I have been trying to understand the subject of Musar for a while.
One of my motivations was that there is a connection between fear of God and length of days.
So I asked someone to bring a few books of Musar which I was reading for a while.
I still am not sure how to evaluate the whole subject.
The good things are that it gives a basically consistent world view of the meaning Torah and Life and the universe. And having a consistent world view are important in order that a person should not do evil.
The reason is simple. If the evil inclination can get an inconsistent world view into a person that has conflicting principles then anything can be justified.
Or if the Satan can get an evil world view into a person then even if the person is good hearted , his actions will be evil.
On the other hand I did notice that books of Musar written under the influence of Kabalah tend to become a bit fanatic.
My learning partner suggested that what is called today orthodox Judaism has a lineage that comes directly from the Ramban (Moshe ben Nachman) and not from the Rambam and Saadia Geon.
Musar is traditionally divided between the Rishonim or the classical books, and then later achronim, and then the actual books of the disciples of Israel Salanter. But I think a better division is between kabalah based books and Rambam based books.
One of my motivations was that there is a connection between fear of God and length of days.
So I asked someone to bring a few books of Musar which I was reading for a while.
I still am not sure how to evaluate the whole subject.
The good things are that it gives a basically consistent world view of the meaning Torah and Life and the universe. And having a consistent world view are important in order that a person should not do evil.
The reason is simple. If the evil inclination can get an inconsistent world view into a person that has conflicting principles then anything can be justified.
Or if the Satan can get an evil world view into a person then even if the person is good hearted , his actions will be evil.
On the other hand I did notice that books of Musar written under the influence of Kabalah tend to become a bit fanatic.
My learning partner suggested that what is called today orthodox Judaism has a lineage that comes directly from the Ramban (Moshe ben Nachman) and not from the Rambam and Saadia Geon.
Musar is traditionally divided between the Rishonim or the classical books, and then later achronim, and then the actual books of the disciples of Israel Salanter. But I think a better division is between kabalah based books and Rambam based books.
