Finding the holy every day

BASYA LAYE

It’s become commonplace to read about the value of developing a personal practice in the interest of reducing stress and promoting wellbeing. Mindfulness meditation and yoga are just two of the practices that are popular, showing up in various mainstream media, as in this month’s Eat, Pray, Love, starring Julia Roberts. Jews have often looked to other religions for contemplative practices and are often unaware that this type of tradition exists within their own faith. In Judaism, however, while these practices may also promote health, reduce stress and cultivate happiness, there’s another, more pressing reason to engage in them. The Torah, Alan Morinis writes in Every Day, Holy Day: 365 Days of Teachings and Practices from the Jewish Tradition of Mussar (Trumpeter), exhorts us with the following commandment: “You shall be holy.”

Morinis, a Vancouver-based anthropologist, filmmaker, writer and teacher, is partially responsible for the resurgence of interest in mussar, a centuries-old Jewish tradition that he describes as a “system of introspective practices that can help you identify and break through the obstacles to your inherent holiness.” In mussar, Morinis writes, the path “lies not in any esoteric or other-world area, but right within the realm of our familiar inner lives ... the mussar path to holiness goes by way of the territory of anger and calmness, generosity and miserliness, trust and worry, laziness and zeal, and all the other traits that live within us.” The practice of mussar can help to improve a relationship between human beings, leading to more direct, honest communication or a patient heart, for example, and, at the same time, improve the connection between the practitioner and God.

Morinis explains, “When the impatient person becomes patient, or the harsh person masters kindness, or the lazy one becomes energetic, then a spiritual obstacle is lifted, and more of the light of holiness shines brightly into that person’s life and, through them, into the world.”

Morinis has written two other books on mussar, Climbing Jacob’s Ladder (2002) and Everyday Holiness (2007). Every Day, Holy Day, however, is his most accessible and practical one yet. Organized into various traits (middot), it focuses on one trait each week for 26 weeks. The list is meant to be cycled through twice, marking 52 weeks in total, at which point the task is to re-evaluate your spiritual needs.

The text for each day begins with an insightful teaching, a phrase that captures the essence of the week’s trait (“no more than my space, no less than my place,” or “rise above the good and the bad”) and a spot for keeping a daily journal. The advice is to repeat the phrase upon wakening, as a way to set the tone for the day, allowing practitioners to both chart their course and conduct a realistic assessment of personal progress along the way.

A daily practice appears after each daily phrase. These exercises focus the week's energy by engaging the particular middah with which you are working throughout the day. Morinis explains, "These kabbalot [exercises] are meant to be very attainable, neither too much of a challenge (which can lead to failure and despair) nor too easy (in which case there will be no stretch or growth involved).... The idea is to address change in the soul-trait progressively, by succeeding in small exercises that are easier to implement and then moving incrementally to more significant steps."

Mussar proves a practical guide for developing a daily routine that might resonate with those looking for a deeper connection to Judaism. Unfortunately, the guide lacks Hebrew translations of the middot, which would have added a layer of resonance for practitioners and, perhaps, a deeper connectedness to the ultimate goals of this helpful handbook. Also, while the place provided on each page for journaling is a nice idea, it is too small to be useful; the bookbinding too stiff to make it accessible.

The benefits of mussar, though, outweigh these small complaints. “When a person has successfully identified and balanced all his or her inner traits,” writes Morinis, “the mussar teachers say that a person has become whole or shalem.... The path of mussar leads to holiness, wholeness and peace.” In this way, Morinis has written a singular Jewish self-help manual of the deepest possible sort.

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