Orchot Tzaddikim
Basic Books of Mussar

Unlike the other basic books of the mussar movement, this one was published anonymously, so there is mystery and debate surrounding its authorship. Was it written by the Rosh, the Ashkenazi Tosafist who became the leading rabbi of Spain? Was it Yom Tov Lipmann Muelhausen, who lived a century later? No one is certain, but what is clear is that its forward-thinking teachings, including kindness to the handicapped and the proper treatment of servants and employees, made it a book of Jewish social psychology way ahead of its time.

• how Benjamin Franklin came to influence the mussar movement
• the perverse dangers of working on humility
• paranoia, a form of arrogance