Reflections on Mussar’s Response to Modernity

As modernity made its way to Eastern European Jews in the 19th century, Rabbi Israel Salanter launched the Mussar movement, a rigorous and distinctive approach towards ethics and spirituality. Salanter’s movement has resonated in striking ways in the 21st century across Jewish denominations. 

In their new translation and commentary of Rabbi Salanter’s work, Ohr Yisrael, Rabbis Yitz Greenberg and Justin Pines explore how Salanter sought to revitalize Judaism through his approaches to Torah education and lay learning, leadership in public affairs, and human psychology, truth, and ethics. In this session, the authors will explore Salanter’s prescient and innovative ideas and methodologies, and how they might inform the way we think about Jewish life and communal leadership today. 

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This program is part of Ideas for Today, curated courses by Hartman Institute scholars on the big Jewish ideas we need to think better and do better.