Rabbi David Jaffe is the Mashgiach Ruchani at Gann Academy. He created and directs the Chanoch LaNa’ar initiative.

David Jaffe describes how a modern adaptation of the traditional study of mussarimpacts on students and faculty, and the relationships between them.

Mussar is a thousand year old genre of Jewish literature and wisdom designed to help the individual grow into a more holy vessel in the service of God through the development of the middot (character traits such as humility, patience, courage, and trust). Despite the sacred intentions of traditional mussar, the emphasis on the character traits makes it a highly accessible discipline for believer and non-believer, Jew and Gentile alike. In mid-late 19th century Lithuania, Rabbi Israel Salanter developed a system for learning and practicing mussar as part of his mussar movement. The theory of growth is similar to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in its emphasis on habituation and awareness of thoughts. Small, regular actions and thoughts lead to deep change over time. Mussar practice increases our sensitivity to the inner life, strengthens our ability to decide to do the right thing and gives us wisdom to channel our lower urges for positive ends.

Gann Academy is Boston’s Jewish community high school, serving approximately 300 students from grades 9–12. Three years ago, with generous support from the Covenant, Jim Joseph and AVI CHAI Foundations, it launched an initiative called Chanoch La’Naar (CLN) to help foster spiritual and character development. This initiative, grounded in the principles of mussar, has not only helped many individuals develop their middot, but has made important contributions to Gann’s growth as a learning community.

In mussar we study one middah (singular for middot) for a set period of time, ranging from a week to a month, and take on small, practical challenges each day related to that middah. We reflect on our experience with the middah, either in writing or verbally, in a process called Heshbon HaNefesh (accounting of the soul). We meet in hevruta to share our progress and as a large group to hear about each other’s experiences, and to learn Torah and practices about the middah for the next week or month.

CLN touches all parts of the school community, engaging small groups of faculty, students and administrators in focused and sustained work on their own character traits in the context of their roles at school. In the 2012-2013 school year we ran four of these groups (Va’adim) – one for students, one for faculty, and two that included both faculty and students. In addition, our eighteen-member leadership council, made up of the management team and director level administers, participated in a monthly mussar-based leadership seminar. Nearly three-fourths of our full-time faculty has participated in at least one year of CLN and our goal is to have one quarter of the student body participate each year. We now have four trained faculty facilitators and hope to grow this number to six over the next two years. Faculty groups meet during the school day, mixed faculty-student groups meet during lunch plus an academic block, and the all student groups meet during our morning zman kodesh (sacred time). Participation in the groups is completely voluntary, but the impact extends beyond the groups when faculty design lessons and units based on concepts and practices from mussar, and students use middot language in classes and the hallways. After three years we are beginning to notice this language penetrating into the popular culture of the school.

CLN encourages participants to cultivate the following abilities and characteristics, all essential for learning communities:

Vulnerability – each CLN Va’ad meeting features a focus person who shares a question of practice they have regarding their own life and the middah of that month. We use a protocol (adapted from the work of Dr. Parker J. Palmer and the Center for Courage and Renewal – see chapter 9 of A Hidden Wholeness by Dr. Palmer) which emphasizes the creation of safe, non-judgmental space. Faculty and students alike use this space to explore touching and,at times, vulnerable subjects. In one faculty Va’ad about Anavah (Humility), a long-time faculty member discussed challenges he was having with the administration. Rather than simply side with him, the other faculty members asked him to consider where he might have a role to play in his difficulties. He later expressed that this inner-exploration was very useful. In a faculty session about Savlanut (Forebearance), a Jewish studies teacher openly explored why she struggled so much with students who see questions of Jewish identity as black and white. By the end of the session she realized that she needed to allow for more nuance in her own understanding of Jewish identity. These are just two of many examples of how CLN cultivates a culture of vulnerability among participants.

Awareness of boundaries – One of the first tasks of every mixed student-faculty Va’ad is for each participant to figure out personal boundaries. How much is it appropriate for a teacher to share with students and what is it better for students to keep private? Even more concretely, by what name (or title) do teachers want to be called by students. If someone goes by Mr. or Rabbi, is this a space to go by first names or not? While we have no prescribed answers to any of these questions, CLN forces participants to face their discomfort and get used to figuring out appropriate boundaries for different situations.

Humility – The student-faculty Va’adim are great labs for cultivating humility by seeing how much young people and adults have to learn from each other. One Junior commented:

CLN taught me that talking too much is just as detrimental to a community as not putting your voice in. There’s a lot to learn from others, and when you stop talking and listen, you form bonds you otherwise would have missed.

