Greg Marcus - American Mussar

Mitzvah Circle Foundation Exemplifies the Soul Trait Honor

December 18, 2015 By Greg Marcus Leave a Comment

It is with great pleasure that we award the Mitzvah Circle Foundation our very first Point Of Light Award. Mitzvah Circle Foundation exemplified the Soul Trait Honor.

The Mitzvah Circle Foundation helps people who are falling through the cracks between other government assistance and philanthropic organizations. For example, Mitzvah Circle offers assistance to the homeless, has an extensive diaper bank (for both infants and adults), provides school supplies, and hats for the homeless. But what makes Mitzvah Circle stand out are the values that the organization lives.

The Hebrew word Mitzvah is often misunderstood as a good deed. (Although the Yiddish word Mitzveh does in fact mean good deed.) A Mitzvah is actually a commandment from God. Scholars have identified 613 commandments in the Torah, which together provide a guideline for how we are to live our life. Today, it is far too easy to get caught up in thinking of the Commandments as either something huge (like do not kill) or something that only the most observant Jews would follow, like keeping Kosher or not not turning on a light on Shabbat.

In between however, are many commandments about how to treat others with dignity, respect, and kindness. Those are the commandments embodied by Mitzvah Circle. Founder Fran Held explained to me that the Mitzvah Circle is a community, that encompases donors, volunteers and the people that they serve.

While other organizations put together generic boxes of assistance, Mitzvah Circle asks what is needed. “We treat the people we serve like family,” Held explained. “Every individual or family is assigned a volunteer, who packs a box specifically for them every week, and then drops the box at their door.” The volunteers get to know their families personally, and each week tries to add one item just for fun to the box of assistance. Every day of the week, boxes are delivered to people who live in the Greater Philadelphia Area, and shipped to people across the United States.

The people we serve dream of things that most of us take for granted, like socks and clean underwear.” – Fran Held, Founder and Executive Director

The Soul Trait Honor teaches us to honor the divine spark in everyone. Said Held, “Each person has an opportunity to be a light in the darkness.” Volunteers come and do what they can. For some people that is donating money and goods, for others it is donating their time. But everyone supports each other with kindness and respect.

People were silently suffering in every community. Some without resources, some without the the social connectedness to get through their dark time. – Fran Held

The Mitzvah Circle is like a shamash candle that helps kindle the Divine spark in all of us to shine more brightly. If you would like to support their work, you can donate here.

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Five Mussar Lessons From Star Wars

December 16, 2015 By Greg Marcus 1 Comment

I was super caught up in the hype prior to the release of The Force Awakens. I was inspired to write five mussar lessons from Star Wars.

I was in 4th grade when Star Wars first came out, and my father took me to opening night of each of the original three movies. And my beloved wife bought tickets for the whole family to go opening night on Friday. Given that it is hard for me to think of anything other than Star Wars this morning, I thought I would try to do some soul work with my obsessive focus. So here are five American Mussar lessons we can learn from Star Wars

1. The Spiritual is more powerful than technology.

At the end of Star Wars episode 4, Luke turns off his targeting computer, and uses the Force to destroy the Death Star. For all that this forerunner of the franchise is recognized as a science fiction powerhouse, at the end of the day it is the power of something greater, something unseen that changes the world. Technology is but a tool. It is not like Luke isn’t using technology – he is. But technology cannot guide technology, it must be a human hand inspired by something greater.

The Soul Trait in play here is Awe of Something Greater. On my best mornings, I meditate for 40 minutes, and am filled with a Divine energy that powers me through the day. Five years ago I would have bet you a million dollars that I would never write or feel such a thing. But the truth is, that on multiple occasions I have tacked obstacles that I thought were impossible after a deep meditation. The answer was not found out there, but became apparent when I unblocked my Divine Spark.

2. We are driven by the battle between the Good and Evil Inclinations

The first three movies in the series are about the battle within Anakin Skywalker between the dark side and the light side of the Force. Such a battle goes on inside of each of us every day. We are presented with Choice Points, spiritual challenges where we can pick the good or evil path. Each decision makes it more likely that we will make a similar decision in the future, as it says in the the Talmud, “one mitzvah leads to another mitzvah, and one sin leads to another sin.” Anakin does not become Darth Vader overnight. He makes a series of choices that leads him to become the embodiment of evil. Yet the battle still rages within, and eventually the good once again becomes ascendant as he returns to his Jedi roots to kill the Emperor.

