My Character Coach
← Back to home

⭐ Rate It

The sefarim, and how a passage finds its way to you

Ten classical mussar sefarim, the care taken to prepare every passage faithfully, and how your rating helps the right words come back to you.

1. The ten sefarim

SeferAuthor
Mesillat YesharimRamchal (Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto)
Chovot HaLevavotRabbeinu Bachya ibn Pakuda
Menorat HaMaorRabbeinu Yitzchak Aboab
Orchot TzaddikimAnonymous, ~15th century
Sha'arei TeshuvaRabbeinu Yona of Gerona
Pele YoetzRabbi Eliezer Papo
Orot HaTeshuvaRav Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook
Midot HaRe'iyahRav Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook
Cheshbon HaNefeshRabbi Menachem Mendel of Satanov
Orot HaKodeshRav Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook

Mesillat Yesharim is the foundational map of spiritual ascent — from carefulness to true holiness — following the ladder of Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair's beraita. Chovot HaLevavot distinguishes the inner duties of the heart (faith, trust, repentance) from the outer duties of action. Menorat HaMaor gathers mussar and aggadah, organized by "candles," drawing on Talmudic and midrashic sources for its teachings on traits and conduct. Orchot Tzaddikim organizes itself entirely around 28 named "gates," each one devoted to a single middah, from pride and humility through to the fear of Heaven. Sha'arei Teshuva is the classical work on teshuva — the kinds of sin, the paths back, and the process of inner purification. Pele Yoetz is an alphabetical guide to traits and conduct in everyday life, practical and warm in tone. Orot HaTeshuva, Midot HaRe'iyah, and Orot HaKodesh — three works by Rav Kook — center on "elevating the traits": Orot HaTeshuva traces the nature and stages of teshuva itself, Midot HaRe'iyah brings the soul's forces into balance through inner reflection, never through suppression, and Orot HaKodesh sets that work against a broader spiritual and philosophical backdrop of holiness, faith, and the soul. Cheshbon HaNefesh is the practical heart of the morning avodah (see the Morning Check-in page).

2. How each sefer is prepared with care

Every word the Guide ever sends you is copied faithfully from the sefer itself — never shortened, never paraphrased, never summarized. Before any passage can be shared, a careful preparation is done for each sefer, by hand and with attention, in two stages:

First, finding the chapters

Each sefer's own chapters and sections are clearly marked, exactly as the author divided them, so that every passage can always be placed in its proper context within the sefer.

Then, learning each passage on its own

Every passage in the sefer is then read carefully, one by one, to determine: is this simply a heading, already accounted for? Is it a short line that doesn't teach anything on its own, and so isn't sent as a stand-alone lesson? Does it depend entirely on the words before it to be understood — in which case it stays joined to that earlier passage, so that when the Guide sends you the earlier one, its continuation always comes along with it? Or does it stand fully on its own as a real, complete teaching?

Every passage that stands on its own is then labeled with the middah or theme it actually teaches — ענווה, גאווה, סבלנות, and so on — so that, later, the Guide can recognize which passages speak to which traits, and choose well for whatever you may be working on.

This preparation is checked and re-checked, and a sefer can always be revisited and refined further — nothing is ever considered final once and for all.

3. How your rating helps

Every morning passage you receive is remembered. When you reply with a rating from 0 to 10, that rating is recorded — and from then on, it shapes what comes to you next:

  1. Anything sent to you in the last thirty days is set aside — you will not see the same passage twice in that time.
  2. Every so often — roughly one time in five — a passage you once rated 7 or higher is deliberately brought back to you, weighted toward your preferred sefer if you've chosen one.
  3. Otherwise, a passage is chosen from whatever hasn't been sent recently — and if, somehow, everything has been sent too recently, the Guide simply draws from the whole library again.

Rate honestly — a high rating is the only way the Guide can know which words truly reached you, so it can bring you more like them.

4. Quick reactions and comments

A number isn't always the easiest way to respond in the moment. Two lighter alternatives sit alongside the 0–10 rating, and both are saved right on that passage's record:

  • Tap-react on the message — long-press the passage in WhatsApp and choose an emoji, the same way you'd react to any message. A clearly positive emoji (👍 ❤️ 🔥 and the like) or negative one (👎 😢 and the like) is treated as a quick like or dislike, and folds into the very same recycling logic as an explicit rating — a like behaves like a strong score, a dislike like a low one. Any other emoji is still saved, just without shaping what comes next.
  • Reply with a comment — swipe to reply directly on the passage message and write what you actually think, in your own words. That comment is stored alongside the passage for the record; it isn't yet used to choose future passages the way a rating or reaction is, but nothing you write is lost.

Whichever way you respond — a number, a tap, or a few words — it becomes part of what the Guide knows about you.