Instruction, resources & community for those seeking greater awareness, wisdom, and transformation through the Jewish spiritual path of Mussar.

 

NOT CURRENTLY OFFERED

Level: Advanced

Delivery: Distance Learning via Live Web Meetings or Local On-Site

Learning Methods: Independent Study, Va’adim, Chevruta 

Duration: 29 Sessions

Prerequisites: SOM I and SOM II or Everyday Holiness, Chaburah; Chaverim membership

Path of the Soul is an advanced-level Mussar course that is available to Chaverim only who have completed A Season of Mussar II or Everyday Holiness plus Mussar in Action.

How do you recognize and follow the path of your soul? Only by answering these questions—not in theory, but in the flesh of your life—can you discover and follow the track that leads to your most elevated spiritual destiny. Path of the Soul is a curriculum for wholeness, complete with assignments, learning, challenges, and tests. Each of us has his or her own curriculum, though not everyone is aware that his or her life-course is a curriculum, nor engages with it consciously. Mussar’s wisdom will be accessible to you, to guide a wise and successful traverse of this path.

This advanced program of Jewish education and practice helps you recognize your own personal program in living and provides you with the tools needed to follow that curriculum – which means growing toward wholeness. The course shines a light on the path of the soul to uncover the stages, levels, dynamics, and pitfalls the soul encounters as it seeks its way toward healing into wholeness.

The middot studied:

    • Vigilance – 4 sessions
    • Alacrity – 4 sessions
    • Abstinence – 3 sessions
    • Purity – 2 sessions
    • Piety – 4 sessions
    • Humility – 2 sessions
    • Fear of Sin – 2 sessions
    • Holiness – 1 session

Note: There are several orientation and introduction sessions before the middot begin.

The materials and methods we work on will be there to support your ongoing learning and practice in years to come. It involves several components of Mussar learning and practice:

    1. An online curriculum (requires access to internet and email) that follows the chapters in Path of the Just (Mesillas Yesharim) by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto.
    2. A peer support group (face-to-face va’ad if locally available, otherwise by internet/phone).
    3. You will receive a weekly reading focusing on highlights from each chapter of Path of the Just and work with the 9 middot that parallel the chapters.
    4. Accounting of the soul (cheshbon ha’nefesh) is the core of daily practice, and to support keeping a daily diary, we have developed worksheets for a cheshbon ha’nefesh diary that we will provide to you to print out and use if you wish.
    5. You will be matched to a compatible chevruta study partner with whom you will have a meeting or phone discussion every second week. You will be provided with recommended text quotes and discussion questions for your chevruta study session.
    6. Your small va’ad group of 6-8 people will meet in the alternate week (between chevruta meetings) to discuss the assigned weekly chapter of Path of the Just with the aid of questions and text quotes.
    7. Process reports mid-way and at the end of the program will help you evaluate your progress with the help of your facilitator or a Mussar Institute mentor.

PRE-REQUISITES

Completion of Season of Mussar I and II, or Everyday Holiness, Chaburah; Chaverim membership

OUTCOMES

At this level, you receive additional training to become a lifelong Mussar learner and practitioner, both independently and as part of the growing Mussar community. An engaged participant in Path of the Soul will come away with:

    • A clear understanding of Mussar teachings that describe and light the path of the soul.
    • New insight into their own personal spiritual curriculum.
    • Tools and practices to help guide his or her soul’s journey.
    • A new depth of spiritual maturity.

Dates: We are now taking waitlist registration for a Winter cohort. Invoicing will be deferred. Register to be added to the waiting list.

START DATE

Enrollment is on an ongoing basis and the start date for a local group will be determined by the local group facilitator. We are now taking waitlist registration for a Winter cohort. Invoicing will be deferred. Register to be added to the waiting list.

DURATION and FORMAT

Path of the Soul is 29 sessions in two parts: one 16 sessions and one 13 sessions. People who take the first part may opt to continue for the second, but no one can start with the second part.

Path of the Soul is offered via Zoom video conferences. Reliable, high-speed Internet connection, a current and valid email account, and a computer video camera and microphone are required to participate.

TUITION

Path of the Soul is accessible for TMI Chaverim only. The first part was $200 and has been reduced to $180 for Chaverim. The second part was $160 and has been reduced to $150 for Chaverim.

REFUND POLICY

    • For withdrawal before the program has begun:100% refund
    • For withdrawal within the first two weeks after the program has begun: 50% refund
    • For withdrawal after the first two weeks after the program has begun: no refund

Contact: Rivka Felsher: [email protected]