QUESTION:
1) Is there such a thing that the yetzer hora shows a person a certain sefer or statement of Chazal in order to scare him too much and depress him, so that he will give up on doing teshuvah, or the opposite, to calm him down too much so that he won’t want to improve or do teshuvah?
ANSWER:
Yes.
QUESTION
2) Are there any views of Gedolim that people today shouldn’t be learning mussar and that they should only learn sefarim that give them simchah and chizuk (inspiration)?
ANSWER
For most people, that is an incorrect mentality. It is likely that a person should first learn sefarim that he gets chizuk from, before embarking on learning mussar, but eventually he would need to clarify and work on, his middos.
QUESTION
3) Is there a view that holds that we don’t need to improve our shortcomings and our middos because we need to accept ourselves the way we are, since everything Hashem made is perfect and therefore He made us with imperfections and shortcomings, and therefore we don’t have to try to fix ourselves because then we are not accepting how everything Hashem made is really perfect?
ANSWER
That is absolutely not true!
QUESTION
4) Does the view of Chassidus hold that a person doesn’t need to work on his middos directly, and that instead a person’s middos are improved just by aseh tov, through just having d’veykus in Hashem?
ANSWER
Chassidus holds that a person also needs d’veykus in Hashem [in addition to working on our middos], not that a person only needs d’veykus in Hashem.
QUESTION
5) Are any of the views in mussar (i.e. Kelm, Slobodka, Novhardok) closer to the views in Chassidus?
ANSWER
The Slobodka view in mussar, which focuses on gadlus ha’adam (the inherent greatness which we can reach) is rooted in the fact that we are inherently good, that we are a neshamah [hence Slobodka is closer to the view of Chassidus].
QUESTION
6) Sometimes people can’t handle emes (truth) and when they are told something that is emes, they say, “I don’t want to hear mussar right now, I need chizuk. Don’t tell me things that depress me. Tell me something that makes me feel good about myself.” The Rav’s approach is very truthful and it seems that not everyone can handle what the Rav says. Is this because a lot of people aren’t really meant to be so truthful? Or is it because many people are on a low madreigah and they don’t want to grow, or is it because some people by their very nature can’t handle being so truthful and they need a different approach?
ANSWER
Everyone needs emes (truth), but every person needs to work with the truth that he can handle on his current madreigah (level). If we tell a person something that’s emes but it’s above his level right now, it’s actually not the emes for him. This is because emes includes the beginning, middle, and end (rosh, toch, sof) of a matter [the emes includes the entire picture], and if a person can’t handle something that’s emes, it means that the particular emes for him which he can’t handle is in the category of something that has no “end” to it, making it Ein Sof (endless) for him - which he is not able to comprehend right now.
That is one reason why people can’t always handle the truth, besides for 2 other reasons that are more deeply rooted, which may be the cause also: (1) There are different shorshei neshamos (soul roots), with some people being rooted in the kav yemin which makes them lean towards chessed], others rooted in the kav s’mol [which makes them learn towards gevurah and din, strength and judgment], and others rooted in the kav emtza [“middle line”, which naturally can fuse both aspects together]. (2) There is also a general difficulty that people have, when it comes to dealing with the truth.
QUESTION
2) Are there any views of Gedolim that people today shouldn’t be learning mussar and that they should only learn sefarim that give them simchah and chizuk (inspiration)?
ANSWER
For most people, that is an incorrect mentality. It is likely that a person should first learn sefarim that he gets chizuk from, before embarking on learning mussar, but eventually he would need to clarify and work on, his middos.
QUESTION
3) Is there a view that holds that we don’t need to improve our shortcomings and our middos because we need to accept ourselves the way we are, since everything Hashem made is perfect and therefore He made us with imperfections and shortcomings, and therefore we don’t have to try to fix ourselves because then we are not accepting how everything Hashem made is really perfect?
ANSWER
That is absolutely not true!
QUESTION
4) Does the view of Chassidus hold that a person doesn’t need to work on his middos directly, and that instead a person’s middos are improved just by aseh tov, through just having d’veykus in Hashem?
ANSWER
Chassidus holds that a person also needs d’veykus in Hashem [in addition to working on our middos], not that a person only needs d’veykus in Hashem.
QUESTION
5) Are any of the views in mussar (i.e. Kelm, Slobodka, Novhardok) closer to the views in Chassidus?
ANSWER
The Slobodka view in mussar, which focuses on gadlus ha’adam (the inherent greatness which we can reach) is rooted in the fact that we are inherently good, that we are a neshamah [hence Slobodka is closer to the view of Chassidus].
QUESTION
6) Sometimes people can’t handle emes (truth) and when they are told something that is emes, they say, “I don’t want to hear mussar right now, I need chizuk. Don’t tell me things that depress me. Tell me something that makes me feel good about myself.” The Rav’s approach is very truthful and it seems that not everyone can handle what the Rav says. Is this because a lot of people aren’t really meant to be so truthful? Or is it because many people are on a low madreigah and they don’t want to grow, or is it because some people by their very nature can’t handle being so truthful and they need a different approach?
ANSWER
Everyone needs emes (truth), but every person needs to work with the truth that he can handle on his current madreigah (level). If we tell a person something that’s emes but it’s above his level right now, it’s actually not the emes for him. This is because emes includes the beginning, middle, and end (rosh, toch, sof) of a matter [the emes includes the entire picture], and if a person can’t handle something that’s emes, it means that the particular emes for him which he can’t handle is in the category of something that has no “end” to it, making it Ein Sof (endless) for him - which he is not able to comprehend right now.
That is one reason why people can’t always handle the truth, besides for 2 other reasons that are more deeply rooted, which may be the cause also: (1) There are different shorshei neshamos (soul roots), with some people being rooted in the kav yemin which makes them lean towards chessed], others rooted in the kav s’mol [which makes them learn towards gevurah and din, strength and judgment], and others rooted in the kav emtza [“middle line”, which naturally can fuse both aspects together]. (2) There is also a general difficulty that people have, when it comes to dealing with the truth.
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