Medieval Ethics [Musar

Learning Medieval Ethics [Musar] is what Israel Salanter thought would improve people's character. But clearly he was not thinking it is automatic. His goal was for people to come to fear of God and good character traits. He would have been the last person to claim that these result automatically from learning Musar. To me it seems it depends on intention. Why is one learning Musar. The motivation will determine the results. What works best is to learn Musar in the context of a Litvak yeshiva. This is the kind of group activity which brings it into one's self in a permanent way