"The one stone on which the entire building rests is the concept that God wants each person to complete him/herself body and soul. God is certainly capable of making people, and all of Creation, absolutely complete.Furthermore, it would have made much more sense for [God] to have done so, because insofar as [God] is perfect inevery way, it is fitting that [God's] works should also be totally perfect. But in [God's] great wisdom, [God] ruled it better to leave to people the completion of their own creation.
- Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato, "Siman Bet" in Da'at T'vunot
"In Hebrew, the collective word for all the traits of the nefesh-soul is middot. While that plural term is almost always translated into the useful English notion of 'traits of character,' the Hebrew word (singular middah) literally means 'measures.' We can find in this root a Mussar insight. The message is that each of us endowed at birth with every one of the full range of the human traits , and what what sets one person apart from another is not whether we have certain traits while someone else has different ones, but rather the degree, or measure, of the traits that live in each of our souls...it's not whether we have the traits - all of us have them all - but rather what gives us our distinctive way of being in the world is where are traits are measured on the continuum. Nor should we aspire to get rid of certain traits. Each has its role, thought certain traits will exist in too high or too low a measure. That's what sets our spiritual curriculum for us."
- Everyday Holiness by Alan Morinis, page 19
"Rabbi Yitzchok Isaac Sher...cites the teachings of the sages from the Talmud that report that when Saul heard David being praised, 'he (Saul) had a sinking feeling and envied him (BT Sanhedrin 93b).'...'One who is aware of how jealousy develops in the heart understands that if he experiences a sinking feeling when hearing his friend being praised, he had better fortify the musings of his heart with wisdom and knowledge (Chesbon haNefesh, trans. Silverstein, 5-6).' First you have to be aware of what you feel when jealousy arises; those feelings are cues to take appropriate action. Without that awareness, jealousy will arise and flourish unexamined and uninhibited, and the consequences are likely to be destructive."
- Everyday Holiness by Alan Morinis, page 254