495) Benjamin Franklin as a ‘Founding Father’ of the Musar Movement

 

The 1844 edition of Cheshbon haNefesh by R. Menachem Mendel Lefin of Satanów (first published anonymously in 1808).

Introduction

This article ꟷ based extensively on the research by Shai Afsai[1] ꟷ examines how Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790), Founding Father of the United States and drafter and signer of the Declaration of Independence, made an unexpected, under-reported, yet significant contribution to the ethical philosophy of R. Menachem Mendel Lefin of Satanów (1749–1826). 

These ethical principles were then later adopted by the Lithuanian Musar movement under R. Yisrael Lipkin Salanter (1810–1883). 

“Leading members of the Lithuanian Musar movement loved Rabbi Menahem Mendel Lefin of Satanów’s method of character refinement” (Afsai 2019:55). 

However, neither R. Lefin nor R. Salanter made any indications that these ethical contributions originated with Benjamin Franklin. Nevertheless, these methods of character refinement were included in R. Lefin’s work, Cheshbon haNefesh, which became a key source for R. Yisrael Salanter’s Musar movement which was intended to be an alternative to Chassidism.  

Benjamin Franklin’s method of character development

When Benjamin Franklin was about twenty-five years old, he was determined to break old bad habits and acquire new good characteristics instead. He records in his autobiography: 

“I concluded at length, that the mere speculative Conviction that it was in our Interest to be completely virtuous, was not sufficient to prevent our Slipping. […] For this purpose I therefore contriv’d the following Method” (Benjamin Franklin, autobiography).[2] 

Franklin‘s self-betterment program revolved around thirteen worthy attributes. He drew up a list and concentrated on each of these thirteen character traits for one week, four times a year (13x4=52). He describes, in his autobiography, how this program changed and improved his life immeasurably. His thirteen virtues are as follows in his own words: 

                                                  

                                              TEMPERANCE 

Eat not to Dullness.

Drink not to Elevation.

 

SILENCE.

Speak not but what may benefit others or

yourself. Avoid trifling conversation.

 

ORDER.

Let all your Things have their Places. Let

each Part of your Business have its Time.

 

RESOLUTION.

Resolve to perform what you ought.

Perform without fail what you resolve.

 

FRUGALITY.

Make no Expense but to do good to

others or yourself: i.e., Waste nothing.

 

INDUSTRY.

Lose no Time. Be always employ’d

in something useful. Cut off all

unnecessary Actions.

 

SINCERITY.

Use no hurtful Deceit.

Think innocently and justly; and, if you

speak, speak accordingly.

 

JUSTICE.

Wrong none, by doing Injuries or

omitting the Benefits that are your

Duty.

 

MODERATION.

Avoid Extremes. Forbear resenting

Injuries so much as you think they

deserve.

 

CLEANLINESS.

Tolerate no Uncleanness in Body,

Clothes or Habitation.

 

TRANQUILITY.

Be not disturbed at Trifles, or at

Accidents common or unavoidable.

 

CHASTITY.

Rarely use Venery but for Health

or Offspring; Never to Dullness,

Weakness, or the Injury of your own

or another’s Peace or Reputation.

 

HUMILITY. 

Imitate Jesus and Socrates. 

 

Franklin made grid charts to monitor his progress. The charts had the seven days of the week running horizontally and the thirteen character attributes running vertically: 

Franklin believed in group support, and he even tried to form a secret group of adherents ꟷ the “United Party for Virtue” ꟷ who would support each other and work together, following his method of character-building for the perfection of society. 

R. Menachem Mendel Lefin of Satanów (1749–1826)

One person who came across Benjamin Franklin’s chart for character development was R. Menahem Mendel Lefin, from Satanów in Ukraine. R. Lefin was an orthodox rabbi who also was interested in the Haskalah (Enlightenment). This was not as uncommon as it is usually made out to be [see Kotzk Blog: 095) TALMUDIC COMMENTATORS WHO EMBRACED THE ENLIGHTENMENT:]. 

R. Lefin was quite open-minded and, at the same time, concerned that Jews maintain their traditional practices. He believed that even the religious Jews of the late eighteenth century should be exposed to what he considered to be the benefits of European medical and scientific progress as well as philosophical thought. To this end, he began translating some French medical texts into Hebrew. But he had no patience for Chassidim who he believed were locked in a superstitious past. 

