13�Accounting For DifferencesEmmy Zitter

WORKS CITEDBaker, Jeniffer Jordan. "Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography and the Credibility of Personality." Early American Literature 35 (2000): 274-93.Breitwieser, Mitchell. Cotton Mather and Benjamin Franklin: The Price of Representative Personality. N.Y.: Cambridge University Press, 19�4.Cawelti, John G. and Atherton, Eric. "Who Named Franklin's Autobiography?" ANQ � (Spring 1995): 17-27.Etkes, Immanuel. Rabbi Israel Salanter and the Mussar Movement. Trans. Jonathan Chipman. Jerusalem: Jewish Publication Society, 1993. Franklin, Benjamin. The Autobiography. In Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter, 4th edition. Ed. Baym, Franklin, et al. NY: Norton, 1995. 226-2�6.Glenn, Menahem G. Israel Salanter: Religious-Ethical Thinker: The Story of a Religious-Ethical Current in Nineteenth Century Judaism. Brooklyn: Yashar, 2005.Gusdorf, Georges. "Conditions and Limits of Autobiography." 1956. Trans. James Olney. In Autobiography: Essays Theoretical and Critical. Ed. James Olney. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 19�0. 2�-4�.Hamelman, Steven L. "Autobiography and Archive: Franklin, Jefferson, and the Revised Self." The Midwest Quarterly 43 (Winter 2002): 125-142.Lapin, Rabbi David. "Chochma Bagoyim: Using Secular Methodology for Personal Development." Article on portal—The FrumCommunity.com. April 2007. http://www.frumcommunity.com/Default.aspx?tabid=1760&articleType=ArticleView&articleId=73. Lefin, Rabbi Menachem Mendel (of Satanov). Cheshbon Ha-Nefesh. Ed. Dovid Landesman. Trans. Rabbi Shraga Silverstein. Jerusalem: Feldheim, 1995.Midrash Eichah Rabbah 2. Jerusalem: Levin-Epstein, 196�.Peters, Matthew. "Individual Development and the American Autobiography: Franklin, Thoreau, Adams." Philological Quarterly �4 (Spring 2005): 241-257.Rice, Grantland S. The Transformation of Authorship in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997.Sinkoff, Nancy. "Benjamin Franklin in Jewish Eastern Europe: Cultural Appropriation in the Age of the Enlightenment." Journal of the History of Ideas 61 (January 2000): 133-52. Spengeman, William C. The Forms of Autobiography: Episodes in the History of a Literary Genre. New Haven: Yale University Press, 19�0.Tebbel, John. A History of Book Publishing in the United States. Vol. 1. New York: R.R. Bowker, 1972. Warner, Michael. The Letters of the Republic. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1990.

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his characteristic of equanimity. He compares such a person to "a certain type of snake in America" .(110-111) מין נחש ידוע בארצות אמעריקא Sinkoff suggests that the connection between Rav Mendel and Franklin lay in the figure of Prince Czartoryski, the main authority in Podolia, Poland, at the time that Rav Mendel lived there. Rav Mendel tutored Czartoryski's sons, and received a stipend from him, and Czartoryski apparently knew Franklin personally in France. Sinkoff's analysis generally follows a trend in academic historical analysis that associates Rav Mendel with "religious Enlightenment" (138). Sinkoff sees in the "twelve rabbinic approbations" that appeared with the first publication of Cheshbon Ha- Nefesh mere camouflage for an Enlightenment agenda, and she ignores the re-publication of the work by Rav Yisroel Salanter and the Slobodka Yeshiva (146). Generally, Sinkoff sees in Cheshbon Ha-Nefesh a "weapon in Lefin's lifelong literary war against Hasidism" (133). Although a thorough refutation of the Enlightenment's attempt to appropriate Lefin's works is beyond the scope of my article, it is interesting to note that even Sinkoff admits that "most of the primary biographical material about Mendel Lefin comes from later generations of enlightened East European Jews" (136, note 14) and she uses the term "hagiographically" (136) to describe the way these followers of the Enlightenment tried to co-opt Lefin's life and works to make him "one of theirs". � When referring to Franklin's terminology, I follow his system of capitalization.9 Interestingly, Rav Mendel also seems interested in scientific and natural phenomena; although we have no record of him chasing lightning bolts with keys as Franklin famously—and dangerously tried to do, he often uses images from Nature to explain his ideas about spiritual matters. See, for example, his opening metaphor of reeds and rushes in the wind or his discussion of training and harnessing animals (30-31).10 See, for example, Gusdorf, who declares "the conscious awareness of the singularity of each individual life" as a precondition for autobiography (29).11 Critics such as Rice, Spengeman, Breitweiser, and Warner see Franklin not so much in terms of his individuality but rather view him as making himself into a representative of a new American identity centering on economic and cultural issues. Baker also sees Franklin as creating such a "representative" persona, with Franklin turning the Autobiography into a "financial instrument a national letter of credit endorsed by Franklin himself that attests to the economic promise of America" (276). However, Baker distinguishes between the more personal persona created in earlier parts of the Autobiography and the economic and civic details that create a more representative persona in the second two parts. Peters makes a case for both sides of the question of American autobiography, examining the tension between "the opposing needs of individual elevation and individual sublimation into the community" that he sees as characteristic of Franklin's and Thoreau's autobiographical works (242).12 Franklin doesn't explain how he would have dealt mathematically with a list of twelve virtues, which wouldn't work with the overall design of thirteen virtues brought to the fore four times a year, for a total corresponding to the fifty-two weeks in the year. 13 Franklin's final words here, which end the second part of the Autobiography, are justly famous for their self-deprecating irony and humor. They also provide us with another piece of textual evidence that Rav Mendel was familiar with Franklin's words. The final sentence of the section on Humility in Rav Mendel's book is a mirror image of Franklin's ironic statement, as Rav Mendel tells us that to gain Humility a person must "be aghast when he sees his friend taking pride in a minor, degrading trait and remember that he too suffers from the same trait—especially when that minor, degrading trait is none other than pride itself!" ולהיות נבהל ממדות גרועות קטנות שחברמתנגה על ידיהן, כשנזכר שישנן גם בו, ומה גם כשאותה מדה גרועה הקטנה היא היא הגאוה עצמה )147-146( 14 Perhaps because it is less centered around the individual than Franklin's system, Rav Levin's method allows for and in fact encourages taking on the regimen with a friend (66-67), one's spouse (7�-79), or Rabbis and teachers (�2-�3).

