The idea of Israel Salanter was simple people ought to learn Musar. Musar about thirty books that deal with Jewish ethics and Jewish world view written from the beginning of the Middle Ages until the later Renaissance.
Joseph Yozel Horvitz was a disciple of Israel Salanter.
Each disciple had a different approach.
What made Navardok different was trust in God.
Rav Horvitz based his idea of trust in God on a small paragraph written by the Geon Elijah from Vilnius as a comment on a verse in Proverbs 3:5 .
The verse is בטח בה' בכל לבך ואל בינתך אל תשען Trust in God with all your heart and don't depend on your intelligence.
The Gra (the Geon Elijah from Vilnius) said this means to trust in God with all your heart and not with just a percentage of your heart. And not to depend on your intelligence even as a slight support.
A disciple of the Gra said this is parallel to what the Gra said about a story in the Talmud. The local students did not know what this verse means: "Throw on God your burden (יהביך) and he will give you your means of a living." One day Raba Bar Bar Chana was walking with a merchant and carrying a burden. The merchant said to him ,"Take your burden יהביך and cast it on my camel."
The Gra explained that the idea here is that the students thought one should trust in God and also go around working for ones needs. Therefore the word יהביך (burden) was a problem. It should have said your needs. When they saw that Raba had a burden that he needed to pay to have carried and yet the merchant asked to do him a favor, they saw that even for things you need to work for, if it is decreed from heaven, people with beg you to do it for you.
What the Gra is saying here is that the word יהב means to give. So it does not make sense to say cast on God your "give." But when the students saw what happened with Raba they understood the merchant said take what you need to give to me and put your burden on my camel.
4) My own path is that I don't think God is obligated to do anything for me or for anyone at all. I definitely go with the idea of Schopenhauer that the Dinge an Sich is "the Will." The Will is not rational. The Will does not have human good in mind. Human good is not the goal of the Will.
Rather if you turn towards the Will, then the Will turns towards you.
And when the Will turns towards you, then you have someone to depend on. this someone might not grant to you all you wishes, but you know that what ever it does in your life is right and good. especially when it does not grant to you your wish.
Each disciple had a different approach.
What made Navardok different was trust in God.
Rav Horvitz based his idea of trust in God on a small paragraph written by the Geon Elijah from Vilnius as a comment on a verse in Proverbs 3:5 .
The verse is בטח בה' בכל לבך ואל בינתך אל תשען Trust in God with all your heart and don't depend on your intelligence.
The Gra (the Geon Elijah from Vilnius) said this means to trust in God with all your heart and not with just a percentage of your heart. And not to depend on your intelligence even as a slight support.
A disciple of the Gra said this is parallel to what the Gra said about a story in the Talmud. The local students did not know what this verse means: "Throw on God your burden (יהביך) and he will give you your means of a living." One day Raba Bar Bar Chana was walking with a merchant and carrying a burden. The merchant said to him ,"Take your burden יהביך and cast it on my camel."
The Gra explained that the idea here is that the students thought one should trust in God and also go around working for ones needs. Therefore the word יהביך (burden) was a problem. It should have said your needs. When they saw that Raba had a burden that he needed to pay to have carried and yet the merchant asked to do him a favor, they saw that even for things you need to work for, if it is decreed from heaven, people with beg you to do it for you.
What the Gra is saying here is that the word יהב means to give. So it does not make sense to say cast on God your "give." But when the students saw what happened with Raba they understood the merchant said take what you need to give to me and put your burden on my camel.
4) My own path is that I don't think God is obligated to do anything for me or for anyone at all. I definitely go with the idea of Schopenhauer that the Dinge an Sich is "the Will." The Will is not rational. The Will does not have human good in mind. Human good is not the goal of the Will.
Rather if you turn towards the Will, then the Will turns towards you.
And when the Will turns towards you, then you have someone to depend on. this someone might not grant to you all you wishes, but you know that what ever it does in your life is right and good. especially when it does not grant to you your wish.
