In the short time I had at the Lithuanian study hall I had a chance to take look at the book the Light of Israel which is a collection of letters of Rav Israel Salanter.
I saw that he emphasizes fear of God along with good character. [In letter 9].
[I knew that both of these two themes are brought up by Rav Isaac Blazer his disciple but I had forgotten that the centrality of fear of God comes up in Rav Israel Salanter himself.
The way it looks to me is that he sees this as being the central beam that the whole house rests upon. and that he decided the way to come to it is by learning Musar.
What I mean to say is that often it is hard to figure out right from wrong and that there does not seem to be any central algorithm by which one can decide.
I mean you have the idea of Michael Huemer that reason recognizes moral principles. [Which I think comes from Fichte and Hegel. In Fichte it is called intellectual intuition. That is that reason itself recognizes general principles--universals.] But what this means in a practical sense is that hard to know. There can be lots of important moral principles --the ten commandments, learning Torah, trust in God, the Golden Rule. Not to speak lashon Hara (slander) etc. Is there any unifying principle? It seems there is Fear of God. [Especially when principles seem to they conflict, this is needed to resolve issues.]
[For some reason my time in Litvak yeshivas was limited because of my own evil inclinations. It takes a lot more awareness of the importance of straight Torah than I have to be able to stick with it. Maybe if I could go back in time, I would stay with the straight path of the Gra. But I can not. So at least, I want to take the opportunity here to explain what straight Torah is.]
I saw that he emphasizes fear of God along with good character. [In letter 9].
[I knew that both of these two themes are brought up by Rav Isaac Blazer his disciple but I had forgotten that the centrality of fear of God comes up in Rav Israel Salanter himself.
The way it looks to me is that he sees this as being the central beam that the whole house rests upon. and that he decided the way to come to it is by learning Musar.
What I mean to say is that often it is hard to figure out right from wrong and that there does not seem to be any central algorithm by which one can decide.
I mean you have the idea of Michael Huemer that reason recognizes moral principles. [Which I think comes from Fichte and Hegel. In Fichte it is called intellectual intuition. That is that reason itself recognizes general principles--universals.] But what this means in a practical sense is that hard to know. There can be lots of important moral principles --the ten commandments, learning Torah, trust in God, the Golden Rule. Not to speak lashon Hara (slander) etc. Is there any unifying principle? It seems there is Fear of God. [Especially when principles seem to they conflict, this is needed to resolve issues.]
[For some reason my time in Litvak yeshivas was limited because of my own evil inclinations. It takes a lot more awareness of the importance of straight Torah than I have to be able to stick with it. Maybe if I could go back in time, I would stay with the straight path of the Gra. But I can not. So at least, I want to take the opportunity here to explain what straight Torah is.]
