“Seeds of Mussar” course offered
Congregation Beth El, 107 Adams Street, will offer the “Seeds of Mussar” course with Rabbi Joshua Boettiger starting Sunday, April 19, from 11 am to 1 pm, in the Paresky Sanctuary. This is a four-week, in-person/Zoom course. The first session is in person, followed by three weekly Zoom practices. Zoom sessions will be held on Wednesday evenings from 7 to 8.
Mussar could be called the ancient Jewish spiritual practice of ethical mindfulness, orbiting around the question if one intellectually knows what it is to be good, what keeps a person from being good?
The class will study both traditional and contemporary Mussar texts and work with the different middot (character traits) to track how this practice is directly impacting lives and relationships “where the rubber meets the road.”
Rabbi Boettiger is Jewish chaplain and visiting assistant professor of humanities at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY. Boettiger also teaches Jewish meditation and co-leads silent retreats.
Participants are asked to purchase “Becoming an Adult: A Mussar Companion for Taking Responsibility,” by Nancy Axelrod and Adie Goldberg. The workbook is available at https://contemporarymussar.myshopify.com/.
Registration fee is $100 per person, and preregistration is required. Registrants will receive the Zoom link before the first class. Go to https://www.cbevermont.org/event/Mussar for more information or to sign up.
