Rav Avigdor Miller on Tikun Aveiros and Tikun Middos

A:

Why don’t we spend more time on תיקון המידות? It’s a very big question. And truthfully, I must question myself. If you look in the ספרים  you’ll see that they tell you that we should spend much more time than we do. Absolutely. So if you want to spend time on it, you can come to me privately and I’ll give you some directives, if you want. There’s plenty of work to do. And all the ספרים  say you should do it. Certainly you should spend time.

And we spend some time here, as well, on that subject. Many times we spoke about patience. We spoke about silence – keeping your mouth closed. We’ve spoken about כעס , anger.I have given special lectures on those subjects. More than once. And of course, much more should be said.

We should spend time on תיקון המידות. The Rambam says that תיקון המידות  is one of the most important forms of תשובה. It’s more important to do תשובה  from wrong מידות  than from other things. You know why that is? Because an עבירה   comes only once in a while. But מידות  you have all the time. Your מדות  affect your behavior all the time. That’s who you are. And therefore, it’s so important to change your character, because you’re changing yourself permanently. And that’s why you’re in this world.

TAPE #E-165