found himself at the beginning of his own journey -- feeling burned out and spiritually depleted.
Alan Morinis had a history as a seeker of wisdom, having taken a deep journey into Hinduism and Buddhism as a young man. He received a doctorate from Oxford University for his study of Hindu pilgrimage, learned yoga in India with B.K.S. Iyengar, and attended his first Buddhist meditation course in the Himalayas in 1974. But in 1997, in the midst of a career crisis, he chose to look back to his own Jewish heritage in an effort to find answers.
Alan's study led him to Mussar, an 1100 year-old Jewish spiritual practice about which little was known outside of the Orthodox Jewish community. Drawn to the wisdom and practices that Mussar offered, thus began Alan Morinis's life transformation.
Discussing the growth of the Mussar movement while the organized practice of Judaism continues to decline in North America, Morinis explained, "Between the Holocaust and the early twenty-first century, the inner life of the individual was
not on the Jewish agenda. Jews were building synagogues, creating Federations and JCCs, but the inner life of the individual was nowhere to be seen across the full spectrum of the Jewish world."
"The bottom line is, in the end, where a person finds meaning and fulfillment is inside themselves," Morinis continued. "That inner life is where we live and where we have our moment to moment experience. That's where we love, that's where we have joy, that's where we have sorrow, that's where we succeed and that's where we mess up. It's all inside us. And that was not on the Jewish agenda. And that's why it was no surprise to me that people were going to synagogue and saying, 'Hey, this isn't speaking to me!' Because there was no intention of making it meaningful and fulfilling and personal and relevant to the full spectrum of a person's life. "
Morinis points out that what has been unfulfilling about the Jewish experience for so many, is addressed through the study of Mussar. "The disconnect between the wisdom that the Jewish tradition has to offer to ordinary living and what went on in a synagogue was such a big gap, it was no surprise to me at all that people said, 'I'm not getting enough out of this.' As an example, Morinis cites the concept of Tikkun Olam (repairing the world),
Jews have been spiritual seekers since the time of Abraham. But in the post-Holocaust era, Jews continue to be spiritual seekers but the pathways for seeking in the Jewish world were not being made available. So you find large numbers of Jews who are in Buddhist meditation classes today. Or, like me, they spend 3 years in India after college. And this rebound of interest is keeping my quite busy!
"The Mussar Institute provides a Jewish spiritual path that leads to wisdom, awareness and transformation. It's a path that has been carved out, marked, tested and revised over the last 1100 years.
But we only provide the pathway. It's your job to walk the pathway."
LBJL March 2014 | www.lbjewishlife.com