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Cheshbon HaNefesh

Musar

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About This Text

Author: Menachem Mendel Lefin

Cheshbon HaNefesh is an early 19th-century guide to introspection and self-improvement. It was modeled on Benjamin Franklin’s system of working on 13 distinct character traits, each for a week at a time with the cycle repeating four times each year. Franklin is not mentioned by name, however, and some changes were made to the rigid system he described, such as suggestions for ways to individualize the program. The author, Menachem Mendel Lefin, was an early leader of the Jewish Enlightenment, or Haskalah, who retained commitment to traditional Judaism and wove Jewish ideas and quotations into his work. Cheshbon HaNefesh was intended in part as a rationalist alternative to the rise of chasidic approaches to personal growth. The work was printed several times in the 19th century, including an 1845 edition encouraged by Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, known as the father of the Musar movement.

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