When it comes to religion I am pretty firmly in the camp of Israel Salanter. That is to say I like the idea of Musar which are classical books of Jewish ethics. They are based on the value system of the Talmud, but make it easier to grasp than if one would be learning the Talmud directly. But Musar avoids the problem that most books of Jewish ethics have today is that in stead of presenting teh value system of the Torah and Talmud they falsify it it. Musar has the advantage that it in fact is presenting authentic Judaism as it relates to values.
The two modifications I would make to the idea of learning Musar is that I would learning it with some amount of philosophy. The reason is that many of the concepts come from Plato and Aristotle and it is best to get their ideas directly --not second hand. Also I would try to concentrate of teh school of Musar based on the Rambam and Saadia Gaon. The more kabalistic Musar I think kind of leads to fanaticism.
It is not that I am against learning the Ari. Not at all. But not in the context of Musar.
. The connection between length of days with fear of God. To me that means two things. If I want long days--that is not to waste my days, then learning Musar stretches out the day. The other thing is if I in fact see that my body changes over time--so I do have a need for literal length of days-then also Musar is good for that.
My favorites are חובות לבבות Duties of the Heart and אור ישראל The Light of Israel by a student of Israel Salanter named Isaac Blazer.
Musar can be divided into (1) Rationalistic Musar [that is medieval Musar], (2) Kabalistic Musar, (3) Musar of the disciples of Israel Salanter which could be called Talmudic Musar in that it mainly goes to the Talmud directly to support its ideas. But that is probably not a good name for it in that it implies the other two are not Talmudic. It is just the emphasis is different.
The two modifications I would make to the idea of learning Musar is that I would learning it with some amount of philosophy. The reason is that many of the concepts come from Plato and Aristotle and it is best to get their ideas directly --not second hand. Also I would try to concentrate of teh school of Musar based on the Rambam and Saadia Gaon. The more kabalistic Musar I think kind of leads to fanaticism.
It is not that I am against learning the Ari. Not at all. But not in the context of Musar.
. The connection between length of days with fear of God. To me that means two things. If I want long days--that is not to waste my days, then learning Musar stretches out the day. The other thing is if I in fact see that my body changes over time--so I do have a need for literal length of days-then also Musar is good for that.
My favorites are חובות לבבות Duties of the Heart and אור ישראל The Light of Israel by a student of Israel Salanter named Isaac Blazer.
Musar can be divided into (1) Rationalistic Musar [that is medieval Musar], (2) Kabalistic Musar, (3) Musar of the disciples of Israel Salanter which could be called Talmudic Musar in that it mainly goes to the Talmud directly to support its ideas. But that is probably not a good name for it in that it implies the other two are not Talmudic. It is just the emphasis is different.