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for a few hours, and then I would recall that in far-off India my people were trapped, perhaps suffering. I would search website after website for the latest news—there wasn't any, nothing was clear yet—and say some more Tehillim. And then I would return to my work. On Motzei Shabbat, the bitter news came through. Today, Sunday morning, our nation has to face searing stories of a young man shot over an open Talmud, pictures of blood on Torah scrolls, the horrific image of a young husband wrapping his murdered wife in a tallit and waiting for his own death. It is too much to contemplate, too hard to bear, and one wonders why we continue working. And the answer, if there is one, is that a Jew continues working. I have just completed the first draft of this essay. I would like to dedicate it in all humility to the memories of Rav Gavriel Holtzberg and Rivka Hotzberg, A"H. My humility here is not the assumed one of Franklin's persona, but rather the humility of one contemplating two individuals who spent their lives doing G-d's work and who gave their lives for Him. I find comfort in Rav Mendel's description of the reward for those who have achieved the perfection of virtue that he describes, those who "[serve] Him in joy for as long as [they] live, until [they] return to the dust and [their] spirit returns to its place, delighting in its garden of Eden and deriving its pleasure from the radiance of the Shechinah" (61). May their families be comforted. השם יקום דמם

1 Franklin did not give his work the title The Autobiography. The work was first published as a Memoir (both in French and English). For more on the question of the name, see Cawelti and Atherton. Though the work's identity as autobiography is clear, Hamelman sees elements of the picaresque novel in Franklin's self-portrayal, with Franklin as the classic "rogue (picaro) who plays many roles and lives by his wits in his rise, despite many vacillations in fortune, from indigence and obscurity to wealth and renown" (128). My citations of The Autobiography are from the Norton edition and follow its pagination; citations in Hebrew and English of Cheshbon Ha-Nefesh follow the Feldheim edition. 2 For a detailed account of Rav Mendel's influence on Rav Yisroel Salanter, see Etkes, 123-30.3 See Glenn, 33; Landesman, "Introduction" in Cheshbon Ha-Nefesh. 4 Hamelman points out a little known detail in the fascinating publication history of the work. In a memoir that Hamelman compares to the Autobiography, Thomas Jefferson describes how Franklin on his deathbed gave him part of his manuscript, which Jefferson subsequently passed on to Franklin's grandson. Jefferson then loses sight of the manuscript and his own work ends on a note of mystery, in which Jefferson wonders whether Franklin's grandson could be "a parricide of the memory of his immortal grandfather" who has suppressed Franklin's manuscript because it points an accusing finger at the British (quoted in Hamelman, 138). 5 All quotes are from Landesman's edition. For convenience, I give both the original Hebrew and Silverstein's English translation. 6 According to Tebel, Franklin's innovations in technology were the most important since the invention of the printing press (104). 7 Though it seems unlikely that Rav Mendel ever visited America, he does makes an intriguing mention of Franklin's homeland in a metaphor that he creates to describe one who has to work on

