ECO-MUSSAR!

We more or less know right from wrong, in general -- and regarding what we're doing to the biosphere, we are mostly clued in. Why then, even when we know better, do we keep making unsustainable, unjust, and ultimately unwise choices? Why the giant gap between our values and our actions?
 
To be better aligned, we must first “mind the gap” -- notice it, focus on it, even feel bad about it -- then bridge the gap, and ultimately close it.   Jewish tradition promotes a structure for this ongoing ethical-spiritual introspection and sustained self-improvement:  Mussar.  The world as a whole can use this, right now. ​

Developed in the yeshiva world, Mussar has seen a recent renaissance across the liberal Jewish community.  In lifting up and refining our various traits (middot) one by one, we come to see more clearly, think more rationally, act more ethically, and feel better about ourselves and our place in the world.  We become more sensitive family members, more reliable in our communities and workplaces, and more engaged as citizens. 

This authentic expression of Jewish tradition – much like similar virtue-ethics practices found in every great tradition, rooted respectively in traditional texts while reaching toward similar goals – can help us break through our 'eco-inadequacy.'  The Mussar model helps us align our actions with our values; promises to make us more thoughtful members of the human and biotic communities; and bids us to become better stewards of Creation.  All this, while deepening our spirituality, creating community, and engendering improvements in every realm. 

Enticing, yes?!  It all starts with just focusing on and developing one trait (or attribute or middah) at a time.  A few fine examples follow:

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Consider TRUTH, emet. Most of us tell few or no blatant lies, so we dull ourselves into thinking we’re "tight" with the truth trait. But dig deeper, and see so many ways in which we deceive ourselves and others, and take actions inconsistent with the full facts. When we bury our heads in the sand, or fail to see the big picture, we occlude our judgment. When implicit biases blur our vision, we end up endangering others. Mussar’s structure and accountability in the truth department is like an ophthalmologist for our superego, restoring proper vision so we can better see the road ahead, and swerve in time to avoid a crash.  With better focus, we will emit less, and organize more.

Consider HONOR, kavod. We believe in extending honor to every person, in basic human dignity and inalienable human rights. But truly tally the many adverse impacts of our lifestyles and products and choices on downwind communities and global neighbors - and ponder the paucity of our political efforts to promote policies that protect people and ecosystems alike – and it becomes clear that we must hone how we honor humanity, and all the other species. Reflecting on the goodness of Creation and the Divine image inside every person (Gen. 1) will make us reflexively respect others. Practicing “proactive kavod” can ensure that the under-empowered and marginalized (like the Global South, BIPOC and ‘fenceline’ communities, disabled and/or queer folks, the poor, even women) get a fair shake.  Active honoring includes empowering, protecting, and promoting equity—all part of making society and planet sustainable.

Consider RESPONSIBILITY, achrayut. Pollution, wastefulness, and unjust systems – and the greed, avarice, and apathy that enable them – are all irresponsible. To turn around these juggernauts, we need to center the value of taking responsibility.  How are we responsible to other lifeforms with whom we are interdependent – to other people, in other places, in our own time – to future generations, including our own progeny? Mussar’s insistence on examining ourselves toward taking ever greater responsibility touches on core concepts, and commands critical care for Creation: being shomrei adamah, Earth-protectors (Deut. 20). Living as if we legitimately loved our neighbor as ourselves (Lev. 19).  Being good ancestors, and practicing intergenerational solidarity (Ex. 34; l’dor vador).

And consider HUMILITY, anavah. Usually seen as a personal or private virtue, what about collective humility, even national, or global?!  Mussar understands humility as “taking up the right amount of space,” which requires continual monitoring and readjustment, as we and the world around us change.   Can we take up more space in the halls of power, demanding sustainable and just and systemic change – while taking up less space, as measured in resources consumed, carbon and methane emitted, waste produced?  Our efforts can be deeper and stronger, when we frame eco-activism and minimization of our own environmental footprint in terms of this holy and holistic attribute. 

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These middot overlap. Sometimes, they exist in creative tension with each other, like ZEAL (zerizut, the ‘fierce urgency of now’) and PATIENCE (savlanut, playing the long game).  And often, progress in one area advances additional attributes, as well. Focusing on TRUTH, we see clearly the mess we’re making.  Refining our desire to HONOR others, we regret the impact of that mess.  Then, we take RESPONSIBILITY, and clean up the mess the best we can.  Finally, we hone our HUMILITY, and by practicing taking up just the right amount of space, we’ll make less mess going forward. 

Many more middot are worth our sustained attention, toward consistent (if slow and halting) improvement.  And many Mussar principles, too, can contribute to effective environmentalism:  like the idea of focusing on that narrow point where conscious choice lies (nekudat ha’bechirah); or the notion of strengthening our positive or ‘other-directed’ impulses, to overcome our natural but often negative- impact impulses which are oriented around the self (yetzer ha’tov vs. yetzer ha’ra). 

We just have to do the work.  And Mussar lays it out for us:  spend time in self-examination; study the sources; acquire an accountability buddy (hevruta) and a community of practice (va’ad); make it a daily-weekly-quarterly-annual-lifetime practice.  Over time it becomes easier, with visible improvements egging us on further, as we expand our ethical actions, and show up more thoughtfully and reliably for those around us.  Each middah on which we compress our attention becomes a springboard not only for personal and interpersonal growth, but improved planetary protection.   Just take these attributes one at a time.

When we mind that gap between our values and our actions, routinize our reflection and increase our improvement, we become more effective environmental advocates, and more determined defenders of Earth.  And when enough people make “Eco-Mussar” (or its equivalents in other faiths and cultures) part of their lives – and start making changes in personal footprints and political engagements that are commensurate with the scope of the challenges before us – we might just succeed in sustaining our world.

 
(This is a growing field, thanks to the likes of Rabbis David Jaffe of Kirva, Laura Bellows of Dayenu, and Center for Contemporary Mussar teachers.  Grow your own Mussar knowledge and skills and practice, through numerous wonderful resources: The Mussar Institute; Center for Contemporary Mussar; Kirva; Institute for Jewish Spirituality; and more.  Grow your "green greatness" through a range of secular organizations doing holy work.   Engage with the expanding Jewish-Environmental world through many portals, like COEJL.org, Adamah.org, Dayenu.org, JewishEarthAlliance.org, etc.  Make it multifaith too, with your state’s InterfaithPowerAndLight.org affiliate; or GreenFaith.org; or the National Religious Partnership for the Environment.  And as we combine all of the above, we each will contribute in our own way to the breadth and depth of “Eco-Mussar”...)