Ever heard of Mussar? It's a Biblical path of inner work, character development, and healing. Would you be surprised to hear that we have the top-ranking website for Mussar books, resources, and video courses, with tens of thousands of Jews and Gentiles using our stuff? You probably want to see this for yourself right away, but could I tell you a little more about what Mussar means, and what it's done for me?Β
How did you feel about 2020? I didn't tell anyone this for the longest time but...it was my best year. I literally wore out a pair of boots and a pair of sandals walking the dirt roads along Albuquerque's canals, reading thousands of pages of Mussar books. You might be wondering what that word was I just used. It's pronounced moo-SAR and is the Hebrew word for discipline, but it's so much more than that: Mussar is a personal practice of reflection, inner work, and growth in specific character qualities. It's a thread that runs through the Bible, a genre of Jewish literature, and a nineteenth-century renewal movement that saved Judaism. It's also a quiet revolution today that I am helping to lead.Β
So how did I get into Mussar? It all started in the winter of 2018. As I shared in my story about working with volunteers, this was a low point in my life. Our Directors had recommended that we focus more on character and less on personality types, and that gave me the idea to bring in a guest teacher to do a short talk for our volunteers about a different character quality every month. I had heard about Mussar and knew it was focused on that very thing, so I reached out to the Mussar teachers I knew to see if anyone wanted to teach my volunteers, but no one was interested. So, I decided to do it myself!Β
Before we go on, I need to explain a word. Much of Mussar is oriented around character development, but not in a vague generic way. Instead, it's focused on growing in specific character qualities. The Hebrew word for these in the plural is middot (pronounced mee-DOTE), and the singular is Β middah (pronounced mee-DUH.) Middot is one of those Hebrew words that don't translate into a single English word. The Middot are the attributes of God, but they're also character qualities, soul traits, and values, all wrapped up into one. I've also heard them described as virtues but that's not my favourite word because, while virtues are always good, middot tend toward the neutral, even becoming bad when exercised in the wrong situation or taken to imbalanced extremes.Β
Returning to our story: our Directors had recommended that we emphasize character, and I felt that the best way to do that was to focus on specific middot, so I got to work. In the fall of 2019 I started by listing the nine middot which together we call the 'fruit of the Spirit', along with their Greek and Hebrew equivalents. I then did the same with the requirements for elders and deacons which Paul gave in 1 Timothy and Titus, and was struck by the intensity of his Mussar. From there I also included Simon Peter's collection at the beginning of his second letter, and the Beautitudes. Moving on from the New Testament, I did the same with the two famous lists of 13 and 48 middot from the Talmud and then finished with a list of 13 middot from one of the most popular nineteenth-century Mussar books which, ironically, had been borrowed directly from Benjamin Franklin.Β
This was the beginning of my Mussar journey, which makes sense considering Mussar is focused on who God is as revealed through his attributes, attributes that we share with him. This led into my experience of Mussar literature. I started with the most popular modern and classic books, reading them on those early morning walks I told you about. It didn't take long for my obsessive personality to kick in as I devoured book after book, feeling them meet a need that had haunted me for years. I searched the internet for every Mussar book I could find and combed the bibliographies at the back of each Mussar book I read, discovering many unheard-of treasures and putting them all on a growing document. Before long I had a list of over one hundred Mussar books, through which I was slowly but steadily working my way.Β
Mussar was one of the best things that ever happened to me, and after hundreds of hours of Mussar reading I felt like I'd explode if I didn't share it. So, in November of 2020, I bought the domain name mussar.center. I also searched mussar.org and was amazed to discover that no one had purchased it yet! I sensed that God had reserved it special for us and took this as confirmation. (Try it for yourself sometime: go to mussar.org and you'll be magically transported to www.mussar.center!) Anyways, from there I began the work of incorporating Mussar Center Inc., which took almost a year before it was approved by the IRS as a 501(c)(3). Having an all-American charity made me especially happy because before that we didn't have a way of receipting U.S. donors.Β
We adopted the Hebrew letter 'Mem' as our logo, and I also started using this symbol, called the fleuron, for our fledgling movement: β¦. It's also called the floral heart because, if you look closely, you'll see that it looks like a flower, and it also looks like a heart. I chose the fleuron because it occurs often in old Mussar books, and for the symbolism: the inner work of Mussar had brought new life and healing to my heart and had made my life more beautiful and productive, and I knew it would do the same for the people who would be brought to us. I even encouraged our followers to put the fleuron at the end of their names on social media or email, not only as a way to identify each other but also as a conversation-starter, and was delighted to see the floral heart beginning to randomly pop up with people's names online! Why don't you join us? Just copy and paste this: β¦
I immediately started with the video courses I wanted to teach. My plan was to start with the Hebrew mussar and a couple related words straight from the Bible like tikkun and middot and teach something of a 'Biblical Mussar' course, unpacking these words as they're used throughout Scripture. From there I wanted to build on that foundation by looking at Mussar literature from the five eras (Biblical, Rabbinic, Classical, Movement, and Modern) and then use those texts to introduce basic Mussar philosophy and practice. And, finally, I hoped to tell the historical story of the Mussar movement which had been inspired by Rabbi Israel Salanter back in the 1800s. I'll tell the story of the Mussar courses I've taught, or am teaching, in the next chapter.Β
When we began I kept it as simple as possible: basically just a one-page website to sign up for weekly Mussar videos by email. Over the course of the next couple years, though, we expanded: along with email you could sign up for texts, or join us on Telegram or Signal (which reminds me, you should sign up at mussar.org!) We began posting to social media too, although with the exception of Twitter we later deleted those accounts in favour of more direct lines of communication. We likewise started by putting our videos on YouTube, but then as censorship became a tangible risk in 2020 we moved to other platforms. And we added a contact page and a stories page where people could share their Mussar testimonies!
It wasn't until 2022 that I put my lists of Mussar books and Middot on the website, along with a separate page for each Biblical Mussar video. But it wasn't until 2025, after I had finally finished that course, that I made the biggest changes. Up until then I had been offering all our videos for free, with the request that our students donate at least a dollar a lesson. Unfortunately, while we had hundreds of active students, most weren't giving back, leaving us unable to cover even our basic expenses. I solved that problem by moving all our videos to mussar.tv and putting them behind a small paywall of $6.99/month or $69.99/year. This worked out to about a dollar per weekly lesson, and also made it easier for my students by automating everything.Β
And speaking of which! Would you like to see for yourself how far we've come? And if this story has inspired you, would you even be willing to become a member? I really would love to have you join me on this journey, and I think the good feeling you'd get from joining our cause would be more than worth it too.Β
See the Mussar Center for yourself now: