This essay considers ways in which musar traditions might or might not be helpful in the work of challenging and dismantling unjust systems.

In this essay, I consider God as the ideal of compassion for all sentient beings. I ground this theology in the narrative of Moses’s encounter with God at the burning bush, as described in the third chapter of the Book of Exodus and in classical midrashic texts.

Grounded in the idea that God is a moral ideal that invites our continual reflection and growth, and drawing on the biblical narrative of the golden calf and the Platonic allegory of the cave, this essay considers how the words of the Kaddish may help Jews encounter God through the activity of study.

This essay argues that programs for the “repair of the world” (tikkun olam) are often marked by arrogance, overzealousness, and injustice. I consider the biblical interpretations of Meir Kahane and Yitzchak Ginsburgh and point to the need to acknowledge our human limitations as we develop our visions for tikkun olam. Part of what this essay sug…[Read more]

In this article, I make some suggestions about how the legacy of the nineteenth-century Mussar movement might best guide contemporary Jewish practice. I consider, in particular, the Mussar movement’s vision of how a broad range of practices can spur moral development, and how this model might apply to contemporary Conservative Judaism.