[Avodah] More on Mitzvos and Iyun

[T613K at aol.com]

RMB wrote:
 
>>Read what the Lithuanian Yeshivos were like. There was a reason a  number
of them invited elements of mussar in.

One can be quite learned  and not have matching middos.

But my point wasn't about that. It was  about there being no rational
connection between lomdus and middos, and thus  any benefit would be
metarational -- a  choq.<<

>>>>>
It is true that a person /can/ learn Torah and still not be a very nice  
person -- unfortunately we do see people like this -- but in general, Torah  
learning does tend to refine one's character.   The connection between  lomdos and 
middos does not seem to me to be a chok but seems to be perfectly  rational.  
One can hardly learn a few pages of Gemara without  coming across lessons in 
character, integrity, chessed, truth and so on.   If you can understand what 
you are reading -- and you are reading this stuff for  hours every day -- how 
can you not be affected by it?
 
Mussar didn't come to teach anything new (as the introduction to Mesilas  
Yesharim says) but only to bring together in more concentrated form specific  
teachings that were scattered in Chumash, Mishlei, Pirkei Avos and so on,  
lessons that were previously absorbed almost unconsciously but in our  coarsened age 
need to be learned more consciously and deliberately.  I  think those 
Litvishe yeshivos that turned to Mussar did so in the hope of  inspiring their 
students and of inoculating them  against Haskala.  Elsewhere, chassidus served that 
same purpose.   





--Toby  Katz
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