Musar literature
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Musar literature is
Definition
Musar literature is often described as "ethical literature." Professor Geoffrey Claussen describes it as "Jewish literature that discusses virtue and character."[1] Professors Isaiah Tishby and Joseph Dan have described it as "prose literature that presents to a wide public views, ideas, and ways of life in order to shape the everyday behavior, thought, and beliefs of this public."[2] Musar literature traditionally depicts the nature of moral and spiritual perfection in a methodical way. It is "divided according to the component parts of the ideal righteous way of life; the material is treated methodically – analyzing, explaining, and demonstrating how to achieve each moral virtue (usually treated in a separate chapter or section) in the author's ethical system."[3]
Musar literature can be distinguished from other forms of
Early Musar literature
In Judaism, ethical monotheism originated, and along with it came the highly didactic ethics in the Torah and Tanach.
An example from the
You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against your kinsfolk. Love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.
Hillel the Elder (c. 110 BCE – 10 CE)[6] used this verse as a most important message of the Torah for his teachings. Once, he was challenged by a ger toshav who asked to be converted under the condition that the Torah be explained to him while he stood on one foot. Hillel accepted him as a candidate for conversion to Judaism but, drawing on Leviticus 19:18, briefed the man:
What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow: this is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn.
—Babylonian Talmud
Medieval Musar literature
Medieval works of Musar literature were composed by a range of rabbis and others, including rationalist philosophers and adherents of Kabbalistic mysticism.
Philosophical Musar literature
Philosophical works of Musar include:
- Chovot ha-Levavot by Bahya ibn Paquda
- Hilchot Deot in Sefer ha-Madah of Mishneh Torah by Maimonides
- Sefer Hayashar (the ethical work, not to be confused with the many other unrelated works of the same name), published anonymously
- Shemona Perakim ("The Eight Chapters"):, the introduction to Pirkei Avot in Maimonides' commentary to the Mishnah.
Standard Rabbinic Musar literature
Rabbinic Musar literature came as a reaction to philosophical literature, and tried to show that the Torah and standard rabbinic literature taught about the nature of virtue and vice without recourse to Aristotelian or other philosophical concepts. Classic works of this sort include
- Ma'alot ha-Middotby Rabbi Yehiel ben Yekutiel Anav of Rome
- Shaarei Teshuvah (The Gates of Repentance) by Rabbi Yonah Gerondi
- Menorat ha-Ma'or by Israel Al-Nakawa b. Joseph of Toledo
- Menorat ha-Ma'or by Isaac Aboab
- Orchot Tzaddikim (The Ways of the Righteous), by an anonymous author
- Meneket Rivkah by Rebecca bat Meir Tiktiner
Similar works were produced by rabbis who were
Medieval Ashkenazi-Hasidic Musar literature
Medieval Kabbalistic Musar literature
Explicitly
Modern Musar literature
Literature in the genre of Musar literature continued to be written by modern Jews from a variety of backgrounds.
Mesillat Yesharim
Mesillat Yesharim is a Musar text published in Amsterdam by Moshe Chaim Luzzatto in the 18th century. Mesillat Yesharim is perhaps the most important work of Musar literature of the post-medieval period. The Vilna Gaon commented that he could not find a superfluous word in the first seven chapters of the work, and stated that he would have traveled to meet the author and learn from his ways if he'd still been alive.
Ottoman Musar literature
According to
Beginning in the eighteenth century, a number of Ottoman rabbis had undertaken the task of fighting the ignorance they believed was plaguing their communities by producing works of Jewish ethics (musar) in
Jewish law.[7]
Among the most popular works of Musar literature produced in Ottoman society was Elijah ha-Kohen's Shevet Musar, first published in Ladino in 1748.[8] Pele Yoetz by Rabbi Eliezer Papo (1785–1826) was another exemplary work of this genre.[9]
Haskalah Musar literature
In Europe, significant contributions to Musar literature were made by leaders of the
Hasidic Musar literature
One form of literature in the
Mitnagdic and Yeshivish Musar literature
The "Musar letter" of the
Literature by the Musar movement
The modern
Musar literature by Reform rabbis
Musar literature has been composed by Reform rabbis including Ruth Abusch-Magder, noted for her writing on humility, and Karyn Kedar, noted for her writing on forgiveness.[1]
Musar literature by Conservative rabbis
Musar literature has been composed by Conservative rabbis including Amy Eilberg (noted for her writing on curiosity and courage) and Danya Ruttenberg (noted for her writing on curiosity).[1]
Musar literature by Reconstructionist rabbis
Musar literature has been composed by Reconstructionist rabbis including Susan Schnur (noted for her writing on forgiveness), Sandra Lawson (noted for her writing on curiosity), Rebecca Alpert (noted for her writing on humility), and Mordecai Kaplan (noted for his writing on humility).[1] Schnur's writing show how gender matters in discussions of forgiveness as a virtue.[1]
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8276-1888-6.
- ^ Isaiah Tishby and Joseph Dan, Mivhar sifrut ha-mussar (Jerusalem, 1970), 12.
- ^ a b c Joseph Dan, "Ethical Literature" Encyclopaedia Judaica, ed. Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik, 2nd ed., vol. 6.
- ^ Gunther Plaut, The Torah — A Modern Commentary; Union of American Hebrew Congregations, New York 1981; pp.892.
- ^ New JPS Hebrew/English Tanakh
- ^ Jewish Encyclopedia: Hillel: "His activity of forty years is perhaps historical; and since it began, according to a trustworthy tradition (Shab. 15a), one hundred years before the destruction of Jerusalem, it must have covered the period 30 B.C.E. -10 C.E."
- ^ Julia Phillips Cohen, http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=26171
- ^ Matthias B. Lehmann, Ladino rabbinic literature and Ottoman Sephardic culture, 6, 9
- ^ "Judaism 101 - Rabbi Eliezer Papo: Pele Yoetz - Duties of the Heart - A Glossary of Basic Jewish Terms and Concepts - OU.ORG". Archived from the original on 2012-09-05. Retrieved 2011-01-06.
- ^ Shmuel Feiner, David Jan Sorkin, New perspectives on the Haskalah, page 49
- ^ David Sorkin, The transformation of German Jewry, 1780-1840, page 46
- ^ Nancy Sinkoff, Out of the Shtetl: Making Jews Modern in the Polish Borderlands (Brown Judaic Studies, 2020), pp. 50-167; Shai Afsai, "Benjamin Franklin’s Influence on Mussar Thought and Practice: a Chronicle of Misapprehension," Review of Rabbinic Judaism 22, 2 (2019): 228-276; Shai Afsai, "The Sage, the Prince & the Rabbi," Philalethes 64, 3 (2011): 101-109,128.
- ^ "The Mussar Way" Archived 2012-07-20 at the Wayback Machine, Mussar Institute website, accessed 11-22-2010
- ^ Rabbi Dov Katz (1996). Musar movement: Its history, leading personalities and doctrines (new ed.). Feldheim Publishers.
External links
- Musar and Jewish Ethics pdf Yeshiva University Student Magazine
- Duties of the Heart - free english translation
- Benjamin Brown, From Principles to Rules and from Musar to Halakhah - The Hafetz Hayims Rulings on Libel and Gossip.
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