The Mindfulness and Mussar Podcast is designed to support listeners on their journey of growth, drawing on two important traditions:
- Mindfulness focuses on helping people become more aware of their feelings and emotions and, in doing so, respond to situations in their life, instead of reflexively reacting or being stuck in old habits. (Learn more.)
- Mussar focuses on living a meaningful and ethical life by cultivating traits of moral character, known as middot, such as humility, patience, gratitude, compassion, order, equanimity, honor, simplicity, enthusiasm, generosity, truth, loving kindness, responsibility, trust, and faith. A similar term is Tikkun Middot. (Learn more.)
Season One of the podcast will focus on interviews with chapter authors of The Mussar Torah Commentary: A Spiritual Path to Living a Meaningful and Ethical Life, edited by Rabbi Barry H. Block and published by the Central Conference of American Rabbis. (Our interviews are independent of CCAR, but conducted with its permission.) To quote from the book’s description:
This Mussar-based commentary is a vital resource for Torah study, offering a thoughtful analysis of each of the 54 weekly parashot. Each essay in this anthology brings a parashah into juxtaposition with one of the Mussar middot (character traits as described within the Jewish school of ethics called Mussar), thereby providing an applied lens of Mussar teachings that helps us to delve deeper into our tradition with increased mindfulness and intention.
Podcast Creator / Host
The podcast is a personal project by Andrew Feldman, who has a passion for Jewish learning, but comes to this project as a fellow learner with the audience, not an expert. A native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he lives in Washington DC. Feel free to reach out to him with feedback or suggestions.
Credits / Additional Information
- The jazz on the podcast is used with generous permission by David Chevan and Warren Byrd from their album “Let Us Break Bread Together.”
- The podcast logo, with its shades of colors (blues), was inspired by a metaphor shared by Rabbi Marc Margolius of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality on another podcast, referring to how mindfulness involves, in part, choosing the set of values one wants to lead with in a given situation, like an painter choosing a set of colors to use on a canvas.
More Resources
Want to learn more about the topics in this podcast? Here’s a brief list of unsolicited personal recommendations from Andy [click here].