| Greetings!
This is the ninth in a series of weekly middah emails that the Mussar
Leadership madrichim are sending over the summer. We hope that
these messages will support you in your practice until we beginning
meeting again at BZBI at 7:00 PM on Tuesday, September 8, 2009.
We appreciate hearing your comments.
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Steps to Practice
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Step 9
Engage in hevruta. Find a Mussar buddy ( haver)
with whom you can speak at least once a week. Study Torah together, and exchange personal
anecdotes of how the middah has played out in your life that week.
Speak with your Mussar buddy in the middle of the week, after you have
some experience with the middah, but still have several days left to
apply the insights and inspiration that will inevitably come from your
conversation.. |
| Middah |
Diligence/Zeal | Zirizut | זְרִיזוּת
Always find something to do - for yourself or for a friend,
and don't allow a moment of your life to be wasted.
(Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Satanov, Chesbon HaNefesh).
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Pasukim
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A pasuk (plural, pasukim) is a scriptual verse. It is a good practice to find a pasuk that reminds you of your middah and repeat it (or sing it, if
possible) to help in cultivating that character trait. The word Zirizut for this week's middah does not appear in scripture. One equivalent word in scripture is חָרוּץ (diligent). Another word is קִנְאָה (ardor, zeal, jealousy)
A possible pasukim for this week's middah is from Isaiah 59:17:
"Wears zeal like a robe."
וַיַּעַט כַּמְעִיל, קִנְאָה
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Torah Portion
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Ekev
(Deuteronomy 7:12 - 11:25)
In the sixth aliya, we read: Now, if you pay close attention to my commandments that I am giving you today and love the Lord your God and serve him with all your mind and being, then he promises, "I will send rain for your land in its season, the autumn and the spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine, and olive oil. I will provide pasture for your livestock and you will eat your fill." (11:13-15)
Rashi comments: And it will be, if you hearken: Heb.
וְהָיָה אִם שָׁמֹע ַתִּשְׁמְעוּ lit., And it will be, if hearkening you
will hearken. If you hearken to the old [i.e., if you study what you
have already learned], you will hearken to the new [i.e., you will have
a new and deeper understanding]. Similar is [the meaning of]"And it
will be, if you forget" (אִם שָׁכֹח ַתִּשְׁכַּח) (Deut. 8:19): If you
have begun to forget [the Torah you have learned], eventually you will
forget all of it, for so it is written in the Megillah 1: "If you leave
Me for one day, I will leave you for two days." - [Sifrei on Deut.
11:22, Yerushalmi Ber . 9:5, Midrash Shmuel 1] |
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Mussar Leadership classes will resume meeting at Beth Zion-Beth Israel in Philadelphia on Tuesday, September 8, 2009. For more information about who we are, visit our website.
Sincerely,
The Madrichim
Mussar Leadership
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