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to the fulfillment of "the entire purpose of your creation,"and in helping an individual achieve that purpose the system, the book itself is wiped out. However, the self, which has been the "subject" of the book, not only remains, but it achieves its fullest purpose. Not so with Benjamin Franklin, whose very life is linked to the book. Pride is the underpinning of Franklin's sense of self, of his identity, and of his book, and it thus finally cannot be erased. Moreover, for Franklin, to attain perfection would be to erase the self, because his is a sense of individuality that is not linked with G-d's creation of a universe but with one man's, one individual's, creation of a book. Thus Franklin has created a book that cannot be wholly erased, at the heart of which is a system in which, for him, absolute success would mean failure—and in which failure means success. For paradoxically, this very failure in Franklin's attainment of Humility allows for creation of the Autobiography and his system for attaining virtues. It is this system that Rav Mendel uses and adapts, turning it into a vehicle that can help the individual reach true success as he or she moves slowly towards perfection while retaining his or her humility—with the help of G-d.

A Final, Personal Note

I completed the research and the outline for this essay earlier and began some of the writing, but I cleared one full day of my busy week to try to finish the lion's share of the work. That day was Thursday, erev Rosh Chodesh Kislev 5769, Yom Kippur Katan, just three days ago. It was a tough day to work. The night before, the terrible events of coordinated terror attacks in Mumbai, India, had been announced. The world, especially the Jewish world, waited to hear word of the fate of those trapped in the Beit Chabad in Mumbai, particularly that of the young couple, Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, A"H, who were the shelichim there. We here in Israel are all too used to this kind of pressure. When our people suffer, we suffer too. We interrupt our day for prayers, for Tehillim. We call friends and family for news, trying to strengthen each other in difficult times. But at the same time, we keep on working. It has become a mantra of life here that we must go on, that to stop living everyday life is to give into terror. And if I didn't do my writing that day, my article, an article in which I try to gain an understanding of a work of Torah by comparing it with a secular book, would not be ready in time and might not ever get written. And so, I wrote. I tried to concentrate on the ideas, the research, the words of the two texts and my own search for words. I was able to focus on the paper and forget

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have diminished year by year, season by season and week by week. You will thus know that G-d has desired your actions and has led you on the path of truth. As our Sages said (Makos 10b): In the path that one wishes to follow, one is led. (60-61; emphasis mine)

ובמוצאי כל שנה ושנה תעבור גם על כל אחד ואחד בלוחות הסמוכים הנ"ל בפרטות, וראית ורחב ושמח לבבך

בעזרת השם יתברך, כי תמצא העוונות מתמעטין והולכין משנה לשנה ומתקופה לתקופה ומשבוע לשבוע,

ובא תדע כי רצה אלוקים מעשיך ונחך בדרך אמת, כמו שאמרו חכמינו ז"ל: "בדרך שאדם רוצה לילך,

מוליכין אותו".

The issue of acknowledging G-d's help in allowing the system to work reveals one final paradox that emerges from our comparison of Rav Mendel's short, powerful text and Benjamin Franklin's classic autobiographical account. Franklin admits that he never attained perfection, despite the creativity and effectiveness of his method. He describes rather comically how he actually had to switch books because the first became "full of Holes" as he had so many faults to erase "to make room for new Ones in a new Course" (283). Finally he "transferred my Tables and Precepts to the Ivory Leaves of a Memorandum Book, on which the Lines were drawn with red Ink that made a durable Stain, and on those Lines I mark'd my Faults with a black Lead Pencil, which Marks I could easily wipe out with a wet Sponge" (283). Over time he cut down on his regimen and eventually stopped it altogether, "but I always carried my little Book with me" (283). Rav Mendel, by contrast, sees the possibility of attaining perfection over time, virtue by virtue:

When you follow this path securely for a few more seasons, you will find that all traces of the violation of a particular trait have disappeared from your notebook. Slowly but surely you will be able to replace all of the original traits with new ones, until you reach the point where your notebook will be entirely devoid of markings of any violations—testimony to the purity of your heart and the triumph of your intellectual spirit over the animal spirit. The entire purpose of your creation was to achieve this.

