Mesilat Yesharim

Few books have been classics for scholars and laymen alike. Mesillas Yesharim/Path of the Just is at the top of that select list. In crisp, flowing language, in a step-by-step presentation that combines keen insights into human nature with goals that inspire, encourage, and challenge, this masterpiece presents answers to the age old question, “What is man’s obligation in his world? ”

The author of this primer for life is Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, the Ramchal, who was a phenomenal sage, philosopher, ethicist, saint, and Kabbalist. The Gaon of Vilna said that if Ramchal were alive, he, the Gaon himself, would have traveled to study mussar under him.

But Ramchal was just as much the guide for simple shoemakers and wagon drivers, then as now. For nearly three centuries, his Mesillas Yesharim has been the indispensable, well-thumbed road map to fulfillment for the full gamut of serious and intelligent people.