[ BOOKS | With Heart In Mind ]
Mr. Morinis helps the reader to quickly grasp the difference between studying the lessons of the Torah, and acquiring Torah. Studying Torah gives us an intellectual understanding of its lessons. Acquiring Torah brings those lessons into our lives. And acquiring Torah – integrating its teachings so that we live better lives – is the aim of this book.
Mr. Morinis relies upon his own intensive study of Mussar, a Jewish ethical, educational, and spiritual discipline developed in 19th century Eastern Europe and designed to guide the practitioner in the cultivation of the qualities of their soul, as the vehicle through which the reader will acquire Torah. The book takes its title from Rabbi Elya Lopian, a contemporary Mussar master, who defined Mussar as "Making the heart feel what the intellect understands."
"If you've been waiting for your own personal roadmap
to inner transformation, it's finally arrived"
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Once Mr. Morinis outlines the book's intentions, we get down to the real business at hand – study and practice. Following the introduction, the book's 48 chapters are each devoted to a particular spiritual quality (e.g., study, attentive listening, purity, limiting conversation, limiting business, being slow to anger, etc.). And within each chapter, the reader first learns about that particular quality, and then finds a method for practicing that quality. Why 48 different methods for acquiring Torah? Because chapter 6 of the Pirkei Avot (Chapter of Root Principles contained in the Mishnah, dating back to 200 C.E.) lists these same 48 methods through which one can acquire Torah. And, perhaps surprisingly, all 48 methods of acquring Torah are completely relevant and workable today.
Mr. Morinis points out that contemporary Jews have always sought inner transformation. He only has to point to the large Jewish constituencies for Eastern meditative practices and therapy to make his point. With Heart in Mind spares the reader those uncomfortable yoga poses and expensive therapy sessions by providing a step-by-step guide to a profound and uniquely Jewish inner transformation. Leveraging 3,500 years of accumulated wisdom, Mr. Morinis gives the reader 48 clear lessons to study, each followed by a specific method for integrating these higher spiritual qualities into our everyday lives. If you've been waiting for your own personal roadmap to inner transformation, it's finally arrived.