[Avodah] AishDas and Mussar

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, February 27, 2007 10:23 am, R Jonathan Baker wrote to Areivim:
: Further, I don't know if you remember that far back, but one of the
: purposes of AishDas and its old MMGH learning program was to try to
: counteract this Orthopraxy, to give people a chance to explore different
: hashkafic systems in hopes of finding one that would drive their halachic
: choices.  Eventually Micha settled on a form of mussar as the appropriate
: meaning to inform our mitzva performance.  But implicit in the endeavor,
: is realizing that most of us are Orthoprax, doing without thinking about
: WHY we do.

WADR, you misunderstood my choice of Mussar.

Mussar is the pursuit of meaning, not a particular answer to the question.
This is why Kelm could have secular studies in their high school, while the
Alter of Novhardok wrote about the collapse of the Jewish "city" and the need
to retreat to the citadel of the Yeshiva. Or the famous distinction between
N's "ich been gornisht" vs Slabodka's "gadlus ha'adam".

The only alternative to Mussar is chassidic ecstatic experience. IOW, either
one pursues meaning that is based on thought and experience, or one that is
based on experience for which thought is a second layer. I chose the former
for AishDas. Not the least because the experiential route is already covered
by others, but primarily because I'm too into philosophy to be engaged by the
alternative.

But both RYBS and R' Yaakov Kaminecki independently discuss the loss of the
"erev Shabbos Jew", using the same example (!) to describe the loss of
emotional backing to observance.

I highly recommend reading R' Elyakim Krumbein's Musar for Moderns. He relies
on sources that reflect the primarily "Anglo" MO community in Israel, ie his
typical student in Gush -- RYBS, R' Kook, some Tanya and Likutei Maharan
(think ChaBaKuK). The lifestyle he is giving a Mussar foundation to is MO.

Mussar is a broader concept than the one path taken by Tenu'as haMussar. One
can use their tools to deepen pretty much any hashkafah. Exceptions might be
Bretslov and Izbitch, which eschew any of the kind of thinking which could
complicate experience. Probably also Brisk, and the belief that "der bester
Mussar seifer iz a blatt gemara" -- no need to attacking Mussar's goals
directly.

Just look at the huge gap between my philosophy and RYGB's. I'm into RSRH,
REED, the Maharal, the Kuzari, the Aristotelian rishonim. RYGB is citing
Qabbalah and Rav Tzadoq. Both of us agree, though, on the need for a head-on
attack of the job of becoming the kind of person idealized

In short: I grabbed on Mussar as a tool to work on the heart. It doesn't
conflict with the range of philosophies to which one aims that heart.

Tir'u baTov!
-mi

-- 
Micha Berger             Spirituality is like a bird: if you tighten
micha at aishdas.org        your grip on it, it chokes; slacken your grip,
http://www.aishdas.org   and it flies away.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                            - Rav Yisrael Salanter