Rosh Hashanah was the time I first learned the Or Israel (Light of Israel) of Isaac Blazer (a disceple of Israel Salanter). So though I had heard of Musar before that, still that was the time that I understood the reasoning behind the Musar movement.
And though that was more than a few years back, it still makes the most sense to me. So what I suggest is to get the basic set of Medieaval Ethics books and plow through them. That is do every day a little bit. A page when you get up before you start your day. And also a page or two during the day to keep up the effect of fear of God.
But make sure you get authentic Musar --not the cheap knock offs or inferior copies.
The later in time period Musar gets, the more diluted it gets. People write so called Musar books with all kinds of strange agendas in mind or to make up for their own guilt complexes. None of it is straight Torah. To get to authentic Torah nowadays is basically impossible. Everyone has some agenda and they use the name of Torah to advance it. The more religious they seem, the more you can be sure there is some hidden agenda. The old Lithuanian yeshivas where Torah was authentic are mainly gone. You only have left a hand-full of places like Ponovitch in Bnei Brak or the Mir Yeshiva in NY. [Apparently some of these places have branches. I have a friend who was a teacher in a branch of Ponovitch in Jerusalem. So I admit I don't know where all the authentic places are. What makes a place authentic is not what you see on the surface. It is not if physically they are learning Torah all day. What makes a place authentic is a reason why they are learning Torah all day.
And though that was more than a few years back, it still makes the most sense to me. So what I suggest is to get the basic set of Medieaval Ethics books and plow through them. That is do every day a little bit. A page when you get up before you start your day. And also a page or two during the day to keep up the effect of fear of God.
But make sure you get authentic Musar --not the cheap knock offs or inferior copies.
The later in time period Musar gets, the more diluted it gets. People write so called Musar books with all kinds of strange agendas in mind or to make up for their own guilt complexes. None of it is straight Torah. To get to authentic Torah nowadays is basically impossible. Everyone has some agenda and they use the name of Torah to advance it. The more religious they seem, the more you can be sure there is some hidden agenda. The old Lithuanian yeshivas where Torah was authentic are mainly gone. You only have left a hand-full of places like Ponovitch in Bnei Brak or the Mir Yeshiva in NY. [Apparently some of these places have branches. I have a friend who was a teacher in a branch of Ponovitch in Jerusalem. So I admit I don't know where all the authentic places are. What makes a place authentic is not what you see on the surface. It is not if physically they are learning Torah all day. What makes a place authentic is a reason why they are learning Torah all day.