In 1780, R. Lefin travelled to Berlin where he met one of the founders of the Haskalah movement, Moses Mendelssohn. In 1792, R. Lefin published a French booklet which promoted his vision of general education for Jews and expressed his opposition to Chassidism which he believed was holding them back. Instead of Chassidism, R. Lefin was a staunch promoter of the developing Musar movement which focussed on Jewish ethics and character building. 

This Musar movement was in its infancy stage, reaching greater fruition under the Lithuanian rabbi, Yisrael Lipkin Salanter. R. Salanter was sixteen years old when R. Lefin passed away. In the meantime, R. Lefin saw the nascent and developing Musar movement as an alternative to the Chassidic movement, and his primary role in developing this movement was often intentionally ignored by those who recorded the history of the Musar movement, because of his involvement in the Haskalah (Enlightenment).[3] 

To counter the Chassidic movement, R. Lefin’s vision of a new Musar movement could not remain in the realms of ethical theory alone. Instead, the new Musar movement had to be practical if it was to be able to present a viable alternative to Chassidism, which, at that time, was already well-established. 

Fortunately for R. Lefin, he happened to come across Benjamin Franklin’s rigid and practical program for character development. Their lifetimes overlapped by forty-one years. R. Lefin had spent much time with Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski (1734–1823) who was an influential Polish aristocrat and proponent of the Enlightenment. R. Lefin had tutored the prince’s children, and both the prince and Benjamin Franklin were Freemasons, and they knew each other. Franklin was fascinated by the power of secret universal societies, and he wanted to promote his program of ethical character development to all peoples and all religions. 

R. Lefin wrote a book entitled Cheshbon haNefesh. It was first published anonymously in 1808 and included an outline of the thirteen-step program of character development essentially taken from Franklin, with the omission of Jesus and Socrates. 

In the 1844 edition, eighteen years after R. Lefin’s passing, the frontispiece refers to the author, R. Lefin, as “הרב המשכיל החכם, the Rabbi, Maskil (Enlightened one) and Sage.” 

The title, “Cheshbon haNefesh, An Accounting of the Soul/Psyche,” indicates it is a work of character development. R. Lefin never claimed that the thirteen steps of character building were his original ideas, but he never attributed them to Franklin either. He simply stated: 

“[A] few years ago a new technique was discovered, and it is a wonderful invention in this task [of character improvement], and it seems this innovation will spread quickly, God willing…[to bring] light to the world” (Sefer Heshbon haNefesh, Merkaz haSefer, Jerusalem 1988:31). 

R. Yisrael Lipkin Salanter (1810–1883)

A short while later, R. Lefin was followed by R. Salanter from Lithuania and the Musar movement grew into a formidable and formal body that began to compete with Chassidism. It peaked around 1939 with a network of sixty yeshivot in Lithuania and Poland and boasted about three thousand students. A key part of the study curriculum was R. Lefin’s Cheshbon haNefesh: 

“Approved by twelve rabbis in its first edition, Heshbon Ha-nefesh – including Franklin’s system – would eventually become a standard study text in Musar institutions” (Afsai 2019:60). 

This way, R. Salanter had well-cemented R. Lefin’s Cheshbon haNefesh into the curriculum of the conservative Musar movement with its focus on ethics and ethical behaviour. Underpinning much of the success of the Musar movement was Benjamin Franklin’s thirteen steps towards character refinement, which at that stage, had not been acknowledged. 

Uncovering the Franklin link

From around 1815, Jewish scholars began to write about Franklin's link to R. Lefin’s Cheshbon haNefesh. In 1953, Dr. Menahem Glenn, in his biography on R. Salanter entitled Israel Salanter: Religious-Ethical Thinker, demonstrated conclusively that Franklin originated the character improvement method that had become associated with the Musar movement. In 1969, R. Nissan Waxman wrote about his surprise at learning of this unusual connection. R. Waxman wrote that in all the years he had studied Musar in the Mir and Slobodka yeshivot, neither he nor anyone else there was aware of Franklin’s influence on such an important Musar work. (For more on this evolution, see Shai Afsai's 'Benjamin Franklin’s Influence on Mussar Thought and Practice: a Chronicle of Misapprehension', Review of Rabbinic Judaism 22: 2, 228-276, https://doi.org/10.1163/15700704-12341359 . Related articles may be found at https://shaiafsai.com/benjamin-franklin .)

