Logo

Mussar Leadership

Contemporary Jewish Practice for Responsible Living

 

 

Journaling

The Mussar Journal

The objective of the Mussar Journal is to focus your reflections on the Middah of the week with specific attention on the relationship between the Middah, the other, the Yetzer Hatov and the Yetzer Hara. To assist you in making good use of the journal we are suggesting that you not face a blank page and try to create a narrative, but rather use the following questions as a daily template for your reflection and writing. You will notice that the questions are divided into the two categories that concern us the most in this process, and we advise that simple word answers are sufficient.


Regarding The Other

  1. Did my work on this Middah help me make space for another?
  2. How did my encounter with this Middah affect another?
  3. How did the Middah help me to recognize when a person is acting out of their own burden? Did I help bear it or add to it?

Regarding the Yetzer Hatov and the Yetzer Hara

  1. Think of a situation in which not being able to actualize this Middah made me aware of the presence of my own Yetzer Hara. What did I learn about my Yetzer Hara?
  2. Think of a situation in which being able to actualize this Middah made me aware of the presence of my own Yetzer Hatov. What did I learn about my Yetzer Hatov?

Only write more if it will be helpful for you, for example, something else about the Middah you want to remember or bring up in the Va’ad.  Finally, the Mussar Journal is a private documentfor you only.

The Commonplace Book

A commonplace book is a place to note down important phrases, lines, and/or passages from texts you have read. This notebook can include your comments and notes on these items. You might want to index the book so that you can easily locate quotations related to particular topics or authors. This kind of a notebook is helpful in Torah study. It is a place to collect pasukim.