Yisrael Salanter
Encyclopedia
Rabbi Yisroel Lipkin, better known as "Yisroel Salanter" or "Israel Salanter" (November 3, 1810, Zhagory – February 2, 1883, Königsberg
), was the father of the Musar movement in Orthodox Judaism
and a famed Rosh yeshiva
and Talmud
ist. The epithet Salanter was added to his name since most of his schooling took place in Salant (now the Lithuanian town of Salantai
), where he came under the influence of Rabbi
Yosef Zundel of Salant.
, Lithuania
on November 3, 1810, the son of Rabbi Zev Wolf, the rabbi of that town and later Av Beth Din of Goldingen
and Telz
, and his wife Leah. As a boy, he studied with Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh Braude of Salant.
After his 1823 marriage to Esther Fega Eisenstein (died August 1871, Vilnius), Rabbi Lipkin settled in Salant, where he continued his studies under Rabbi Hirsch Broda and Rabbi Yosef Zundel of Salant, himself a disciple of Rabbi Chaim Volozhin
. Rabbi Zundel exerted a deep influence on the development of Rabbi Lipkin's character; he had stressed religious self-improvement (musar
), which Rabbi Lipkin developed into a complete method and popularized.
He was a tremendous Torah
scholar. Around 1842, Rabbi Lipkin was appointed rosh yeshiva of the Rabbi Meile yeshiva
(Tomchai Torah) in Vilna
. However, there was a minor scandal revolving around his appointment, and he willingly left the post to its previous inhabitant, moving instead to Zarechya, an exurb of Vilna. While there, he established a new yeshiva where he lectured for about three years.
At Rabbi Lipkin's suggestion, the Musar writings
of Moshe Chaim Luzzatto
, Solomon ibn Gabirol
, and Menachem Mendel Lefin
were reprinted and popularized in Vilna.
Despite the prohibition against doing work on Shabbat
(the Jewish Sabbath) Rabbi Salanter set an example for the Lithuanian Jewish community during the cholera epidemic of 1848. He made certain that any necessary relief work on Shabbat for Jews was done by Jews; some wanted such work to be done on Shabbat by non-Jews
, but Rabbi Salanter held that both Jewish ethics and law mandated that the laws of the Torah must be put aside in order to save lives. During Yom Kippur
(the Day of Atonement) Rabbi Salanter ordered that Jews that year must not abide by the traditional fast, but instead must eat in order to maintain their health; again for emergency health reasons.
In 1848, the Czarist government created the Vilna Rabbinical School and Teachers' Seminary
. Rabbi Lipkin was identified as a candidate to teach at or run the school. However, he feared that the school would be used to produce rabbinical "puppets" of the government and refused the position. Fearing backlash, he left Vilna and moved to Kovno, Lithuania
, where he established another yeshiva at the Nevyozer Kloiz.
He retained charge until 1857, when he left Lithuania and moved to Prussia
to recover from ill health. He remained in the house of philanthropists, the Hirsch brothers of Halberstadt
, until his health improved, and then in 1861 began the publication of the Hebrew journal "Tevunah", devoted to rabbinical law and religious ethics. However, this was discontinued after three months as the journal failed to garner enough subscriptions to cover its costs.
Rabbi Lipkin lived for periods in Memel
, Königsberg and Berlin. He devoted the last decades of his life to strengthening Orthodox Jewish life in Germany and Prussia. He also played a large role in thwarting an attempt to open a rabbinic seminary in Russia. Toward the end of his life Rabbi Lipkin was called to Paris to organize a community among the many Russian Jewish immigrants, and he remained there for two years.
Rabbi Lipkin is also known as one of the first people to try to translate the Talmud
into another language. However, he died before he could finish this immense project, Rabbi Lipkin died on Friday, February 2 (25 Shevat), 1883, in Königsberg, then part of Germany. For many years, the exact location of his grave was unknown. Following a lengthy investigation, in 2001 the grave was located in Königsberg.
he became a master dye-maker and, as such, received a permit allowing him free travel within Russia.
