Orchos Tzaddikim

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Title: Orchos Tzaddikim

Author: Unknown

Original Title: Sefer Hamiddot (“The Book of Traits”)

• Orchos Tzaddikim is a book of musar.
• Each character trait is referred to as a ‘gate’. The 28 gates in Orchos Tzaddikim  include:

• • The Gate of Haughtiness
  • The Gate of Humility
  • The Gate of Shame
  • The Gate of Arrogance
  • The Gate of Love
  • The Gate of Hatred
  • The Gate of Mercy
  • The Gate of Cruelty
  • The Gate of Happiness
  • The Gate of Worry
  • The Gate of Regret
  • The Gate of Anger
  • The Gate of Acceptance
  • The Gate of Envy
  • The Gate of Eagerness
  • The Gate of Laziness
  • The Gate of Generosity
  • The Gate of Miserliness
  • The Gate of Remembrance
  • The Gate of Forgetfulness
  • The Gate of Silence
  • The Gate of Falsehood
  • The Gate of Truth
  • The Gate of Flattery
  • The Gate of Slander
  • The Gate of Repentance
  • The Gate of Torah
  • The Gate of Fear of Heaven

Excerpt from the Introduction of Orchos Tzaddikim :

There are traits that must be exhibited often, and there are traits which must be exhibited sparingly. This is analogous to someone cooking a dish and needing vegetables and meat, water, salt, and pepper. He must use all of these ingredients by measure, a little of one, a lot of the other. If he limits the meat, the dish will be too thin. If he is over-generous with salt, it will be too salty to eat… The same is true of character traits. There are those which must be adopted in a large measure, such as humility, shame and the like, and those which must be adopted only sparingly, such as pride, audacity and harshness. Therefore, a man must weigh all of his traits on the balance scale of understanding to use each trait in its proper amount.

REFERENCES

Proverbs 1:1-3  The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel: To know wisdom and musar, to understand words of insight, to receive musar in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity.

Proverbs 1:7-8  The fear of Adonai is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and musar. Hear, my son, your father’s musar, and forsake not your mother’s teaching.

Proverbs 5:12, 23  And you will say, “How I hated musar and my heart despised reproof!” … He will die for lack of musar and because of his great folly he is led astray.

Proverbs 6:23  For the commandment is a lamp and the Torah a light, and the reproofs of musar are the way of life.

Proverbs 12:1  Whoever loves musar loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.