EXOD37 If you become aware that blockages obstruct your heart, then one Mussar approach is to try to identify sole-traits that are the sources of the fear and clutching and to work on these specific qualities, rather than directly on [the trait of] generosity itself. Another approach applies more for people whose hearts are being enslaved to ego, where the inner voice says, how can I give when I don't even have enough for me? Here you might cultivate a sense that what you do for others is actually a great gift to yourself. No one loses. Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv, the founder of the Kelm school of Mussar, wrote his book Chochmah u'Mussar [Wisdom and Mussar] just for the purpose of explaining how bearing the burden of the other is a profound spiritual practice. "We have spoken about this bearing the burden of the other many times," he writes. "This is the most inclusive of the attributes." He brings as his example the story of Moses, who began his spiritual journey toward becoming the greatest of prophets by responding to the suffering he saw around him, from which he had been insulated by living in Pharaoh's palace. "He saw their suffering," the Torah tells us, and what he felt had a formative impact on his soul.