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Two issues of the mussar movement periodical, Or ha-Mussar, representing the Nowardok (Novogrudok) school of mussar (ethical studies). Copies of this periodical are rare. It was issued intermittently between 1924 to 1934, initially in Warsaw, then Petrokov, and the last issues in Jerusalem. The title page describes these copies as number 11 year four, and number 13 year six. The title pages are headed by the verse, “Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go; keep her; for she is your life” (Proverbs 4:13). They states that Or ha-Mussar is an occasional publication expressing the principles of the holy yeshiva Nowardok “Bet Yosef” in Poland. The first copy is dated 1 Elul, “Joseph is a fruitful bough פורת (486 = Wednesday, August 11, 1926)” (Genesis 49:22); the second is dated in a straight forward manner as 1928, the month of Adar. In both copies the date is followed by “here, Warsaw” in small letters and below in large letters Petrokov. The text is in a single column in square letters.
The mussar movement took various forms, represented by the school of mussar. That of Nowardok was a maximalist trend of musar yeshivot, the so-called Nowardok style. Its proponent, R. Joseph Josel, the "old man of Nowardok" (Novogrudok), applied a deeper psychological approach. This not only included many hours devoted to the study of the musar texts, employing if possible a more plaintive melody, with less light, but the student would also be taught to discipline himself by a series of peules af... ("actions to..."). Such actions were calculated to subdue his natural instincts of vanity, economic calculation, or love of material goods. A student, for example, might be ordered to go to a drug store and ask for something inappropriate, such as nails, to mingle with well-dressed people in rags, or to enter a train without a coin in his purse. By the Nowardok method, a man not only trained himself to subdue his animal and social nature, but also to check if he did so in complete emotional depth. |
