Kindness, Compassion, Love, and Generosity at a Time of Mass Killing: The Musar Teachings of Rabbi Amy Eilberg

This article analyzes the musar (virtue/character-focused) teachings of Rabbi Amy Eilberg, the first woman ordained as a rabbi within Conservative Judaism, in relation to the historic nineteenth century Musar movement and broader literature on how virtues may be cultivated. It focuses on how Eilberg's work has developed in response to extreme violence and suffering in Israel/Palestine since October 7, 2023. Though her approach is more theologically unorthodox, morally universalistic, and politically engaged than the historic Musar movement, Eilberg builds on many practices advocated by that movement as she argues that cultivating virtues of love, kindness, compassion, and generosity for all people, including Palestinians, is necessary for responding to the present-day humanitarian crisis in Israel/Palestine.