Mesillat Yesharim
מְסִלַּת יְשָׁרִיםHebrew text: Vocalized edition, Public Domain.
About the Mesillat Yesharim on TorahSages
Mesillat Yesharim was written by the Ramchal, Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (1707–1746) of Padua, and first printed in Amsterdam in 1740. It is built on the baraita of Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair (Avodah Zarah 20b): Torah brings to zehirut, zehirut to zerizut, and so on step by step up to kedushah. After an opening perek on a person’s obligation in his world, each perek takes the next step in that order — what it is, how it is acquired, and what keeps a person from it. In his hakdama the Ramchal writes that he has not come to teach what people do not know, but to remind them of what they know and pass over every day. It is a foundation of musar learning in the yeshivot and is learned a perek at a time. Many choose to relearn this sefer every year
TorahSages has the complete Mesillat Yesharim, all 26 perakim.