ואז תלך לבטח דרכך עוד איזה תקופות, עד שימחה זכר העונות של מדה אחת מספרך לגמרי, ותוכל להכניס

אחרת הצריכה רפואה במקומה. וכך תוכל להכניס אחת לאחת אחרות במקומם, עד שיטהר כל ספרך מכתמי

העונות, והיו לאותות על טוהר לבבך ועל ממשלת עוז נפשך המדברת על הבהמית. שכל עקרך לכך נוצרת

.)61-62(

In Rav Mendel's book, erasure is a sign of success. Adhering to the system leads

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Each individual does matter .בכדי לשוב אחר כך אל ההנאה העליונה...בשכר עמלה וזכויותיה" )35-34(in this conception of the exalted place of humankind in the universe, but a person matters only insofar as he or she advances as an individual working towards self-development for the sake of G-d. Humankind's place in the universe is humbling—but it is exalting as well. This dual nature creates a different conception of humility, one that becomes part of a dramatic and ennobling, as well as humbling, struggle for human development. Thus Rav Levin could negotiate the contradictions between working towards humility before G-d through a system that is rooted in pride of self, although he could not create such a system and at the same time retain humility as central to his conception of moral perfection. Benjamin Franklin's sense of his importance as an individual, and his lack of Humility, made possible his autobiography and the system he created for perfecting human beings, even as it made it impossible for him to achieve perfection. It also makes the story of his successes his story, and not G-d's, so to speak. Franklin does acknowledge G-d's blessing as he begins his work, saying that "I desire with all Humility to acknowledge, that I owe the mention'd Happiness for my Past Life to his kind Providence, which led me to the Means I us'd and gave them Success" (227; emphasis mine). We know, however, from his own admission at the end of the second part of the Autobiography that Franklin's "humility" is assumed, a put-on, a fake, an appearance, and not a reality. Thus, Franklin's use of the words "with all Humility" in acknowledging G-d's help opens up to suspicion the sincerity of his thanks to G-d. Indeed, after this initial acknowledgement of Providence, G-d simply doesn't show up much in the story of Franklin's success; it is "the Means I us'd" that forms the heart of the story (227; emphasis mine). Although Rav Mendel's regimen must work on an individual basis, as we have seen it places the emphasis not so much on the individual as individual but on the individual as created by G-d to do the work assigned one by G-d.14 Such a stance allows for the focus on individual development even as it allows—as it demands—humility in the face of G-d. This dual vision also allows for a balance between the striving of the individual and the need for G-d's help. While Franklin gives one token, possibly ironic "thank you" to Providence for his blessings, and no credit to G-d for his personal achievements, Rav Mendel's book often cites the need for G-d's help in the struggle. One striking example occurs early on in the book, as Rav Mendel sets out the details of his system:

At the end of the year, carefully review the charts of summation. With G-d's help, what you see will make you quite happy, for you will find that the violations

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give us the system. Paradoxically, their very greatness in acquiring the Virtue of Humility, which Franklin could never do, made impossible the sense of pride in an individual life that is necessary in order to turn that life into autobiography. That Virtue of Humility makes impossible, as well, creation of a system that turns one's self and one's spiritual struggles into a book. It thus makes sense that Franklin finally rejects the reality of Humility except as something useful for appearances' sake. Rav Mendel, however, though he makes use of Franklin's technique, rooted as it is in a sense of Pride, keeps Humility central to his conception of the system. Significantly, the one Biblical figure cited most in the pages of Cheshbon Ha-Nefesh as a model of perfection is Moshe Rabbenu, the Bible's paradigm for Humility. In discussing "continuous conditioning" )חנוך מתמיד( as part of the regimen, Rav Mendel quotes Rambam, who says "Every man can make himself like [i.e. reach the level of] Moshe Rabbenu "יכול כל אדם לעשות עצמו כמשה רבינו, עליו השלום (Rambam, Hilkhot Teshuvah, 5:2; cited in Cheshbon Ha-Nefesh 100-101). He then goes on to speak of "Moshe and the giants of previous generations" ו[הענקים[... משה who "because of the superiority of their hearts…were thus conditioned to be ,הקדמוניםhumble and fearful to the point where the fear of G-d was a small thing for them"— מחמת עוצם רוחב ליבם היתה גדולת הבורא יתברך נראית אליהם בסמוך ובגלוי תמיד, ונתחנכו על ידי כך בענווה

וביראה כל ימיהם, עד שנעשו מלתא זוטרתא לגביהו 105-104.

