Summer Parker County Fair Moon
Mussar. I mentioned it a while back. It’s an old spiritual discipline in the Jewish tradition. Rabbi Jamie teaches a class each Thursday at 1 pm and Kate, the new member of Congregation Beth Evergreen, and I went today.
The big takeaway from today’s session for me was about stimulus and response. Mussar, the Rabbi said, is about lengthening the time between stimulus and response. The longer we can wait between an external or internal event and our response to it, the more options we can choose. Each month mussar practice encourages the practitioner to take a different middot, or virtue, and concentrate on it. This is an emphasis on character as a religious matter. The longer time between striking the match and lighting the fuse, the better chance we have of living out a virtuous character.
This was familiar ground for me and it felt good. I’ve learned from many spiritual practices over the course of my life and mussar will be beneficial, too.
