Questions for 10/11

2. What is the Musar Movement?

The Musar Movement was crated by Rabbi Israel Salanter and began in response to the modernizing trends of the effects of the modern yeshiva and the increasing laxity of religious practice. The Musar (ethics) Movement preached the goal of ethical self-perfection and self-restraint. It developed its own method of instruction which even came to dominate the world of the Lithuanian yeshiva and competed with the intellectual approach of Volozhin. This method focused intensely on the individual.

3. What kind of education did boys and men receive in the yeshiva?

The Volozhin yeshiva did not train young men to become rabbis, instead the goal of Torah study was to arrive at a clear comprehension of the text. Life for the students (mostly single men between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five) was rigorous and their Torah study took place over a six-day week: some students starting as early as 3:00 am and continuing study till after midnight. They received a stipend form the yeshiva which helped them to grow in maturity as it gave them some responsibility. There was also considerable innovation in the method of Talmud study, with emphasis on the logic of a Talmudic argument and the linguistic structure of a Talmudic passage. Critical analysis was stressed above received wisdom, which fostered the questioning of authority.