3. Too Much Good is Bad

Yoda caused the destruction of the Jedi because he was too Humble. In the third movie, Anakin goes to Yoda sick at heart because he has visions of Padme’s death. Yoda stayed with the party line that “Attachment leads to jealousy”, and advises him to “let go … of everything you fear to lose.” Where else does Anakin have to go but towards the dark side? Yoda was a leader, who could have bent the rules and helped Anakin come out of hiding with his marriage, and helped him channel his strong emotions. Anakin was prophesied to bring balance to the Force, and he did in an sense because he wiped out the Jedi who became detached from human emotion, and then defeated the Emperor who became ruled by his dark emotions. We cannot defeat the Evil Inclination, nor should we want to. When the Rabbis trapped the Evil Inclination, the chickens stopped laying eggs, and no one went to work. The key is to guide our impulses and emotions, and not let them control us.

4. No Victory is Complete

I haven’t seen the movie yet, but a shadowy figure in front of a melted Darth Vader helmet shows that the battle within is a constant one. Rabbi Dessler teaches that one the Evil Inclination tries to lull us into complacency by telling us that we are done (Strive for Truth p 46). We then let down our guard, and become susceptible to the impulses that lead to bad decisions. We need the Soul Trait of Enthusiasm to keep our focus on proactively doing the right thing.

5. Keep Going When It Seems Hopeless

It doesn’t get much darker than the end of Episode 3. We know that things will get better with A New Hope. Rabbi Tarfon taught, “It is not incumbent on you to complete the task, but neither are you at liberty to desist from it.” (Pirkei Avot 2:16). Moses did not live to see the Promised Land, just as Obi Wan and Yoda did survive to see the victory in Jedi. Each of these great leaders kept going when all seemed lost. And for every Yoda and Moses, there were thousands of people doing their small part in service of something greater.

What do you think of these five mussar lessons from Star Wars? Do they fit with your life experience? Let me know below or on Facebook.

Want to start your own American Mussar journey? Take the free Soul Trait Profile Quiz and get the American Mussar Sampler as a bonus. Click here to begin.

Help Identify and Support Eight Points of Light This Hanukkah

December 6, 2015 By Greg Marcus 6 Comments

You can Help Identify and Support Eight Points of Light This Hanukkah. American Mussar Will select Eight local charities to receive a Point of Light Award, one for each night of Chanukah. And you get to help choose which charities AM will give to.

All you need to do is go to the American Mussar Facebook page, and post the name of the charity, a link to the donation page, and a sentence or two describing what they do.

At the end of each day, American Mussar will pick one of the organizations nominated that day, and BOOM: we’ll donate $180. Not only that, every entry will get free publicity on the American Mussar Facebook page. And, we will interview the director of the charity, and write a blog post the following day about each and every one of the eight winners. Thus, these worthy organizations will get some exposure on a national level, and we’ll use the example of their work to teach an American Mussar practice.

Why American Mussar Is Recognizing Eight Local Charities

American Mussar teaches us how to bring our Soul towards balance by taking action.

Did you know that word Chanukah means rededication? The Israelites needed to rededicate the Temple after it was defiled by the Greeks. In addition to our usual Chanukah activities, like giving presents and eating latkes, we have an opportunity to do some rededication work as well.

American Mussar teaches that we all have a Divine spark that is occluded by our baggage. If you are unsure of the Divinity, you can think of this as the spark of humanity that we all share. Rabbi Yoel Glick likens the Divine Spark to the light of Chanukah. Rabbi Glick teaches that our Divine spark is a source of “amazing inner strength,” which gives us “the courage to face anything.” Moreover, he urges us to reorder our life towards Divine service. And if you are unsure of the Divinity, Divine service simply means making the world a better place.

We’d love to help you make your community a better place by supporting a local philanthropy. Please take a moment and go to the American Mussar Facebook page to nominate a group. While a given charity can win only once, they can be entered again each day. Click here to go to Facebook.

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The Mussar Perspective on the Chicago Police

December 3, 2015 By Greg Marcus Leave a Comment

This week I’ve started practicing the Soul Trait of Responsibility for the first time. It seemed fitting somehow, as I met the Tuesday deadline for the second round of edits to my manuscript. The Hebrew word for the Responsibility Soul Trait can be translated as either “after” or “other.” The “after” translation leads one to interpret the soul trait in terms of consequences – we are responsible when we understand and account for the consequences of our actions. The “other” translation brings our attention to the needs of other people, and thus we are responsible when we are looking out for other people.