According to one senior:

Not only was CLN a vessel for self-reflection, but listening to others share their own struggles with the middot helped me put into perspective whatever I was going through. It was especially sobering when the way someone confronts a particular middah in his or her life is almost the complete opposite from the way I had seen it play a part in my own life.

Each monthly Va’ad meeting includes a round where each participant discusses his or her own learning with the middah. This round is consistently a highlight of the program for the reasons described above. As the project director, I am constantly reminded of my limited perspective by the various ways students and faculty experience the middot.

Respect – The “honest, open questions” protocol cultivates a deep respect for the other by insisting that the listener not project his or her own agenda onto the other. Rather, our questions are designed to help the presenter explore his or her own inner life. In the words of one senior:

One thing I particularly grew a liking to was asking open honest questions. I have learned to listen without previous judgments and ask questions that make the focus person delve deeper into their practice in a safe environment.

We also use a protocol of active listening in dyads to start every meeting. This protocol also emphasizes respecting the emotional space of the other by not injecting one’s own stories or concerns during the other’s time to talk.

Commitment to growth – CLN, and mussar, emphasize practice. Every aspect of CLN from the Va’ad to the hevruta to journaling and the challenges are all designed to support and reinforce practice. This is how growth and change happens. Being in a CLN group means being in a community of practice. A community of people, adults and teens, dedicated to their own and each other’s growth. It is particularly powerful for young people to see adults so committed to growth. In the words of one 10th grader:

Chanoch La’Na’ar goes beyond information gathering. It provides opportunities to connect with students and faculty, grow understanding together, ponder bigger issues inside topics, and connect more deeply and intimately with learning… I think Chanoch La’Na’ar should be part of the required curriculum with as much value placed on the learning as Tanakh, Rabbinics, core classes, and electives. How does learning, information… in our core classes take on true meaning if it isn’t rooted in values of patience, humility, equanimity, trust, gratitude, responsibility and kavod? …We can all access and gather information, but understanding how and where it fits in with personal practice is the most important part of true learning.

I hear in her words a love of learning that integrates the mind and the heart. Too often our academic classes stimulate the minds but leave the hearts of our students empty. CLN cultivates an integrated learning that is essential to growth.

Shared language – learning communities thrive on shared language that enables members to communicate complex ideas in shorthand form. CLN cultivates such a shared language around middot development. One of the most conspicuous examples is the “Behirah (Choice) Point.” The Behirah (Choice) point is an idea developed by mussar master Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler in the first half of the 20th century. R. Dessler argues that we only have real free will at a certain point of decision and these points are different for all of us, depending on factors of nature and nurture. For example, a student raised in a religious home will not face a Behira point each day about whether or not to eat kosher food. He has been trained since birth to eat kosher food so this decision is, in some ways, beyond his Behira. However, a Behira point could be to say berakhot over food with kavvanah or not. Similarly, a child raised among thieves will probably not face a difficult choice when it comes to shoplifting. However, he may face a difficult Behira point when it comes to hurting the shop owner or not if caught. Rav Dessler teaches that we all have different points where we feel conflict between what we know is right and what pulls us by appetite, habit or desire. Spiritual growth is dependent on the decisions we make at these Behirah points. This concept makes spiritual growth concrete and accessible for our students. Our Head of School uses this term regularly in his weekly divrei Torah and all CLN Va’adim spend at least one month focused solely on studying and noticing Behira points. We knew the term had entered Gann’s popular culture when the student satirical newspaper commented, “Freshman tries to use Behira points to redeem Gann wear.” Shared language is also helpful in our daily work. One of our top administrators recently told me that he, a department chair and a teacher, all CLN participants, were able to use their shared understanding of humility as taking the appropriate amount of space to process a challenge the teacher was having with involving more students in class discussion. (The idea of humility as taking the appropriate amount of space was developed by Dr. Alan Morinis of The Mussar Institute. See Everyday Holiness, chapter 7, by Dr. Alan Morinis.)

Empathy – Listening to the focus person describe his or her experience with a middah month in and month out creates empathy for the experience of the other. I remember one particular presentation by a 10th grader about Kavod, in which she described how hard it is to feel good about herself because her parents have such high expectations for her. She feels there is no way she can meet these expectations so even if she does well, she thinks that is merely what she is supposed to do. This presentation gave me an important insight and greater empathy for our high achieving students.

For many years, Gann Academy has dedicated time and resources to creating a culture of reflective practice. CLN, with its emphasis on middot and techniques from mussar, fits seamlessly into this culture. Grounded in Jewish texts and classic practices it is our hope that CLN will give our young people the tools to create learning communities in many different environments throughout their lives.