I have stated several times that pride goes hand-in-hand with a sense of the importance of the individual, and that the two characteristics are linked when it comes to the autobiographical impulse. It is important to distinguish between the two, however, truly to understand Rav Mendel's use of Franklin's system despite the lack of a basis for autobiography in the tradition in which Rav Mendel was writing. Critics see a sense of self that is rooted in a collective, rather than individual, identity as antithetical to autobiography. Yet the humility that Rav Mendel writes about, like the humility he describes in Moshe Rabbenu, is rooted in the individual identity of all humankind in the face of G-d's greatness. This is a kind of collective identity, indeed, but one which allows for—and in fact makes Divinely necessary—individual development, as well. Cheshbon Ha-Nefesh opens with a short philosophical treatise about the nature of human beings and their place in G-d's universe. Above humankind are the Angels, who, though perfect and eternal, are nonetheless "somewhat pitiable," קצת ,עלובים because they haven't earned their place in the Heavens, but rather depend only on G-d's mercy (34-35). Below humankind are animals, for whom absolute death prevails. But humankind's place in the universe allows human beings "to be able to return to the Divine bliss...as payment for their toil and for the good that they have done"

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be viewed as an act of pride. A humble Ben Franklin, if one such could be imagined, could no more have created a system aimed at perfection than he could have written an autobiography that uses his life, with all its imperfections, as an exemplum for others. The Pride that we see "often in this History" makes the History possible in the first place. This, and more. For the center of Franklin's system is the creation of a book that follows one's life closely, a chronological moral and ethical "rags-to-riches" story told through the lines and markings of the notebook. The creation of such a book of self-examination mirrors Franklin's autobiographical impulse. The book that Franklin describes as the centerpiece of his method of behavioral change becomes a kind of synechdochal "book within the book," with the stuff of autobiography contained within its pages. Humility, then, though one of the Virtues to be sought after, actually is inimical to the autobiographical impulse, and thus a system for human improvement that is based on such an impulse demands failure in the acquisition of the Virtue. Perhaps Rav Mendel sensed the inherent contradiction between acquiring Humility and writing one's life as autobiography. Certainly he begins by saying that early proponents of mussar avoided the autobiographical:

...הפליגו חכמינו ז"ל להרחיב בה את הדיבור לפקח את הבינה שלנו, להראות לנו את הנולד כהווה והסתום כגלוי.

ואף על פי שהן עצמן צדיקים וחסידים גדולים היו, נאה דורשין ונאה מקימין, ואין לנו פה להשיב על תוכחתם,

מכל מקום הרי הם לא דברו אלא באזני נפש השכלית בלבד....והלואי עזבו לנו אותן צדיקים המוכיחים,

מאורעותיהן.... ספור פרטי גם לברכה, זכרונם לפניהם, ששמשו תלמידיהם פנים כל על או

ולהעלותן למדרגתם הנשאה שאנו משתוממין עליה מבלי יכולת להגיע אליה.

Our Sages expounded at length, opening our eyes so that we might see the future as clearly as we see the present, the hidden as clearly as we see the obvious. Though they were themselves great, practicing what they preached, and though we stand silent in the face of their reproof, nevertheless, they only addressed the intellectual spirit….Would that these reproving tzaddikim—or at least their students—had left us some account of their lives… for we would then be able to see how they were able to achieve their lofty stature which we gaze at in awe without hope of achieving it ourselves. (50-51; emphasis mine)

With these words, Rav Mendel introduces "the new strategy" that was developed for behavioral change—Ben Franklin's system, autobiographically based. We cannot look to our earlier Sages, especially the earliest proponents of ethics, or mussar, to

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remained problematic for Franklin. Franklin confesses that he had some serious problems with the Virtue of Order, and "In Truth I found myself incorrigible with respect to Order" (284). With his characteristic humor, Franklin depicts himself as one who can rationalize this failure by saying that "a benevolent Man should allow a few faults in himself, to keep his Friends in Countenance" (284). Nevertheless, he readily admits to some regret for his inability to excel at this particular Virtue, commenting that with the passing of years he more and more feels "very sensibly the want of it" (2�4). Aside from his failure at attaining a high level of Order, Franklin confesses to one other major failure: the attainment of Humility. Franklin tells us that he added this Virtue to his list only at the end, almost as an afterthought, at the behest of a "Quaker Friend [who…] kindly informed me that I was generally thought proud" (2�5).12 He then admits that he never attained the Virtue of Humility at all. Here is his confession:

I cannot boast of much Success in acquiring the Reality of the Virtue; but I had a good deal with regard to the Appearance of it….In reality there is perhaps no one of our natural Passions so hard to subdue as Pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself. You will see it perhaps often in this History. For even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my Humility. (2�6) 13

