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[Your]1This letter, like the previous, is addressed to the recipient in the third person. precious letter of the eleventh of this month reached me today. I find it proper to write to [your] honor without delay, out of respect, for I did not reply to [your] earlier letters. I see [your] intense longing to meet with me. The law accords with [you],2That is, he is right to want to talk with an elder sage. as it says in Scripture: “With the venerable ones is understanding [found].”3Job 12:12.

I will explain my words. [Branches of] wisdom and the sciences are “theory” (abstract learning) and “practice” (learning through action, i.e., experience).4It would appear from this letter and the next that R. Salanter had been reading some general works on the nature of scientific evidence. He seeks to apply these approaches to the understanding of the ways of Torah and Mussar. [Branches of] wisdom that are based on demonstration and proof are founded upon theory. However, those [branches of wisdom and science] that emerge from good assessments are based on practical experience. Theory does not emerge with time alone, for “there is a new pitcher [full of old, i.e., rare, wine]….”5See Avot 4:20. The reason of a young person may clarify more than an old man who is weak in mind and understanding. However, practical experience comes with time, and is established in old age. “Understanding” (the name of a branch of wisdom) refers to good assessment.6…which reaches its conclusions based on the evidence that accumulates with experience. Therefore Scripture says: “With venerable ones is understanding [found].”

When it comes to Torah study, the foundation is theory: keenness, encyclopedic knowledge, and straightforward analysis to clarify matters in a fitting manner,7See Proverbs 25:11. with evidence and proof in line with the ways and procedures of the Torah, as we were taught by the great Rishonim and Aḥaronim, of blessed memory. However, the foundation of Mussar and the nature of character traits is practical. [Your] honor rightfully questions me [on this difference], yet I stand fast on this counter position – what is this, and why?

Indeed, it is as I have told [you].8Compare Genesis 42:14. In Mussar and the ways of character traits, the foundation is practice (the experience of an individual who lives out his vulnerable mortal days on earth is not a well-troden path for Mussar for a great man, may there be many like him in Israel). It is almost a lost cause – for every person, and especially a great man, is a world unto himself, according to his talents, the powers of his soul and intelligence, etc., the qualities of his character, his capacity for sentiment, etc., the state of his engagement, etc.

Regarding the cure of the body, practical experience has grown dramatically, and out of practice was born the wondrous theoretical wisdom, the broad wisdom of medicine. However, when it comes to our interest, the healing of the soul, there is no “practice” to know and communicate from one person to another. So how can we find the wisdom to answer to each questioner in accordance with his ways?Let [your] honor be at ease in dwelling in the tranquility of his soul. I plan to be [in his vicinity] with the help of God…. Then we will meet, God willing, without taking an oath, to put our minds to his honor, [great in] Torah’s ways and hopes: on what hidden [forces] his analysis should focus on, on the mysteries of Mussar and character traits – according to his ways and the vicissitudes of time, in accordance with the present assessment. And God, blessed be His name, will help us to be good and do good.His friend who seeks his well-being, Israel