[Avodah] Critique of Mussar

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, February 1, 2008 10:31 am, Prof. Levine wrote:
: It is hard for me to believe that if someone put real effort into
: modelling the actions of RYS that the result would not be that he
: would end up with good midos, whatever this means. Indeed, if one
: takes the dictum of RYS that "The other person's gashmius is your
: ruchnius." seriously, I cannot see how he would not end up with good
: midos.

I considered one of the principles the belief that you can't end up
with good middos without consciously working on good middos. Deciding
to follow the actions of RYS isn't enough to be capable of emulating
them.

Also, RYBreuer's call for "Glatt Yosher" (the link RYL posted) doesn't
address all middos. Ahavas H', yir'ah, bitachon, etc... are middos
too.

SheTir'u baTov!
-micha

-- 
Micha Berger             One who kills his inclination is as though he
micha at aishdas.org        brought an offering. But to bring an offering,
http://www.aishdas.org   you must know where to slaughter and what
Fax: (270) 514-1507      parts to offer.        - R' Simcha Zissel Ziv