Q&A: The Mussar Movement
The Mussar Movement
Question
There is a well-known major controversy surrounding the Mussar movement—what is your opinion on this matter?
Answer
My view is that Mussar is no different from the aggadic teachings of the Sages or from Hasidism. It is not Torah in the object sense, and usually not in the subject sense either.
Discussion on Answer
B. If a person finds healing there and intellectual benefit, then it is Torah in the subject sense. It is no worse than Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason.
A. I discussed the definition of Torah study, and of study in general, at length in the second book of my trilogy.
C. Because that is not necessarily what is called walking in His ways. It is what this or that person thinks is called walking in His ways. In my estimation, you know just as well as they do what it means to walk in His ways. Usually, studying Mussar also does not teach anything new, and therefore it is not study. See A.
“And usually not in the subject sense either.”—
A. Why not?
B. “Usually”—what does that exclude?
C. Why is this not considered like studying the laws of the commandment, “and you shall walk in His ways”?
Thank you very much