patience, hesed/ lovingkindness, rahamim/compassion, kavod/respect, and more, in the bottom of our soul suitcase. We just need to unpack, dust off our souls that get dirty from being flawed humans, and refine our traits so that we can flourish and add holiness to whatever environment in which we find ourselves.
When we feel hopeless or despairing, that is the time to return to our soul suitcase, and pull out from its depths, the middot we need to keep traveling toward the future.
As we stand on the shores of a New Year, we are deeply aware that too many of our people are trapped in dark tunnels, too many hearts are broken, too many innocent lives have been lost.
This year, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur have come to help us dig deep to find what we need to have faith in the future, and in our ability to help bring a better one. Now is not the time to give up or despair. Now is the time to unpack.
May we each find what we need to add holiness to our world.
Shanah Tovah u’metukah, may it be a sweet year of peace for you and your loved ones, and for all humanity.
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