He had an outreach philosophy and was the first major East European rabbi to move to Western Europe where religious standards were generally lower.
When the Ukase
, making military service obligatory, appeared, he wrote an appeal to the rabbis and community leaders urging them to keep lists of recruits, so as to leave no pretext for the contention that the Jews shirked such service. Notwithstanding this fact, he fought vigorously through political connections in St Petersburg for the nullification of the Cantonist Decree and commented to his disciples that the day that the decree was annulled (26 August 1856) should be declared a Yom Tov. He was considered one of the most eminent Orthodox rabbis of the nineteenth century because of his broad Talmudic scholarship, and his deep piety.
Rabbi Salanter is best known for stressing that the inter-personal laws of the Torah
bear as much weight as Divine obligations. According to Rabbi Lipkin, adhering to the ritual aspects of Judaism without developing one's relationships with others and oneself was an unpardonable parody. There are many anecdotal stories about him that relate to this moral equation, see for example the following references.
The concept of the subconscious
appears in the writings of Rabbi Salanter well before the concept was popularized by Sigmund Freud
. Already in 1880, the concept of conscious and subconscious processes and the role they play in the psychological, emotional and moral functioning of man are fully developed and elucidated. These concepts are referred to in his works as the "outer" [chitzoniut] and "inner" [penimiut] processes, they are also referred to as the "clear" [klarer] and "dark" [dunkler] processes. They form a fundamental building block of many of Rabbi Salanter's letters, essays and teachings. He would write that it is critical for a person to recognize what his subconscious motivations [negiot] are and to work on understanding them.
Rabbi Salanter would teach that the time for a person to work on not allowing improper subconscious impulses to affect him was during times of emotional quiet, when a person is more in control of his thoughts and feelings. He would stress that when a person is experiencing an acute emotional response to an event, he is not necessarily in control of his thoughts and faculties and will not have access to the calming perspectives necessary to allow his conscious mind to intercede.
Based on his understanding of subconscious motivation, Rabbi Salanter was faced with a quandary. Given that a person's subconscious motivations are often not apparent or under the control of a person and are likely to unseat conscious decisions that they may make, how is it then possible for a person to control and modify their own actions in order to improve their actions and act in accordance with the dictates of the Torah
? If the basis of a person's actions are not controlled by them, how can they change them through conscious thought?
Rabbi Salanter writes that the only possible answer to this quandary is to learn ethical teachings with great emotion [limud hamusar behispa'alut]. He taught that a person should choose an ethical statement [ma'amar chazal] and repeat this over and over with great feeling and concentration on its meaning. Through this repetition and internal arousal, a person would be able to bring the idea represented in the ethical teaching into the realm of his subconscious and thus improve their behaviour and "character traits".
Rabbi Salanter felt that people would be embarrassed to study ethical teachings [limud ha'musar] in such a way in a normal study-hall [bet ha'medrash] and he therefore invented the idea of a "house of ethical teachings" [bet ha'mussar] that would be located next to an ordinary study hall and that would be designated for learning ethics in this way.
). His disciples collected many of his discourses and published them in Even Yisrael (1853) and Eitz Peri (1880).
Königsberg
Königsberg was the capital of East Prussia from the Late Middle Ages until 1945 as well as the northernmost and easternmost German city with 286,666 inhabitants . Due to the multicultural society in and around the city, there are several local names for it...
), was the father of the Musar movement in Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
and a famed Rosh yeshiva
Rosh yeshiva
Rosh yeshiva, , , is the title given to the dean of a Talmudical academy . It is made up of the Hebrew words rosh — meaning head, and yeshiva — a school of religious Jewish education...
and Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
ist. The epithet Salanter was added to his name since most of his schooling took place in Salant (now the Lithuanian town of Salantai
Salantai
Salantai is a small city in Lithuania. It is located in the Klaipėda County, Kretinga district.-History:This town is known for two famed rabbis: Rabbi Yisrael Lipkin Salanter and his teacher Rabbi Zundel Salant, who spent most of his life in Salantai....
