This Is How Mussar Turns Knowledge Into Real Change

Описание: "Mussar was a movement where people took the statements of chazal or statements from mussar seforim and they studied them; they began saying over to themselves in a way that little by little it penetrated. That’s one of the tenets of mussar, to repeat certain statements gradually letting it enter your mind more and more. Sometimes in one evening, let’s say in the yeshiva in a half hour, you say the same thing over and over again, a hundred times; and it was done with a niggun, a melancholy and meditative niggun and sometimes people became excited over that. Motzei Shabbos, they sat in the dark for an hour and they repeated ma’amarei Chazal to themselves aloud. And the end was, before the hour was over, some people were in ecstasy. I myself recall certain things I said to myself that I always had known before, but I repeated it so many times that it became illuminated in my mind and thereafter I could never forget them anymore. And so, mussar is a system of training the thoughts and also training the qualities of characters by various exercises including the repetition of words from the seforim. "

TAPE # 467
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You have to learn it all, so that your mind will be filled with Torah ideals. But you also have to learn one line many times, again and again, like they do in some yeshivos, until it finally sinks in.

When I came to Slobodka, I discovered that they learned one line for a half hour every night. The same line! And on motza’ei Shabbos they didn’t have any lights in the Yeshiva; it was dark. It was after seudas shlishis and we all sat in the dark. And each one of us was saying a line by himself, aloud. Louder and louder. And louder and louder. At the end, everyone was shouting. The whole Yeshiva was shouting! All their kochos, all their strength, went into that one line. And then there was a klop on the bima; והוא רחום יכפר עון, and we davened ma’ariv. I must tell you that it was a tremendous experience. It was like going through a mikveh, a mikveh of fire, of kedusha. One line for an hour! It was electrifying! A full hour in the darkness! And you concentrated on it. And you begin to feel what the words are saying. What are the words telling me? You begin to feel it. And you should know that you still don’t understand it fully. But it’s still a tremendous achievement!

TAPE # E-167
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Rav Yisroel Salanter’s shittah in learning Mussar was to sit down and to say a מאמר חז”ל over and over to yourself, many, many times. He used to call people together in a Mussar Shteeble – balei batim – in the evenings. And they sat down, each one of them sat down, and each one would pick a מאמר חז”ל and would say it out loud, over and over. He would repeat the words over and over again – aloud. Aloud! Aloud! And by the end of the evening they were shouting. They became so excited about the words they were internalizing, that they were shouting. People who left that place that evening, were different people. They were different people than the ones who entered in the beginning of the evening. They were changed by that. It completely changed them. They spoke to themselves. אם אדם לא יעורר את נפשו, מה יועילוהו המוסרים (Sha’arei Teshuva 2-26). If a person won’t “Mussar” himself – if he won’t arouse himself, what will the Mussar that he learns help?

You have to talk to yourself. Constantly. דוד המלך said הללי נפשי את ה׳. “My soul – Praise Hashem!” He was talking to himself. You have to talk to yourself and urge yourself. And after a while, the self that’s concealed within you, that’s hidden within you, starts to come out. Your יכולת, your potential greatness, starts coming out to the surface.

TAPE # E-220