Mussar Center

The Mussar Center is a U.S. nonprofit that teaches Mussar, the Jewish path of inner work and character development. Izzy Avraham founded it in 2021 as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) charity. He describes himself as an educator with decades of experience teaching Judaism and Hebrew, and as a Mussar practitioner himself. It is a sister project of Holy Language Institute, Avraham's Messianic school of discipleship, which presents the Mussar Center as a path of inner work to "become more like Messiah."

The main program is a series of weekly pre-recorded video lessons, sent by email or text message. Lessons run from 15 to 60 minutes and are self-paced. Each one mixes beginner and advanced material with practical exercises for personal practice. Lessons close with a short blessing. The first video is free, and members get access to further video courses. The center recommends studying with a partner, or chavrusa, or forming a small study group called a va'ad.

The center describes its content as fully Jewish but open to people of all faiths and backgrounds. It addresses Jews and Gentiles, religious and secular learners, young and old, in plain language. Avraham says he built it for his own children and future generations, and for people searching as he once did.

The center also keeps a reading list on the history of the nineteenth-century Mussar movement and Rabbi Israel Salanter. The list includes biographies of Salanter, the Chofetz Chaim and Rabbi Aryeh Levin. Members can download a collection of more than 100 Mussar books as a PDF.