The Rebbes Who Learned Mesilas Yesharim

It is told that the Kohznitzer Maggid studied Mesilas Yesharim as a first step toward any effort to rise higher spiritually. He once said that every lofty level he reached was thanks to that sefer. There is also a tradition that the Apta Rav, author of Ohev Yisroel, said that his whole spiritual direction in life, and his first and most important chinuch (education), came from Mesilas Yesharim.

A tradition from the family of Rav Chacham Tzvi Halberstam relates that the mother of the Ropshitzer commanded him in his youth to study Mesilas Yesharim, and he did so all his days. He testified of himself, “Mein mahus is Mesilas Yesharim,” meaning, my whole being is Mesilas Yesharim. When Rav Shlomo Halberstam of Bobov taught in his yeshiva in Vishnitza, he opened every shiur with a study of Mesilas Yesharim and other mussar seforim.

The Vizhnitzer Rebbe, Rav Yisroel Hager, writes that Rav Chaim Meir, the Imrei Chaim, knew Mesilas Yesharim by heart, and that his father, Rav Moshe, the Yeshuos Moshe of Vizhnitz, required the yeshiva students to learn it as part of their daily mussar regimen. When Rav Naphtali Moskowitz, the Meilitzer of Ashdod, once asked the Imrei Chaim which mussar sefer to learn constantly, the answer came at once. “Mesilas Yesharim is what you should learn and attach yourself to, and then vesti zany a erlicher yid,” meaning, then you can become an upright, pious Jew.

The Rebbe of Pinsk-Karlin recalled that in his youth, one Elul, he and a few other yungeleit came to Rav Moshe Mordechai of Lelov and asked which sefer to learn to prepare for selichos and the Yomim Noraim. After thinking a few minutes, Rav Moshe Mordechai told them to learn Mesilas Yesharim every day for about ten minutes before they eat.

The Pittsburger Rebbe of Ashdod recalled that his father, the previous Pittsburger Rebbe, loved Mesilas Yesharim so much that from the day he took it up it never left his hands. He had memorized it in his youth, and to his last days he learned it intently and added his own comments and ideas. Each time he finished the sefer, he bought a brand-new copy and wrote further insights into it, so that he would learn it with the excitement of the very first time.

Rav Yosef Weinstock, the mekubal, learned Mesilas Yesharim every day. When his daughter died of illness on Yom Kippur, he was meant to sit shiva until the 14th of Tishrei, but giving up his daily shiur pained him so much that he asked the Minchas Yitzchok for permission to continue it, and received it.