[Avodah] AishDas and Mussar

[Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer]

I have trained my 10th grade talmidim at MTA to think about everything 
along the Chassidish/Litvish divide, further subdividing Lita into Brisk 
vs. Mussar. They know my biases, in some cases share them, in some cases 
reject them (and, to be honest, some are apathetic). I wish someone had 
let me know about this kind of stuff when I was in 10th grade, and I 
hope that this "early start" will facilitate their growth in ways that 
our dor did not acquire when we were in HS.


YGB


Micha Berger wrote:

> 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.
>   
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20070309/5e8370c9/attachment-0001.htm>