Benjamin Franklin is my 6th greatuncle through my mother's father's mother's line. Thanks for posting this.
Great Post.
Many years ago I bought a small sefer called Bo'u Cheshbon (published by our very own Kest-Levovitz publishing)
The entire sefer is written to defend the Cheshbon Hanefesh. His approach is that the content of the Cheshbon Hanefesh is original and unique. The methodology, on the other hand, was based on previous works (apparently Franklin). He does quote the same Framklin selection that you quoted at length.
It is an impressive little white pamphlet with 73 pages of research on the topic.
Ironically, the compiler of the pamphlet does not reveal his name. Perhaps he is hoping that one day people will be writing such pamphlets about Him.
Thanks for this great post. For some reason the middos highlighted in Chesbon HaNefesh have become known also as "Rav Yisrael [Salanter]'s 13 Middos" over the years.
A well reseached and informative posting.
I've blogged about this too.
Mussar isn't self-help, and I think the difference is the defining distinction.
The point of self-help is to actualize your potential so that you can be what you want to be.
The point of Mussar is to constantly be working toward the ideal for which Hashem made you, as taught in the Torah.
Rabbi Ephraim Becker puts it in terms of the real, the ideal, and the path between them. Mussar is founded on the Torah's notion of the ideal.
As long as you have that path defined, that I'm aiming to perfect my Image of G-d, then using a self-help tool doesn't make it any less Mussar.
The fact that Mussar is oriented around tiqun hamiddos (fixing the dimensions of one's character traits) makes Franklin's tool particularly useful.
That said, my experience teaching mussar in today's day-and-age, Franklin's focus on only listing failures is not as productive as building on successes. (I have theories as to what changed in people's attitudes, "but they won't fit in the confines of this margin".) I should not have been surprised, R' Wolbe makes the same point when he exlains why his book is about "Planting and Building in Education" as opposed to training or pruning.
Also, let's not forget that when the Ramchal wrote about cheshbon hanefesh, Franklin's system didn't exist yet. The original formulation was more of a free-form journaling of one's reactions and decisions.
-micha
I've always wondered at the remarkable similarities between Jewish Mussar and the moral writings of Dr. Samuel Johnson in the 18th century. I don't know enough about either to make a legitimate observation about which came first, or if they are influenced by each other, but it's something that could be interesting to research...
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