Cheshbon HaNefesh

by Menachem Mendel Levin, Yitzchak Scher (Foreword), Dovid Landesman (Editor)

This work offers a step-by-step approach to character refinement. Facing Hebrew and English, with an introduction by Rabbi Yitzchok Isaac Sher of Slobodka.

Lift yourself higher; transform yourself into the person you want to be. Far from pop-culture self-help books, this is a work developed hundreds of years ago by R' Menachem Mendel Levin, a prolific writer and Torah scholar whose breadth of knowledge is astonishing. Drawing from classic sources to form a step-by-step program for self-improvement and character refinement, this book gives hope and help to all who wish to perfect themselves. With its facing Hebrew and English translation, this book is so important that R' Yisrael Salanter, recognizing its true worth, encouraged a group of students to republish it in 1845, with a foreword by Rabbi Yitzchok Isaac Sher of Slobodka, also included in both Hebrew and English in this work.

Genres: Judaism, Judaica

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1809

Reviews

[Shai Afsai]

From Benjamin Franklin’s Influence on Mussar Thought and Practice: a Chronicle of Misapprehension and Forget Franklin: Franklin and the Musar Movement

The Hebrew-English edition published by Feldheim in 1995 is not only silent about Benjamin Franklin’s influence, its back cover also provides a misleading depiction of the book’s character-improvement method, suggesting—contrary to Menachem Mendel Levin/Lefin’s own words, which acknowledge that the method preceded him—that it is unique to Cheshbon ha-Nefesh, was formulated by Lefin, and was designed specifically for Jews:

CHESHBON HANEFESH, first published in Lemberg in 1812 [sic], presents a unique system for self-improvement and the development of positive character traits. Employing sophisticated psychological techniques and charts to monitor one’s progress, this method was designed specifically for [bnei Torah] [i.e., those intensively engaged in Torah study] and is as applicable today as it was when it was first formulated, nearly 200 years ago.

Among its other omissions, the Feldheim edition’s brief biographical note leaves out any mention of Lefin’s having been an important early maskil/proponent of the Jewish Enlightenment.

Ḥeshbon Ha-nefesh has been republished in Hebrew many times and in many places. However, to the best of my knowledge, only the 2015 edition published by Jerusalem’s Mossad Harav Kook acknowledges Franklin’s influence. In his Hebrew preface, editor Rabbi Mordekhai Shmuel Edelstein discusses “the gentile sage […] Benjamin Franklin [in whom] there arose a powerful yearning to reach moral perfection,” as well as the method presented in Franklin’s popular autobiography. As for why Lefin was not more open about who invented the technique at the core of his book, Rabbi Edelstein offers simply that “he had his reasons” (p. 5).

Nonetheless, Rabbi Edelstein never identifies Lefin as a maskil. Rather, Edelstein states: “I do not want to get into a broad discussion of the author’s biography, views, and circle of friends […]. I have avoided doing so for several reasons, and perhaps the time will come” (p. 1). Yet his footnotes suggest that he is not necessarily open to the possibility that Lefin was connected with the Haskalah/Jewish Enlightenment.

[John Oliver · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is part of the Mussar movement in Judaism, which emphasized practical measures towards self-improvement; this is a great precursor to the current collection of self-help books on the market.

[Ben Kruskal · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Mussar text, you don't just read this It needs to be studied. I made it through once, but I expect to be poring over this in years to come.