), where he came under the influence of Rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
Yosef Zundel of Salant.
Biography
Rabbi Lipkin was born in ZagareŽagare
Žagarė is a city located in the Joniškis district, northern Lithuania, close to the border with Latvia. It has a population of about 2,000.-Names:Foreign renderings of the name include: , , .-History:The foundation of Žagarė dates back to the 12th century...
, Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
on November 3, 1810, the son of Rabbi Zev Wolf, the rabbi of that town and later Av Beth Din of Goldingen
Kuldiga
Kuldīga is a town in western Latvia. It is the center of Kuldīga municipality with a population of approximately 13,500.Kuldīga was first mentioned in 1242. It joined the Hanseatic League in 1368...
and Telz
Telz
*Telz can refer to the town of Telšiai, in Lithuania.*Telz is also used as the abbreviated name for:**Telshe yeshiva originally in Lithuania that was transplanted to Cleveland, Ohio....
, and his wife Leah. As a boy, he studied with Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh Braude of Salant.
After his 1823 marriage to Esther Fega Eisenstein (died August 1871, Vilnius), Rabbi Lipkin settled in Salant, where he continued his studies under Rabbi Hirsch Broda and Rabbi Yosef Zundel of Salant, himself a disciple of Rabbi Chaim Volozhin
Chaim Volozhin
Chaim Volozhin was an Orthodox rabbi, Talmudist, and ethicist. Popularly known as "Reb Chaim Volozhiner" or simply as "Reb Chaim", he was born in Volozhin when it was a part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth...
. Rabbi Zundel exerted a deep influence on the development of Rabbi Lipkin's character; he had stressed religious self-improvement (musar
Musar
Musar, may refer to* the Hebrew word for “ethics"* Musar literature, Jewish moral literature* the Musar movement, a Jewish religious ethical, educational and cultural movement* Château Musar, Lebanese winery...
), which Rabbi Lipkin developed into a complete method and popularized.
He was a tremendous Torah
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
scholar. Around 1842, Rabbi Lipkin was appointed rosh yeshiva of the Rabbi Meile yeshiva
Yeshiva
Yeshiva is a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and Torah study. Study is usually done through daily shiurim and in study pairs called chavrutas...
(Tomchai Torah) in Vilna
Vilnius
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
. However, there was a minor scandal revolving around his appointment, and he willingly left the post to its previous inhabitant, moving instead to Zarechya, an exurb of Vilna. While there, he established a new yeshiva where he lectured for about three years.
At Rabbi Lipkin's suggestion, the Musar writings
Musar literature
Musar literature is the term used for didactic Jewish ethical literature which describes virtues and vices and the path towards perfection in a methodical way.- Definition of Musar literature :...
of Moshe Chaim Luzzatto
Moshe Chaim Luzzatto
Moshe Chaim Luzzatto , also known by the Hebrew acronym RaMCHaL , was a prominent Italian Jewish rabbi, kabbalist, and philosopher.-Padua:Born in Padua at night, he received classical Jewish and Italian educations, showing a...
, Solomon ibn Gabirol
Solomon ibn Gabirol
Solomon ibn Gabirol, also Solomon ben Judah , was an Andalucian Hebrew poet and Jewish philosopher with a Neoplatonic bent. He was born in Málaga about 1021; died about 1058 in Valencia.-Biography:...
, and Menachem Mendel Lefin
Menachem Mendel Lefin
Menachem Mendel Lefin was an early leader of the Haskalah movement. He was born in Satanov, Podolia, where he had a traditional Jewish education supplemented by studies in science, mathematics,and medieval philosophy. In the early 1780s he lived in Berlin, where he met Moses Mendelssohn and...
were reprinted and popularized in Vilna.
