Some years ago, a dear friend introduced me to the Blackberry and while I didn’t become the ultimate power user, the convenience was quite clear for me.  A couple of years ago this same friend arranged for my Blackberry 8310 to be upgraded to the Blackberry 9700.  That was cute, but hardly a change that made a huge difference.  I won’t go into the benefits of the upgrade to the 9700, since that is not at all the point of this post, and since you can read about that in several million other places.  As a point of reference, though, for the uninitiated, the old Blackberry used Operating System (OS)4 and, later, OS4.5 and the new toy used OS5. 

Well, along came the iphone, and its graphical interface became quite the rage.  It seemed that the iphone was even making inroads into Blackberry territory to the extent that Blackberry lovers were having to defend their beleaguered friend and RIM (the Canadian folks who make the Blackberry) seemed rather slow in providing a suitable response.  All the while, conversations revolved around the iphone.  I noticed, without taking much notice, that the iphone users were being continuously lured into purchasing a new unit.  The iphone3, the iphone4, rumors about the features in the upcoming iphone5 and prophecies about what the iphone 6 to 60 will be like.  New ideas translate into new models and new models mean obsolescence.

Against that backdrop, RIM recently upgraded my Blackberry 9700 to OS6.  I chose my words carefully there (that happens at times).  They provided the upgrade for free.  I only had to plug my Blackberry into my computer and let RIM do the rest.  There was no discussion of buying the upgrade and I had no idea that this upgrade would completely revolutionize my old Blackberry 9700.  While you can find reviews about the upgrade elsewhere, permit me to say that they put my Blackberry on steroids, added features that I could only dream about (just imagine looking up a name in your address book and seeing below all of the conversations that you have had with that person as one example) in an interface that resolves any traces of iphone envy that a Blackberry user might suffer from.  But the most amazing part of the story is that I did not have to change my unit!  I did not have to buy another Blackberry!  They somehow figured out how to make use of the existing technology from a couple of years ago and make it run like tomorrow.  Now, while I’d love to send kudos to the development team at RIM for putting tomorrow’s ideas into yesterday’s technology, I don’t have access to them.  But what I do have is a Mussar thought (did you think that I’d never get there?).  There is a powerful message that is sent whenever an upgrade requires new hardware.  It sends the message that we cannot truly change and upgrade what we are about.  Perhaps our children will be new and improved, and theirs after them, but we are old hardware and the new software of growth and change does not run on us.

And then RIM introduced this revolutionary change to existing hardware and that sends a very different metaphor.  With thought and planning our old hardware can be upgraded.  We are capable of deep change.  It cannot be overnight, and it is a fantasy to think that we can just ‘plug in’ to change and it will happen, but deep change and growth is possible and it can be done by each of us, with the hardware that we were each born with.  We need not leave the task of growth to the upgrade of future generations, we can make the changes ourselves, using the strengths and challenges which are ours we can move forward towards the Torah’s ideal.

It’s very easy for our unconscious system to claim exemptions to the arduous task of personal change.  Perhaps RIM has helped us a bit with loosening the grip of one of those exemptions, that we are hopeless in the change process since that requires a hardware upgrade.  It requires heavenly assistance, that is true, but so does everything that we set out to do.  More than anything else it requires a deep belief that we can, are called, and must succeed.

Thank you, RIM.

                As such, the first part of Mussar is the ‘real.’  To bring the real to light might involve studying how the Torah describes people, especially great people, whose flaws appear under the electron microscope of the Torah; the study of whom can help us understand the secrets of our own hearts.  In this capacity, we are said to be studying Mussar when we delve into the descriptions of the human condition as they appear in the blueprint for the world, the Torah.  The point of such study is to help us locate ourselves in reality; to know the strengths that we can draw upon and to identify the challenges we were created to overcome.

                The next role of Mussar is to cull from the Torah what the human being is meant to look like – the ideal.  For the ideal we don’t look at human beings but rather at the attributes of HaShem (G-d).  While we may use human role models to help us in our efforts towards the ideal, we still always recognize the ideal as nested in the attributes of HaShem.  Each person who studies Mussar, then, is meant to plot his position (his ‘real’) relative to the ideal.  So far, all the person has are two descriptive points; the real and the ideal.

                Rounding out the picture is the aspect of Mussar which places its focus on the ‘process.’  Here we are not studying Mussar in order to describe; but rather to prescribe.  Mussar in the earlier senses is static.  The real and the ideal are facts.  In this sense Mussar is dynamic insofar as it addresses the process of change; of moving (often inching) along the path from the real towards the ideal.  There could be many strategies employed here, some that have already been suggested by the masters of the Mussar process and some that are waiting to be discovered by you and I as we struggle to make our way from the real towards the ideal.

                Each of these steps are necessary for real growth to happen.  Without a clarity regarding who I am and what my strengths and challenges are (both within me and around me) I could live a life of self-deception.  Without a clarity regarding the attributes of HaShem to which I strive I could be placing great effort in chasing a useless goal of supposed self-improvement.  And without a process I leave myself living a life of fantasy.  Here I am wishing that I were more like the ideal; bemoaning the fact that I am stuck in the real; and going through life remaining right where I am.

                I hope that this ‘top view’ of Mussar is useful.  I will leave it permanently on its own page (and perhaps add to it from time to time) so that we can each refer back to it to keep our ‘eyes on the ball’ and for those who are new to the story of Mussar to gain access to this central story of Jewish life.