Middot
Order (Seder)
Take time to do things in an organized fashion, pay attention to each element and make the elements of your action organized and harmonious.
Enthusiasm (Zerizut)
Do good works with enthusiasm. Speak and act in positive terms with a robust and strong attitude.
Generosity (Nedivut)
Give your time and efforts to others with an open heart. Overcome your first instinct to withhold when giving to others. Show great hospitality.
Truth (Emet)
Falsehood is a means of asserting yourself over creation. By embracing truthfulness we learn to operate harmoniously in this open expanse of a world rather than a narrow world of our own making.
Faith (Emunah)
We accept that the structures of this world cannot be completely known. We have faith that this arc of creation bends toward the good and holy. We have faith that by serving God we improve the world. We have faith that by improving the world we serve God.
Humility (Anavah)
Take time to understand your place in this world. Do not, in your thoughts and actions, artificially elevate yourself and do not artificially debase yourself.
Yirah (Awe)
Think for a few moments of the vastness of creation and adopt a service mindset. You are fortunate to be alive. You were created to serve God in this world. The world was not created for you and you are a very small part of creation. The Beginning of wisdom is the awe of the Divine.
Honor (Kavod)
Every soul is a creation of God. We should honor the souls of others, treating even disagreements with respect and speaking of others in positive, respectful terms.
Patience (Savlanut)
If the goal of your actions is intrinsically good, then bear the burden of disruptions and diversions while patiently moving forward. Keep order in every step of your actions.
Discipline (Gevurah)
Your own brain and your emotions (your yetzer hara) will tempt you to put things off, to cut corners, to make things easy and to drag you into somnolence and accedia. Push back against these things. Build a wall of fixed values to prevent this sort of laziness.
Simplicity (Pashtut)
Creation is fecund. The world grows more into more. Our lives spiral into greatness in our own fevered imagination and our own momentum fills the day. The voice of God is a pervading, constant whisper in this storm and we need to calm the skies and still the waves to listen.
Equanimity (Menuchat ha Nefesh)
While we have a vast array of opinions, we control only ourselves. Reserve judgement of good and bad for the moral decisions that impact your own actions. Do not get caught up in the endless staggering race of approval and disapproval. You do not need to hold an opinion on everything.
Gratitude (Hacharat Ha Tov)
"The root of joy is gratefulness... It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful."- Brother David Steindl-Rast a Benedictine Monk. Every action should be informed by Gratefulness that we have been allowed to arrive at this point and that we are able to undertake this action.
Silence (Sh'tikah)
Organized and elaborate speech and language differentiate us from the other forms of life in this world and just as the universe was created with language so too do we create small worlds with our own speech. We should respect this and guard out tongues, avoiding frivolity and gossip (Lashon Hara)
Responsibility (Acharayut)
If you do not have responsibilities then grow your life until you have responsibilities. Responsibility is a great gift, a combination of service and creation and one of the best contexts for interaction in this world.
Moderation (Shevil Ha'Zahav)
All emotions magnify themselves if left uncontrolled. Anger becomes rage, lust becomes perversion, sloth becomes a rejection of all life. Stay the middle course, find a limit to the extremes of your emotions and move forward where you would otherwise be mired.
Loving-Kindness (Chesed)
If you cannot love another person, then love at least the spark of the divine within them.
Trust (Bitachon)
Fear is erased when we focus completely on the present. Trust in God allows us to focus on the present instead of an imagined future. Trust in God allows us to make moral choices in the present without being bound to our own feverish imagination.
Compassion (Rachamim)
Do not be cynical when dealing with others. Interact with the world from a perspective of compassion. Compassion requires that we have faith that the hidden worlds of other people are good and that we have trust in God that our efforts will not injure us.
Caution with Anger (Ka'as)
Anger is a means of asserting control over the exterior world. It reaches outside our own domain to dictate through force the world around us. As humans, this new imposed world will always be shallow and brittle when compared to the actual world created by God. It is for this reason that excessive anger is compared to idol worship. Anger reflets a substantive misunderstanding of our role in this world.