Yechi, if we’re looking at it as mussar, then yes, i agree that it’s not my derech, but it’s not necessarily bitul torah either – I don’t know of a mussar yeshiva that ever spent that long on it everyday…. even novardhok, which was considered “extreme” in the mussar world, did not spend 3 hours a day. Actually, in an interview with rav greinom lazevnik zt”l, he said that the weaker boys who couldn’t handle learnijg gemara all day woild spend more time on mussar than the others. Thay also had mussar rooms and would take off time from yeshiva to do things like going to grocery stores to ask for nails, to break their gaavah, or sleep in cemeteries…but that wasn’t bekevius, taking hours out of every day.
If that’s what chabad yeshivos did in europe, then fine, but i simply don’t know, and I don’t trust the historical accounts people say today, because there’s a lot of revisionism (not just in chabad, rhis happens in many circles…i know my own worlds history from roshei Yeshiva who lived it, and there’s plenty of untrue stories about rav aharon, etc..)
Sounds like we agree that learning kabalah outright shouldn’t occupy 3 hours a day.