[Avodah] Self-awareness as a Middah

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, April 23, 2007 10:06 am, R Yonatan Kaganoff wrote:
:   Is emotional or psychological self-awareness (and I would also
: include being in touch with one's emotional/feelings/etc.) considered
: a good middah to be acquired like humility, faith, not being angry,
: jealous, resentful, or envious, etc.?

:   Or could it be considered like a preparation, a hechsher for working
: on a middah, like a hechsher mitzvah?

I think it's more of a hechsher mitzvah.

To my mind, middos are "measures" of dei'os, and self-awareness isn't
a dei'ah. But it would be a matter of terminology -- how broad does
one define the term dei'ah?

FWIW, Alei Shur II has ve'adim on Hislamdus which discusses just this
-- self-awareness and later, being able to compare what you see around
you with what you see of yourself. Taking lessons from watching your
own behavior, and from watching what happens to you (including what
you learn). We have a copy on line at:
<http://www.aishdas.org/as/translations/as_mp05.pdf>
and a rough translation by myself for members of a va'ad who couldn't
follow the Hebrew at:
<http://www.aishdas.org/as/translations/as.shtml#mp05>

But perhaps the easiest way to become more self-aware is keeping a
cheshbon hanefesh. It is good practice. Although my son still catches
me being overly abrupt with people without noticing. So perhaps one
should think twice before taking my recommendations.

Self-awareness is certainly connected certain dei'os -- someone who
lacks menuchas hanefesh is too caught up in the emotion to analyze it.

:   Or, as a third option, it could be seen a valuable in making a
: person into a better or happier person.  And with self-awareness,
: one can better be an ovaid hashem.  (But is this just another way
: of saying a hechsher middah?)

I would think your third option is simply a category that includes
both of the former possibilities (middos or hechsher).

...
:   On the other hand, I have met people who lack self-awareness, but
: this has not stopped them from working on their middos, and being very
: good people.

I am sure it greatly hindered. It's very hard to whittle a piece of
wood when blindfolded.

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