Start your Mussar Journey with CCM
CCM renews spiritual practice and Jewish text to transform relationships, awakening each person to their profound responsibility for the other. We offer introductory and continuing classes that focus on Mussar texts, theology, and practice. Students commit for a semester at a time; a complete curriculum is offered over four years.
Check out the list of available classes below!
Upcoming classes
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Seeds of Mussar
5-6:30 p.m. PST, alternating Tuesdays | Oct. 29 - Dec. 24
This class will introduce a method that focuses on refining our attributes so that they enable us to serve others with greater and greater joy. We work on our character attributes, not simply to take care of ourselves and enjoy more fulfilling lives, but to practice bearing responsibility for others.
*Open to new students!
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Seeds of Mussar
7-8:30 p.m. ET, Thursdays | 11/7 - 12/12
This class will introduce a method that focuses on refining our attributes so that they enable us to serve others with greater and greater joy. We work on our character attributes, not simply to take care of ourselves and enjoy more fulfilling lives, but to practice bearing responsibility for others.
*Open to new students!
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Mussar Torah Study
7-7:30 p.m. ET, Tuesdays | 10/22/24 - 05/25
Joshua Boettiger & guests
Join us as each week where one of our rotating band of scholars will lead a half-hour teaching/discussion on the weekly parsha, from a Mussar perspective.
*Open to new students!
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Weekly Mussar Meditations
10-10:30 a.m. ET | Wednesdays
Mussar is fundamentally a mindfulness practice; that is, in order to truly practice Mussar, one needs to be ever more aware of what is actually happening – not just immediately responding to projections, fears, and entitlements. I think some sort of meditation practice is necessary as a precursor to practicing Mussar, but increasingly I feel like it’s even more than that – Mussar is what meditation looks like when one leaves the cushion and enters the realm of relationship.
*Open to new students!
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The Next Step in Your Mussar Journey
6-7:30 p.m. CT, Mondays | Oct. 21 - Dec. 9
This course will widen our Mussar “lens” from the sphere of our closest others to the community or societal level. We will observe how the tension between the yetzer harah and the yetzer hatov manifests at the societal level by focusing primarily on individualism, structural racism, and inequality; the paradigm or mindset that creates and drives them and their consequences for society.
This class is not open to students new to Mussar
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Mussar from the Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto: A study of Rabbi Kalonymous Kalman Shapira
7-8 p.m. ET, Wednesdays | Oct. 30 - Nov. 20
Rabbi Kalonymous Kalman Shapira, the Piaseczner rebbe, was the rabbi of the Warsaw Ghetto – a Hasidic master whose work feels deeply connected to Mussar. We will be diving into the life and teachings of Rabbi Shapira, and particularly learning excerpts from Hachshoras HaAvreichim, which is translated under the title of Jewish Spiritual Growth.
*Open to new students!
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Tomer Devorah Plus
7:30-9:30 p.m. ET, Mondays | Sept. 16 - Dec. 2
This class will include study of various Mussar-related texts, including a va'ad session.
*New students must reach out to madrich before registering
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Foundations/Kibbush 3
11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. MT, Mondays | Sept. 16 - Dec. 9
*New students must reach out to madrichah before registering
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Transformations/Tikkun 1
7:30 - 9 p.m. CT, Tuesdays | Sept. 17 - Dec. 17
*This class is not available to new students
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Transformations/Tikkun 1
10-11:30 a.m. ET, Mondays | Sept. 9 - Dec. 16
*This class is not available to new students
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Transformations/Tikkun 2
4:15-5:45 p.m. ET, Wednesdays | Sept. 11 - Dec. 18
*This class is not available to new students
In addition to the classes listed above, CCM also offers:
Madrichim Training Course — available to those who have completed the 3-year CCM curriculum and who are accepted into the teacher training program.
Rabbis Mussar Cohort — a year-long course offered to Rabbis with Mussar experience who are looking for deeper training and community.
Local Mussar classes — our madrichim are spread out throughout the United States and Canada, and many teach Mussar classes at their local synagogues.