"You will see it perhaps often in this History…." Franklin shows no real disappointment at never attaining Humility, unlike his real regret at his inability to excel in the Virtue of Order. And for good reason. For the spirit behind his whole work, behind the whole notion of autobiography, is antithetical to Humility. The pride that remains so much a part of Franklin is a necessary adjunct to the sense of his individual importance, a sense that makes autobiography possible in the first place. This is especially true of Franklin's story, an autobiography of the rags-to-riches sort that tells how Franklin "emerg'd from the Poverty and Obscurity in which [he] was born and bred, to a State of Affluence and some Degree of Reputation in the World" (226). Franklin begins his description of the system by telling us how he "conceiv'd the bold and arduous Project of arriving at moral Perfection" (278). His first attempts to reach perfection fail, and he then goes on to "contrive" the method that Rav Mendel adapts (27�). Despite Franklin's serious and not-so-serious admissions of his inability to reach perfection even through the system, the very ambition to reach perfection can

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surely not a coincidence that Franklin, well known for his fascination with scientific phenomena, uses both of these techniques as centerpieces of his behavioral system.9

Even the centrality of a notebook to the system reflects Franklin's unique personality. Books were obviously fundamental to Franklin's achievements as master printer, writer, and originator of the first public lending library. But books were more than just another tool for Franklin to use in attaining his multiple achievements and in his general pursuit of success. The opening metaphor of the Autobiography compares his very life to a book. Franklin states that if offered a choice for living life again, "I should have no Objection to a Repetition of the same Life from its Beginning, only asking the Advantage Authors have in a second Edition to correct some Faults of the first" (227). He extends this metaphorical comparison between his life and books in referring to his various indiscretions and peccadilloes as "errata," a printer's term for errors in a text. Franklin's identity as man and as book fuses through such metaphors, which underline the intimate connection between man and text. This connection is basic to the formation of autobiography, the genre in which one turns his or her life into the written word. And it is, I think, to this notion of autobiography as genre that we must look in order to obtain a deeper understanding of why Rav Mendel ultimately used a secular source to create a frame for his Torah wisdom, not merely as a matter of convenience but as a literary and philosophical necessity. It has become an axiom of the study of literary theory that the underpinning of autobiography as a genre is a strong sense of the importance of the individual.10 Autobiography is made possible when a person feels that his or her individual life and identity really matter. Thus, modern autobiography begins in the eighteenth century with Rousseau's Confessions, at the time that, both socially and politically, a new sense of the importance of each individual is arising. The development of Franklin's surname illustrates the development from a shared to an individual identity. Franklin explains that his name derives from "the Name Franklin that before was the Name of an Order of People" (227). A Franklin in medieval times was a landowner, well-to-do but not of noble birth—Chaucer's Franklin in the Canterbury Tales may be the best-known example in literature. What centuries before Ben Franklin's time would have been the name of a British social and economic ranking, part of a group, turns into the name of one of the greatest individuals in American history, one whose life therefore can be turned into autobiography.11

Although he admits that he never fully realized his ambition of attaining "moral Perfection," Franklin is generally satisfied with his progress and credits his system with making possible his exceptional successes in life. However, two of the Virtues

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difficult issues with regard to this accepted distinction between secular knowledge and Torah wisdom. In an article that appeared on the Internet, Rabbi David Lapin suggests an original reading of the significance of Rav Mendel's reference to the printing press mentioned above. He states that the image of the printing press is Rav Mendel's metaphorical explanation for how he can use secular knowledge in a discussion of human behavior. In the same way that a printing press is a technology that can be used for any kind of content, true or false, holy or secular, Franklin's system is a vehicle, a technique devoid of content that can be used for Jewish purposes. Significantly, and we might say with almost startling prescience, Franklin states that

tho my Scheme was not wholly without Religion there was in it no Mark of any of the distinguishing Tenets of any particular Sect. I had purposely avoided them; for being fully persuaded of the Utility and Excellency of my Method, and that it might be serviceable to People in all Religions, and intending some time or other to publish it, I would not have anything in it that should prejudice any of any Sect against it (2�5).

Franklin's system becomes a neutral template in which Rav Mendel can legitimately inject Jewish content, using secular understanding of human behavioral patterns to inspire a life more properly devoted to Torah.

III. A Question of Genre

Thus, in Cheshbon Ha-Nefesh Rav Mendel successfully integrates Jewish content into a secular vehicle, revealing a form of Torah knowledge through his use of "knowledge from the nations," i.e. חכמת הגויים. Perhaps he adapted Franklin's ideas for Jewish spiritual purposes, rather than coming up with a system by himself, simply as a matter of practical convenience. If a system already existed that was eminently suitable and adaptable to his needs, there was no reason to look further or to create a new one. And without a doubt, Benjamin Franklin was uniquely qualified to create such a system. Franklin tells us that he was "the Tithe of his [father's] sons," and as such, he was meant originally to be put "to the Service of the Church" (230). Though he ended up training as a printer and working in the realms of business and politics, Franklin retained the interest in moral development that one would expect of a potential Church minister and that would be necessary for the author of a system of human improvement. Moreover, in developing a practical system for modifying human behavior, Franklin exhibits his characteristic bent for finding practical solutions to practical problems. Observation and record-keeping are both critical parts of scientific method. It is