I also thought of Responsibility when Rahm Emmanuel fired the police superintendent for the suppressed video of Laquan McDonald’s killing. Emmanuel is the antithesis of responsibility, throwing anyone he can under the bus when it seems clear to me that his interest was served by keeping the video out of the spotlight during his re-election campaign. But it is not for us to kibitz Emmanuel’s spiritual curriculum. I am more interested in the “blue wall of silence” culture in the Chicago PD and other police departments, in which police officers close ranks to cover up wrongdoing by other officers by remaining silent, making false statements, or destroying evidence. Here is my Mussar perspective on the Chicago Police.

Mussar teaches that Responsibility governs our sensitivity to the needs of others, and of the consequences of our actions. Chicago PD shows neither.

Officer Jason Van Dyke, the shooter, has a history of excessive force complaints. One resulted in a $350K payout for excessive force, and in this case, -‘s mother was paid $5M. Here is my solution:

Have 10% of the funds for police excessive force or wrongful death settlements come from the police pension fund.

A police officer’s pension is highly prized, and having a portion of the settlement money come from the pensions gives every officer an incentive to get cops with repeated complaints like Van Dyke off the force. Imagine what would happen if it could cost every officer money if a cop starts to beat up a suspect? The other officers would say “knock it off” to nip it in the bud before it became a systemic issue.

Usually it is a small number of bad actors who account for the majority of excessive force complaints. For example, none of the 8 other officers on the scene fired their weapons, but all of them participated in the cover up. Let’s make a clear consequence, to give each of them an incentive to practice Responsibility. Instead of thinking of their fellow cops first, they must be retrained to be responsible to the public. And I don’t mean lecture training – I mean pocketbook-consequences training.

What do you think?

iAMResponsible

Greg

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Should I Be Grateful That I’m White?

November 26, 2015 By Greg Marcus Leave a Comment

On this Thanksgiving morning, on a day when Americans have a special opportunity to be grateful for what they have, I am asking myself a question: Should I be grateful that I’m white? Mussar teaches that we should be grateful for the good, the bad, and those things we take for granted. It is in the latter category that my question falls. There is just one problem: I don’t think of myself as white. I think of myself as Jewish. If you look at my picture with Snoopy, with my Giants World Series Champions shirt (the third in five years) my skin tone looks white enough.

You might wonder why I don’t think if myself as white, even though my skin tone is light. The reason is that I’ve on occasion been the victim of anti-semitism, and I figure that anyone who hates or discriminates against blacks or other minorities would also hate me. While I still think that is true, I also think I am underestimating the impact of my skin color.

I started asking myself the question after getting up and reading the Huff post story about the Chicago police officer who shot Laquan McDonald 16 Times as he was walking away from the police. The officer, Jason Van Dyke was charged with murder one year later, only after the courts ordered the release of a dash-cam video showing the shooting. Van Dyke has never been disciplined for excessive use of force, despite at least 20 complaints against him. Want to get depressed or outraged to start your holiday? Read this story about how bad the racism problem is at the Chicago PD. The cover up stinks, all the way up to Mayer Rahm Emmanuel. Officers clearly lied in their official statements, and for a year the city refused to release the video, saying it would impede an investigation or some such thing.

So getting back to my question, maybe I should absolutely be grateful that my skin is white. It kind of makes me feel sick to write that, because it means that I am admitting that the color of my skin gives me advantages. It is an uncomfortable feeling, but it is undoubtedly true. The chances that I would be stopped, harassed, or shot by the police are vastly lower because of my skin color. And that reveals what I am really grateful for: I I am grateful that today I live in a country where the police are not a danger to me because of my religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or gender. To be grateful for my skin color per se would reinforce a racial identity that would leave me vulnerable to stereotypes, and to my own hidden bias.

You don’t need to be a member of the Nazi party or the KKK to have a ethnic, religious, or gender bias. Hidden bias is increasingly well understood by psychologists, and it scares the crap out of me to think that I could have some program running in the background that impacts my behavior. Well news to you Greg, you do have a subconscious that impacts your behavior, and not all of it is pretty. You know from Mussar that we have an inner conflict between the Good and Evil Inclinations. (I’ll say more about them in a future post. You can read more about the inclinations here for now. ) After I submit my book, I’ll take Project Implicit’s Hidden Bias Test, and try to learn more about my own biased attitudes.

Enough – in spite of these darker musings, I am so grateful for many things in my life. I am grateful for my family, friends, and to my readers. The road to self discovery also means allowing time to enjoy the good things, and having a weekend with family is oh so special.

What are you grateful for?

#iAMGrateful

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