[Avodah] R' Samson Raphael Hirsch and the Imrei Emes (Gerrer Rebbe)

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, Jun 27, 2008 at 12:47:18AM -0400, Richard Wolpoe wrote:
: What is interesting is that Yekkes by and large learn little mussar at all.
: They just practice a very polite and proper way of life.  I wonder if 1,000
: mussar books are worth a few ounces of actual practice ingrained into a
: community.

In Madreigas haAdam (first essay), the Alter of Novhardok explains the
need for mussar by starting with Avraham avinu and breaking down history
into eras. In the era he calls the era of the yeshiva, from chazal until
the haskalah, there was a symbiotic relationship between yeshiva and
ir. They shared one culture and one outlook.

With the haskalah a rift opened. The street went out of sync with the
yeshiva. What was until then transmitted culturally was no longer being
passed down.

RYS had to come up with a formal methodology for teaching that which
until then people were learning by osmosis. That methodolgy to create
the person our environment should have made us is Mussar.

I think therefore the Alter of Novhardok would answer RRW with a
resounding "definitely". But cultures dissolve, and then all you're left
with is books and techniques to try to mold who you are.

: After leaving a very pollite/coureeous society in West Hartford to go to
: various Yeshivos, the first [and one of the only] community that gave me the
: feel of  "home" was  the Washington Heights community in  which  people
: naturally had a sense of etiquette.

Not that I'm ch"v accusing Breuer's of having one but not the other, but
in principle "etiquette" and ehrlachkeit are different things. E.g. the
Victorian British were renown for their abilities at politely stabbing
each other in the back.

*Yaft* E-lokim leyefes. It's an aesthetic of interpersonal relations, not
a substance. It's not for nothing that "polite" comes from the past
participal of the Latin meaning "to polish". Surface.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             When faced, with a decision, ask yourself,
micha at aishdas.org        "How would I decide if it were Ne'ilah now,
http://www.aishdas.org   at the closing moments of Yom Kippur?"
Fax: (270) 514-1507                            - Rav Yisrael Salanter