Omission or censorship?

Why did the Franklin link to important Musar literature remain secretive for so long? Was it simply a case of this significant piece of information falling through the cracks, or was it something more sinister? It seems likely that this piece of information did not just fall through the cracks. 

Firstly, the Orthodox religious world generally likes to see its traditions as rooted in reliable rabbinic sources going back directly to Sinai. The detail of a flagship Musar work having a vital section, especially on character development for a ben Torah, authored by a non-Jew, would not sit well. 

Secondly, R. Lefin, who first inserted Franklin’s thirteen-step program into his Cheshbon haNefesh, was associated with the Haskala (Enlightenment) movement. 

The problem was that these two facts could not be made to disappear, and for these reasons, both Franklin and Lefin have essentially been written out of Musar history. Until recently, the Franklin connection has been utterly hidden and lost to history (and even R. Lefin did not dare to openly mention the Franklin connection). And R. Lefin’s strong connection to the Haskalah has been ignored and glossed over. 

Feldheim Publishers

In 1995, a Hebrew-English edition of Cheshbon haNefesh was published by Feldheim. This was three decades since the Franklin connection had been publicised, and yet, Feldheim Publishers remained silent on the then-known matter of Franklin’s authorship of the thirteen steps. Feldheim Publishers, instead claimed that these ideas originated with R. Lefin (who, as mentioned, never made that claim himself, admitting instead that “[A] few years ago a new technique was discovered…”). Yet, on the back cover of the book we find the following: 

“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.” 

Besides its statement that Cheshbon haNefesh was first published in 1812 (it was, instead, first published in 1808!), and besides its claim that it originated with R. Lefin who designed it “specifically for bnei Torah” ꟷ it also completely ignores R. Lefin’s extensive connections to the Haskalah movement. This was a convenient omission as R. Lefin’s deep commitment to the Haskalah would not have been approved by the vast majority of the readers of his Cheshbon haNefesh. 

Mosad haRav Kook

By contrast, the 2015 edition of Cheshbon haNefesh published by Jerusalem’s Mossad Harav Kook, openly acknowledged the Franklin influence. Its editor, Rabbi Mordekhai Shmuel Edelstein makes open mention of: 

“the gentile sage […] Benjamin Franklin [in whom] there arose a powerful yearning to reach moral perfection…” (p. 5). 

Yet, again, even R. Edelstein does not mention R. Lefin’s intense Haskalah affiliation. Instead, he admits that he does not: 

“want to get into a broad discussion of the author’s biography, views, and circle of friends…” (p. 1). 

Torah Umesorah (the National Society for Hebrew Day Schools)

Torah Umesorah has gone one step further along the road of misinformation. It not only hides the now common knowledge about Benjamin Franklin as the innovator of the thirteen steps, and it not only ignores R. Lefin’s Haskalah affiliation, but it removes R. Lefin entirely from the narrative ꟷ and falsely claims that the author/innovator was R. Yisrael Lipkin Salanter! 

Thus, Benjamin Franklin’s thirteen steps have undergone a thorough process of Judaisation and sanitisation, and have now become the exclusive “13 Middos” of “Reb Yisroel Salanter!”

 

 

Further Reading

Kotzk Blog: 151) ‘CHOVOT HALEVAVOT’ – A SUFI CONNECTION?

Kotzk Blog: 197) BABYLONIAN INFLUENCES ON THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD:

Kotzk Blog: 102) DID ST. PETER COMPOSE THE 'NISHMAT' PRAYER?

---

[1] Afsai, S., 2019, ‘Forget Franklin: Franklin and the Musar Movement’, Segula: The Jewish History Magazine, 54-63. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e1b47c2f2fa43701e2fb603/t/5e40b8002e50ae04a9cb5ea5/1581299942043/Forget+Franklin-Franklin+and+the+Musar+Movement-Shai+Afsai.pdf

[2] Franklin, B., 2003, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, edited by L. W. Labaree et al, Yale University, New Haven, 148.

[3] The roots of the Musar movement technically go all the way back to the eleventh century.