Working on one's character was an original part of the Musar movement. The idea was besides the overall emphasis on learning Ethics, there was also an emphasis in each yeshiva for a different trait, Trust in God for Navardok. The Greatness of Man-for Slobadka, [self esteem].[Slobadka is where Rav Avigdor Miller went to yeshiva.]
The Mir was a late comer to the Musar scene and their emphasis remained learning Torah in as great a depth as possible. And that was also in Far Rockaway the emphasis in Shar Yashuv.
[I think that is a good emphasis because I can see that learning in depth is totally different than the superficial learning that is generally done. I am convinced that if I had not been exposed to it from the beginning I never would have gotten the idea.]
But what I wanted to bring up is that in the Musar movement there was a concept of working on one's own personal character traits.
Now this fact is obvious if you look at the three Musar books that Reb Israel Salanter himself printed up in Villna. One was a book that incorporated a program of self improvement on certain traits per week. And Rav Miller himself mentioned once when asked how to work on the trait of trust in God He said to go through the Shar HaBitachon in the Obligations of the Heart ten times.
What I am trying to say-is that one way the masters of Musar thought one could work on ones traits was by finding the particular subject that one knows he needs work on in some book o Ethics and to keep and learning that chapter over and over again many times.
I tried this myself with the chapter on anger in the אורחות צדיקים the paths of the righteous and I believe it helped me. Very much.
[And this goes along with the idea of "Review," that Rav Freifeld and his son Motti were always talking about--in the context of learning Gemara.
I also worked on speaking the truth always and also avoiding gossip, (lashon Hara).
The Mir was a late comer to the Musar scene and their emphasis remained learning Torah in as great a depth as possible. And that was also in Far Rockaway the emphasis in Shar Yashuv.
[I think that is a good emphasis because I can see that learning in depth is totally different than the superficial learning that is generally done. I am convinced that if I had not been exposed to it from the beginning I never would have gotten the idea.]
But what I wanted to bring up is that in the Musar movement there was a concept of working on one's own personal character traits.
Now this fact is obvious if you look at the three Musar books that Reb Israel Salanter himself printed up in Villna. One was a book that incorporated a program of self improvement on certain traits per week. And Rav Miller himself mentioned once when asked how to work on the trait of trust in God He said to go through the Shar HaBitachon in the Obligations of the Heart ten times.
What I am trying to say-is that one way the masters of Musar thought one could work on ones traits was by finding the particular subject that one knows he needs work on in some book o Ethics and to keep and learning that chapter over and over again many times.
I tried this myself with the chapter on anger in the אורחות צדיקים the paths of the righteous and I believe it helped me. Very much.
[And this goes along with the idea of "Review," that Rav Freifeld and his son Motti were always talking about--in the context of learning Gemara.
I also worked on speaking the truth always and also avoiding gossip, (lashon Hara).