Accounting For Differences149 Emmy Zitter

while his list is derived generally from different writers' views of morality, he creates his own list based on his own experience of "Virtues…that at that time occurr'd to me as necessary or desirable" (279).� Rav Mendel's system of recording the virtues and lapses is also more developed than is Franklin's, as it includes charts that allow for seasonal and annual accounting of the lapses. The most significant difference between the two systems is not so much in the method described as in the relative importance of the topic to the overall text. For Franklin, the description of his method is a small, if well-known, part of the much larger project of autobiography. For Rav Mendel, it is the center around which the larger mussar text is structured. Cheshbon Ha-Nefesh opens with an "Introduction" that describes the reasons why such a system might be needed, and then the book goes on to set out the system in detail. The last half of the book is devoted to short, three or four page discussions of each of the thirteen virtues. Interestingly, Franklin tells us that he had "purposed writing a little Comment on each Virtue, in which I would have shown the Advantages of possessing it, and the Mischiefs attending its opposite Vice," an apt description of what Rav Mendel actually did in the second half of his book (285). Franklin goes on to say that "the necessary close Attention to private Business in the earlier part of Life, and public Business since, have occasioned my postponing [writing] it" (285). We have, then, every reason to believe that Rav Mendel read some version of Franklin's Autobiography, adapting his system of behavior modification for his mussar book and in a sense completing Franklin's uncompleted project by adding more material about each of the virtues. Perhaps a more intriguing question is not whether or how Rav Mendel was influenced by Franklin's work, but why. Why look to a secular work at all when creating a book of mussar? The question here is not one of simple influence, but a larger, metaphysical question. In a famous injunction about the role of secular knowledge in seeking truth, the Sages said: "Believe knowledge from the nations; do not believe in Torah knowledge from the nations")חכמה בגויים תאמין, תורה בגויים אל תאמין( (Eichah Rabba 2, 47). We can understand this axiom both as a matter of logic and as a matter of faith. Logic tells us that with millions of non-Jews writing, thinking, experimenting, and observing, there is every reason to assume that non-Jews will discover some knowledge in this world that is based in truth and that is worthy of belief. Our faith tells us that Torah knowledge, by contrast, is more directly connected to G-d, who has chosen His people to bring it to light, and therefore non-Jewish knowledge connected to Torah and to matters of faith or the spirit must be rejected outright. The mussar system expounded in Cheshbon Ha-Nefesh, admired by Rav Israel Salanter, and used for generations by Jews seeking to improve themselves, raises

150Accounting For DifferencesEmmy Zitter

ideas on Franklin's system. Early in the work Rav Mendel states:אכן לפני כמה שנים נתגלה תחבולה חדשה, והיא המצאה נפלאה במלאכה זו, שכמדומה שיתפשט טבעה אם ירצה

השם במהרה, כאותה של המצאת הדפוס שהביאה אורה לעולם. )50(

"A few years ago, a new strategy was developed—a strategy that is a wonderful innovation in this field [of cheshbon ha-nefesh, i.e. moral accounting]. It would seem that the method will spread quickly—like the invention of the printing press which brought light to the world." (51-52).5 This is a direct admission that Rav Mendel's system is based on one that had been developed earlier. Mention of the printing press may well be an open acknowledgement of the debt owed to Franklin, who was well-known as the most important printer in the New World, both for the political and social works he published and for his innovations in printing technology.6 Thus, we might not know for certain whether Rav Mendel read Franklin's book in French or in English, whether in an authentic version or a pirated copy, but the probability remains very high that Franklin was the source of Rav Mendel's system.7 The method that both Franklin and Rav Mendel propose is a kind of behavior modification based on close observation of one's behavior and scrupulous record-keeping of lapses from virtue. Both methods begin by enumerating thirteen virtues and listing them, along with a short statement about each characteristic. Each of the virtues will go to the "top of the list" once every thirteen weeks, i.e. four times a year the person will spend one week focusing largely on that virtue, though without neglecting completely the remaining twelve. At the heart of the method is a notebook in which each page is headed by the virtue that is the focus of concentration for that particular week, along with a short aphorism about that particular virtue. The thirteen virtues are listed one underneath the other, and the paper is divided into seven columns, each standing for one day of the week. The subsequent graph created will thus have ninety-one (13 x 7) boxes. If the person undergoing this regimen feels that he has or she slipped in his pursuit of any of the virtues, he or she makes a mark in the box next to that virtue on the day of the week in which this happened. All week long the person will focus as much as possible on that week's central virtue, trying to keep the top line of the graph clear of any marks. Thus, over the course of the year, the person following this system will have learned to watch for lapses in the pursuit of virtues generally, and he or she will have focused attention on each specific virtue four times a year. Rav Mendel's system of preparing the list of virtues is more comprehensive than is Franklin's; he sees the first step of the regimen to be the study of thirteen chapters of mussar literature, each of which will be shortened to a summary and then to a codeword Franklin refers to Names of Virtues and their Precepts, i.e. their summaries, but .)רמז(

