People are not really moral though they have learned to talk in the language of morality. The basic idea of Musar is to awaken the inherent ability of Reason to discern objective morality. One basic idea of the book Light of Israel is the centrality of Fear of God. His idea there is that it is impossible to enter into the gates of service of God without fear of God. The first time I read this I was looking at it during Musaf on Rosh Hashana at the Mir Yeshiva in NY. And that book was for me somewhat of a revolution in thought. I realized I was spending all my time and effort to get into the depths of the Gemara and here this book was opening up the secret. By fear of God [which comes by learning Musar (mediaeval books on ethics)] one merits to enter into the gates of Torah.
And that had a tremendous effect on me. However I can see why Rav Chaim of Brisk did not want Musar to be part of the learning sessions of a yeshiva.-It can and does get people off track--very quickly.
So the Litvak yeshiva came up with some sort of compromise. The Goldilocks solution. [Not too hot nor too cold. Just right.] Not -- no Musar. Not hours of Musar. Just 20 minutes before mincha (afternoon prayer) and 15 minutes before arvit (evening prayer).
In any case, I found the books of the disciples of Rav Israel Salanter to be of the most benefit for me to understand the basic path of straight Torah.
