Alan Morinis

Alan Morinis, author of Climbing Jacob’s Ladder (2002) and Everyday Holiness: The Jewish Spiritual Path of Mussar (2007), is founder and dean of The Mussar Institute, which provides courses on developing and improving inner life traits as spiritual practice.

What is Love? A Jewish Look at Giving and Receiving

Alan Morinis

What is love? The word is used in so many ways and is so fundamental to Judaism, yet its meaning is so elusive that it is often difficult to know what it actually means to say that you love someone.

Layered Images of a Clock to Symbolize Time Passing

Bondage to Busyness

Alan Morinis
Jewish lessons to help us liberate our lives to focus on what matters most.
Photo by Ammit Jack/Shutterstock.com

Hanukkah: A Miracle of Trust

Alan Morinis
The Hanukkah miracle is, at its essence, a miracle of the spirit, offering us an opportunity to open our hearts.

What Your Heart Can Teach You

Alan Morinis
It is said that we humans can't understand the meaning of our lives any better than fish in an aquarium can understand their own. Confined to our own environment, we cannot escape to an outside vantage point from which to look onto and make sense of our existence. Still, we humans do have an advantage over the fish. We come equipped with another way of knowing: through the heart.
key and keyhole

Musar: Practice, Practice, Practice

Alan Morinis
This Musar practice involves both external and internal reflection and action. To develop desirable traits in ourselves, we must work toward improving the lives of others--as one great Musar teacher puts it, we must "bear the burden of the other."

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