Accounting For Differences151 Emmy Zitter

to have any basis for comparison, except for one remarkable fact: The whole system for behavioral change that forms the heart of Rav Mendel's work is almost identical to the famous portion of Franklin's Autobiography that deals with Franklin's "bold and arduous Project of arriving at moral perfection" (278). But while the two versions of this system seem almost indistinguishable, a closer look shows some significant differences. In this paper, I will examine both works, discussing why a forerunner of the mussar movement might have chosen a non-Jewish source as the basis of his system in the first place. I will identify a major difference between Franklin's and Rav Mendel's conceptions of the nature of humankind and its place in the universe, a difference with important implications for a system of self-improvement.

II. A Tale of Two (or Maybe One) Mussar System(s)

In a conventional essay comparing two works, it is usually easy to determine who influenced whom; whoever wrote the earlier work gets credit as initiator, and we assume that whoever wrote the later book had to deal with the influence of his or her predecessor. When writing about Franklin's and Rav Mendel's works, however, things are not nearly as clear and straightforward, largely because of the murky publication history of Franklin's work. Franklin wrote his work in four stages, beginning in 1771 and ending with his death in 1790. Franklin's ideas about moral perfection are set out in the second part, written in 17�4. Rav Mendel's work was originally published in 1�12, thus clearly making it the second of the two books to be written. However, the unusual publication history of Franklin's work complicates matters and possibly opens up to question whether indeed Rav Mendel must have read Franklin's section about "moral perfection" before writing his book.Franklin's work was not published at all during his lifetime, with portions of it first appearing in print in a French translation in 1791. For some time afterwards, parts of the book were translated, re-translated, and mistranslated, bouncing back and forth between French and English. The first proper English edition (which included excerpts that had been re-translated from French edition) came out in 1�1�—six years after Rav Mendel's work was published.4

Though these difficulties in dating open up interesting speculative territory for scholars and laymen alike, it is almost as impossible to imagine that both works came about separately, in some astonishing literary coincidence, as it is to speculate that Franklin based his ideas on Rav Mendel's work, which was first published two decades after Franklin's death. In fact, Rav Mendel himself suggests that his work is taken from an earlier source, and there is no reason not to assume that he based his

Accounting For Differences:Issues of Influence and Genre in Benjamin Franklin's

Autobiography and Rav Mendel Levin's Cheshbon Ha-Nefesh

Emmy Zitter

I. Introduction

Benjamin Franklin is a larger-than-life character in American history, the legendary originator of everything from stoves, to public libraries, to a university. If George Washington was the Father of His Country, and Thomas Jefferson its great Architect, it is not too much to say that Franklin, the only Founding Father to have signed every major document creating the United States of America, was his country's Inventor. In a sense, Franklin even originated his own mythic persona in his classic work, known as the Autobiography. Franklin spent nearly two decades of his life writing the unfinished work, which begins by describing his ancestors in England, continues with an account of his youthful escapades and indiscretions, includes a description of many of Franklin's contributions to science and society, and ends during the turbulent times before the American Revolution. Written with Franklin's characteristic irony and wry humor, the Autobiography is both an important document from the earliest days of American history and a classic work in the developing genre of autobiography.1

The short work Cheshbon Ha-Nefesh is much more modest in its conception and its influence on world matters. Like the Autobiography, it too can be called a classic work in a developing genre—not of autobiography, but of works of the nineteenth century mussar movement, which emphasized ethical and spiritual growth. Cheshbon Ha-Nefesh was written by Rav Menachem Mendel Lefin (sometimes written as Levin) of Satanov and published in Lemberg in 1�12. Rav Mendel published other works as well, but this thin book might have gone out of print and been forgotten had not Rav Yisroel Salanter, one of the founders of the mussar movement, encouraged its republication in 1�45.2 It was subsequently published once more by the Slobodka Yeshiva, with a foreword by Rav Yitzchok Isaac Sher, the Rosh Yeshiva, and most recently, it was translated into English and republished by Feldheim Press in 1995.3 Two books by such different authors and of such different genres would hardly seem

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