I used to like mussar, the self improvement stuff that gets you off your feet and makes you realize you’ve been a real shitty person your entire life. Great, make me feel like crap for having a short temper, not…
Tag: mussar
I almost went a month without masturbating
The fellow who wrote this wasn’t joking when he said most guys who went to yeshiva would be able to relate. I feel like the entire mussar of my yeshiva was based on eating cheeseburgers and masturbating, I hear both…
Nothing like a good racist video about being tznius
I’m just giving you the fair warning that the following video is racist and gets pretty ugly at about the 39 minute mark, after that it’s priceless(that’s where you should skip to if you want to witness what my yeshiva…
BT Mussar is an abomination
I can’t think of anything much worse than having a newly indoctrinated Baal Teshuva giving you mussar. As if several beautiful and inspiring shabbos meals, followed by some Aish discovery brainwashing gave them the right to rebuke me, don’t they…
Rosh Hashanah resolutions
For all I know, this past year was filled with blessing, but it sure started out shitty and on the second night of Rosh Hashanah I finally figured out why. Not only did I have to work on last RH,…
Rabosai it’s Elul!!!
I thought when I left yeshiva I would never have to hear those words screamed at me again, yet every week for the entire Elul (and during the week too if I make it to shul) I’ve been getting Elul…
Shmiras Einayim is Frum Masochism
The Rabbi gave a men’s only shiur on shmiras einayim last week (guarding your eyes – for the frum illiterate) and I decided to go through with character building and try it out. Once in a while I find myself…
The mussar of hardcore porn
My friend Leah sent me this wonderful new article in GQ magazine by Shalom Auslander. It’s about his obsession with hardcore porn and the guilt he feels about watching and getting turned on by other people’s pain, embarrassment and whatever…
When you leave yeshiva, Rosh Hashanah just sneaks up on you
Just last week I was starting to figure out what I was going to do for Rosh Hashanah, when someone mentioned that it was next week, I had no idea, like in the past dozen years since I have left…
Make Love Not Porn
Porn is quite fascinating to me, not that I ever watched a whole movie before – but the few times that I was not able to be kovesh my yetzer and have stumbled I have always been curious to know…
Don’t think, Don’t feel, Don’t ask
Gone are the days where the Chassidic tales were understood though the lens of Martin Buber’s classic folktales. Most people understood these fables were Buber’s romanticisms of Eastern European folk heroes. And somehow things evolved into a new type of story: a fusion…
Laws of Tznius for Our Degenerate Age
My friend Tamar posted this on my facebook wall and it’s hilarious. V’Nishmarto Mikol Dovor Ro Laws of Tz’niyusfor Our Degenerate Age. INTRODUCTION Why This Sefer Is Needed
4 months in California and loving it
Everyone I have been speaking to on the phone lately has been asking me when I plan to move back to New York and just recently I tell them that as of now I could never imagine moving back east…
Shabbos in San Jose
The Rabbi was yeshivish, clearly so because he used words that most of the shul didn’t understand, caught himself, and then said the English translation afterwards. My host said he was a YU guy, but I couldn’t see it. Was…
My first meaningful Yom Kippur
For many people including me Yom Kippur is one of the most dreaded days of the year. As someone who can’t even sit through all of shul on shabbos, Yom Kippur is one of the closest things to hell on…
Yeshiva Memories: Saturday Nights
Prior to moving back to Rochester for College I didn’t realize what a cool town it could be, the Rabbis took those realizations away from me with such a force that the only things we could do at night were…
Are you a self appointed mussar giver?
I was woken up multiple ways during yeshiva, hair pulling was common (though I don’t know how that was legal because you aren’t allowed to touch your hair while davening) ear pulling was common, as well as the traditional ear…
Washing the dishes is better then thank you
There was much advice handed to us during our weekly Thursday afternoon mussar shumzem in high school, most of it was about how we shouldn’t look at girls or listen to non-Jewish music. But one of those pieces of advice…