In Novardok, they hated Hana'os (the pleasures of) Olam HaZeh, because they talked about the: בַרְ דְלַס Bar’dlas and similar Divrei Mussar all day. They never stopped talking about the pleasures of a blatt Gemara and Mussar and Chesed and being close to Hashem vs. running after people. The Alter would start his Mussar Shmuessin describing what Kin'ah, Ta'ava, and Kavod can do to you. R' Chaim Halperin Zatzal once told me that very often, a very sick person is really sick from his own Middos Ra'os.
Anger raises blood pressure, and nervousness and Da'agos (worries) can cause ulcers, Rachmana Litzlan. I once had a chavrusa in BMG who was a Baal Teshuva who had once been a psychiatrist. He told me that many Yungerleit came over to him to ask for help with their particular malady. After a while, he noticed how a certain personality type would always have a particular type of disease.
Although Novardok thrived off these findings, and they lived an unusually happy life because their Middos were in check, yet, we can’t always expect ourselves to start blaming our Middos for our physical problems. And indeed, many Chashuva Yidden have all kinds of physical issues. Novardok was in a world by themselves who were in an all-out campaign to conquer bad Middos.
When you have a public speaker, he tries hard to win-over his audience (and indeed, we should be this way). They want the audience to laugh at their witty jokes, and appreciate their talents. No public speaker dares to say anything controversial, unless he’s a super-critical person who likes to give everyone Mussar. (However, there are Tzadikim who are fit to do this).
But in Novardok you could find a super-nice and friendly person who will say his thing and not flatter people. I have witnessed such speeches given by people who had zero anger in their system. But when a very Chashuva Rav who was known for his Zionistic leaning was sitting up-front, they let him know their true opinions and they weren’t fazed by losing a good relationship with a man of status.
I've also seen R' Wainkrantz Zatzal saying his views in public about learning Mussar for hours-and-hours in front of people who are 1000 miles away from such a viewpoint. R' Wainkrantz was an extremely tactful person, and he was a major Koach in Boro Park for many years, and people flocked to him for advice. But he wasn’t an Eved (slave) to humans, and his many hours of Mussar (and his strong Sedarim in Gemara and Tosafos B’iyun) made him pure of Chemdas HaKavod (the desire for Kavod).
R' Chaim Mordechai Wainkrantz
