At the two Litvak yeshivas I was in in NY --Shar Yashuv and the Mir, I was aware of Rav Nahman of Uman and Breslov to some degree. And found his teachings to be helpful and inspiring. The odd thing is later I got much more serious about following Rav Nahman's path and was involved in the group of Rav Shick in Safed.The funny thing is that I would have expected the moral level of people involved in Rav Nahman [Breslov] to be so much higher than anything else that there would be a clear advantage to following this "Breslov path."
But based on my experience I have to say that the Litvak world of the Musar Yeshivas is hands down a million times more moral and decent than anything I have seen elsewhere. However I do also see the great advantage in the teachings of Rav Nahman. But more on a personal level than as a group.
I know I have no data on this but my impression is that of you would take the most minimal measures of morality --not to lie, and not to cheat, or scam I would say this is how the test would come out. You measure the times a person has the opportunity to lie and does not lie even to his advantage, and divide that by how many times he has the opportunity. Same with cheating. Same with lying and and same with scamming. You would get a mathematical ratio. So based on my experience (and I think everyone would have to agree) there is no question, the Litvak world comes out a million times better than anyone else. That makes a difference because you can not have holiness without good character traits. Being a "mensch" is the minimum starting level towards holiness.
Without that nothing can start.
There was a lot of "Hizuk" encouragement I gained from Rva Nahman's books, but to jump ship off the Litvak world was a mistake. I was thinking I was going to find a group on some kind of higher spiritual plane and that was a miscalculation.]
