I have been teaching the idea of "virtue" mostly through the prism of "restraint". A person in my Wednesday class (every Wednesday at 12:30 PM) asked, "But isn't virtue more than restraint?"

Yes, but let me start with the idea of "restraint" and move from there.

Remember, my starting place is human suffering. There is inevitable suffering, out of our control. Disease, war, natural disasters, crime - just getting older - all create suffering that is basically beyond our immediate control.

Due to popular demand, I am going to write something pretty dry, not very inspiring, and filled with information.

As I have been teaching about acquiring wisdom and virtue on Shabbat, people have asked me to write out a brief description of the whole thing. Here is it.

Wisdom: First, wisdom is a kind of knowledge, starting with knowledge of the self, especially the ego self. Wisdom also has to do with knowledge of the inner lives of others and processes of life. A wise person understands the rules of creating goodn...