Rabbi Knopf's wise, superb post about Jewish ethics is a most welcome contribution, but I do not agree with every word of it.
He writes "commitment to learning Torah and keeping halakha is not enough to cultivate the character refinement...a preoccupation with technical halakhic compliance often overshadows other essential features of moral life."
I agree with Rav Kook that halacha supplements rather than replaces natural morality, and that Torah teaches broad ethical concepts in addition to specific halachot. But I think halacha is undersold in R. Knopf's presentation. Halachic ethics are quite demanding and people with poor character traits are in fact not keeping halacha, as the musar movement pointed out. Midot are, if not themselves halacha, at least prerequisites to its implementation. In most cases the problem is not pan-halachicism but an emphasis on bein adam l'makom at the expense of bein adam l'chavero.
There is also room to question R. Knopf's description of Orthodoxy as strong in halacha but weak in natural ethics. It depends on which community we are talking about. In many places it is the other way around.
