New Chabad classes look at ethics and character

By Lauren Matthew

May 9, 2008
 

The Chabad of Western Monmouth County will offer two courses to the community, one aimed at addressing personal growth and one targeting ethics and the minutiae of Jewish law.

"The Kabbalah of Character" will be offered at The Monmouth County Library Headquarters for three Tuesdays starting May 20. The Rohr Jewish Learning Institute will present "Talmudic Ethics" at Chabad of Western Monmouth County for six Wednesdays starting May 14.

"They're both very interesting courses," said Chabad Rabbi Levi Wosolow.

Between Passover and Shavuot, Wosolow explained, Jews count the days until the receipt of the Torah and prepare themselves for that. Even in modern times, he continued, this is a time period for personal reflection.

"That is known as a time for a person to really take a look at their character and midot, their personality, and see how to better themselves," Wosolow said.

Additionally, he noted, each day during Sefira represents a different attribute (there are seven). But those seven traits can fit inside each other and compliment each other; for example, Wosolow said, "might" is a type of kindness.

There are 49 days of Sefira, and seven weeks in which we are meant to focus on the seven characteristics for that week, according to Rabbi Baruch Chazanow. (For example, Monday was the first day of beauty.)

"During these 49 days we are expected to focus on the characteristics of our being and try to refine them," Chazanow said. "We focus on our emotional characteristics."

The class will be analyzing a person according to Kabbalah, Wosolow said.

The course is based on a course written years ago on the Kabbalah of character, which was taught all over the world, he noted, except that it will be taught in only three parts instead of the original eight.

"This is really a very good class to come to for people who are interested in learning about themselves and Judaism," Wosolow said.

The Talmudic Ethics class has a very different, much more halakhic focus, according to Wosolow.

The course is CLE accredited for lawyers in New York and Pennsylvania, he said, though New Jersey doesn't have accreditation for programs like this.

The class will look at six topics, Wosolow said, and inspect the law system set down by the Talmud.

"The Talmud is 2,000 years old and was written by greatest beit din in last 2,000 years," he said. "It's a law system. A lot of things are similar (still), but it has tremendous insight into laws."

One example, he said, of a general question the class might discuss deals with the value of one life over another.

"If a train is running along and will run over six people on the tracks, and you can move the tracks from one side, and will kill only one person instead, can you decide that?" Wosolow said.

The class will look at the ethics of abortion and use of marrow and other tissue from a fetus, as well as, Wosolow said, withholding the truth to get to the truth -- a topic that is especially pertinent, he said, for lawyers.

The two classes do go together, according to Chazanow.

"The classes are sort of related but not related," Chazanow said. "The Kabbalah of Character... is a class that gives the participants an opportunity to understand the components of one's neshama... and how the inner parts of Torah give us the tools to be able to refine these characteristics."

Even good traits, such as kindness and compassion, can be channeled in a selfish or selfless way, he said. The class will address how to identify where someone is holding spiritually and grow from that level.

The Kabbalah of Character class came about because a successful life and afterlife class just ran in the library, Chazanow said.

"A big component of that class was 'How do we make our lives meaningful?' This is sort of an offshoot of that," he said.