Editing Musar movement (section)

==Study and practice==
The Musar Institute website says:

{{blockquote|Musar is a path of contemplative practices and exercises that have evolved over the past thousand years to help an individual soul to pinpoint and then to break through the barriers that surround and obstruct the flow of inner light in our lives. Musar is a treasury of techniques and understandings that offers immensely valuable guidance for the journey of our lives....

The goal of Musar practice is to release the light of holiness that lives within the soul. The roots of all of our thoughts and actions can be traced to the depths of the soul, beyond the reach of the light of consciousness, and so the methods Musar provides include meditations, guided contemplations, exercises and chants that are all intended to penetrate down to the darkness of the subconscious, to bring about change right at the root of our nature.<ref>The Mussar Institute,[http://www.mussarinstitute.org/wisdom-way.htm The Mussar Way] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120720005908/http://www.mussarinstitute.org/wisdom-way.htm |date=2012-07-20 }}</ref>}}

Musar practices include text study, [[Jewish meditation|meditation]], [[silence]] and [[Retreat (spiritual)|retreat]], [[diary]] practices, chanting ([[nigun]]im), [[contemplation]], [[Mental image|visualization]], [[tzedakah]], and doing good deeds on behalf of others.<ref>Alan Morinis, ''Everyday Holiness'', ch. 5</ref><ref name=":0" />

===Musar literature===
{{Main|Musar literature}}
One of the central practices of the Musar movement was studying and meditating on classical [[musar literature]] including:

* ''[[Chovot HaLevavot]]'', by [[Bahya ibn Paquda]] (11th century)
* ''Ma'alot HaMiddot'', by [[Yehiel ben Yekutiel Anav]] of Rome
* ''[[Mesillat Yesharim]]'', by [[Moshe Chaim Luzzatto]]
* ''[[Orchot Tzaddikim]]'' (''The Ways of the Righteous''), by an anonymous author
* ''[[Tomer Devorah]]'' (''The Palm Tree of Deborah'') by [[Moses ben Jacob Cordovero]]
* ''Shaarei Teshuvah'' (The Gates of Repentance) by [[Yonah Gerondi]]
* ''Madreigat Ha'Adam'' by [[Yosef Yozel Horwitz]]
* ''Cheshbon HaNefesh (Accounting of the Soul)'' by [[Menachem Mendel Lefin]] of [[Satanov]] 
* "The Musar Letter" of the [[Vilna Gaon]]

=== Meditation ===
The Musar Movement has encouraged a number of [[Jewish meditation]] practices using introspection and visualization that could help to improve moral character. Many meditation techniques were described in the writings of Rabbi [[Simcha Zissel Ziv]].<ref name=":0" /> [[Alan Morinis]], the founder of the Mussar Institute, recommends morning meditation practices that can be as short as four minutes.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Morinis |first=Alan |title=Everyday holiness : the Jewish spiritual path of Mussar |date=2011 |publisher=Trumpeter |isbn=9780834822214 |pages=269 |oclc=853448587}}</ref> One of the meditations recommended by Morinis is the practice of focusing on a single word: the Hebrew word ''Sh'ma,'' meaning "listen".{{r|:0|p=270}}

=== Nigunim and Chant ===
The Musar movement has also encouraged the chanting of [[nigun]]im, based on the realization of how music affects the inner life. In the 19th century, the Musar movement developed its own distinctive nigun chanting traditions.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Muir |first=S. |title=Hasidism and Mitnagdism in the Russian Empire: the (mis)use of Jewish music in Polish-Lithuanian Russia. |url=http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/76279/21/MUIR%20FINAL%20JOURNAL%20OF%20SYNAGOGUE%20MUSIC%20JULY%202013.pdf}}</ref> In the 21st century, nigunim may be used at the start and the end of musar study sessions<ref>{{Cite web |title=Afternoons of Mussar |url=https://mussarinstitute.org/Yashar/2015-06/mini-kallot.php |access-date=2019-05-20 |website=mussarinstitute.org |archive-date=2019-05-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190529144956/https://mussarinstitute.org/Yashar/2015-06/mini-kallot.php |url-status=dead }}</ref> and may help to create an emotional musar experience.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stone |first=Ira |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jrFNAwAAQBAJ |title=A Responsible Life: The Spiritual Path of Mussar |date=2013-05-14 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |isbn=9781620328750 |language=en}}</ref>

=== Charity ===
Musar writings describe giving charity as a central obligation and a central way to cultivate the character trait of generosity.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Morinis |first=Alan |title=Everyday Holiness |chapter=Chapter 17}}</ref>

===Giving musar===
"''Giving musar''" (discipline, instruction) refers to a way to use one's speech to correct, admonish, or reprove others (Leviticus 19:17), in line with a verse from Proverbs 1:8 also in the daily prayer book: "Hear, my child, the discipline (musar) of your father, and do not forsake the teachings of your mother."<ref>{{cite web|author=Rabbi Dr. Yitzchak Breitowitz|date=21 November 2018|title=How to Give Mussar (Mishlei 12:14 and 12:18)|url=https://www.ou.org/torah/nach/mishlei-wisdom-for-life/giving-mussar-mishlei-12-14|website=OU.org [[Orthodox Union]]}}</ref> Giving musar through speech is meant to help mold lives.<ref>{{cite web
   |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Musar-Judaism  |title=Musar  |website=Britannica.com
   |quote=toward molding the lives of ..}}</ref> [[Shimon Schwab]] taught that although "[at times] you must ''give'' musar" the command to do so (Lev. 19:17) is followed by ''love your neighbor as yourself.'' and that "if you want ..(someone).. to change, (it must be) ''done through love.''"<ref>{{cite book|author=[[Paysach Krohn|Paysach J. Krohn]]|title=The Maggid on the Podium|date=2013|isbn=978-1-4226-1453-2|pages=115–117}}</ref>

Giving musar may also happen through a formal lecture known as ''a musar shmuz''<ref>{{cite web |title=Harav Yisroel Yechezkel Plutchok, Zt"l |url=https://hamodia.com/2020/03/26/harav-yisroel-yechezkel-plutchok-ztl/ |website=hamodia.com |publisher=[[Hamodia]] |access-date=5 August 2021}}</ref> or ''musar shiur,''<ref>{{cite web
    |url=https://matzav.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/1696%25D7%2591%25D7%2590%25D7%25A8_%25D7%2594%25D7%25A4%25D7%25A8%25D7%25A9%25D7%2594_%25D7%259B%25D7%2599_%25D7%25AA%25D7%2591%25D7%2595%25D7%2590-1.pdf
    |quote=When Reb Avigdor Miller zt'l concluded his weekly Thursday night mussar shiur
    |title=Rav Avigdor Miller Thursday nights
    |access-date=2020-12-31
    |archive-date=2022-02-17
    |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220217142918/https://matzav.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/1696%D7%91%D7%90%D7%A8_%D7%94%D7%A4%D7%A8%D7%A9%D7%94_%D7%9B%D7%99_%D7%AA%D7%91%D7%95%D7%90-1.pdf
    |url-status=dead
    }}</ref> which are often part of a [[yeshiva]] curriculum.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol13/v13n011.shtml|title=Avodah V13 #11|website=www.aishdas.org}}</ref> [[Elya Lopian]] taught the practice as "teaching the heart what the mind already understands."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-musar-movement/|title=What Is Mussar?}}</ref>