Despite the prohibition against doing work on Shabbat
Shabbat
Shabbat is the seventh day of the Jewish week and a day of rest in Judaism. Shabbat is observed from a few minutes before sunset on Friday evening until a few minutes after when one would expect to be able to see three stars in the sky on Saturday night. The exact times, therefore, differ from...
(the Jewish Sabbath) Rabbi Salanter set an example for the Lithuanian Jewish community during the cholera epidemic of 1848. He made certain that any necessary relief work on Shabbat for Jews was done by Jews; some wanted such work to be done on Shabbat by non-Jews
Shabbat goy
A Shabbos goy, Shabbat goy or Shabbes goy is a non-Jewish individual who regularly assists a Jewish individual or organization by performing certain acts on the Biblical Sabbath which are forbidden to Jews within Jewish law...
, but Rabbi Salanter held that both Jewish ethics and law mandated that the laws of the Torah must be put aside in order to save lives. During Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur , also known as Day of Atonement, is the holiest and most solemn day of the year for the Jews. Its central themes are atonement and repentance. Jews traditionally observe this holy day with a 25-hour period of fasting and intensive prayer, often spending most of the day in synagogue...
(the Day of Atonement) Rabbi Salanter ordered that Jews that year must not abide by the traditional fast, but instead must eat in order to maintain their health; again for emergency health reasons.
In 1848, the Czarist government created the Vilna Rabbinical School and Teachers' Seminary
Vilna Rabbinical School and Teachers' Seminary
The Vilna Rabbinical School and Teachers' Seminary was a controversial Russian state-sponsored institution to train Jewish teachers and rabbis, located in Vilna, Russia. The school opened in 1847 with two divisions: a rabbinical school and a teachers' seminary. The Rabbinical School was closed in...
. Rabbi Lipkin was identified as a candidate to teach at or run the school. However, he feared that the school would be used to produce rabbinical "puppets" of the government and refused the position. Fearing backlash, he left Vilna and moved to Kovno, Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
, where he established another yeshiva at the Nevyozer Kloiz.
He retained charge until 1857, when he left Lithuania and moved to Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
to recover from ill health. He remained in the house of philanthropists, the Hirsch brothers of Halberstadt
Halberstadt
Halberstadt is a town in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt and the capital of the district of Harz. It is located on the German Half-Timbered House Road and the Magdeburg–Thale railway....
, until his health improved, and then in 1861 began the publication of the Hebrew journal "Tevunah", devoted to rabbinical law and religious ethics. However, this was discontinued after three months as the journal failed to garner enough subscriptions to cover its costs.
Rabbi Lipkin lived for periods in Memel
Klaipeda
Klaipėda is a city in Lithuania situated at the mouth of the Nemunas River where it flows into the Baltic Sea. It is the third largest city in Lithuania and the capital of Klaipėda County....
, Königsberg and Berlin. He devoted the last decades of his life to strengthening Orthodox Jewish life in Germany and Prussia. He also played a large role in thwarting an attempt to open a rabbinic seminary in Russia. Toward the end of his life Rabbi Lipkin was called to Paris to organize a community among the many Russian Jewish immigrants, and he remained there for two years.
Rabbi Lipkin is also known as one of the first people to try to translate the Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
into another language. However, he died before he could finish this immense project, Rabbi Lipkin died on Friday, February 2 (25 Shevat), 1883, in Königsberg, then part of Germany. For many years, the exact location of his grave was unknown. Following a lengthy investigation, in 2001 the grave was located in Königsberg.
Personality and character
Rabbi Lipkin was unique and his views were not always in the mainstream. He was careful to always comply with the law, even where this was discrimantory against Jews. For example, in order to be able to legally travel outside of the Pale of SettlementPale of Settlement
The Pale of Settlement was the term given to a region of Imperial Russia, in which permanent residency by Jews was allowed, and beyond which Jewish permanent residency was generally prohibited...
he became a master dye-maker and, as such, received a permit allowing him free travel within Russia.
He had an outreach philosophy and was the first major East European rabbi to move to Western Europe where religious standards were generally lower.
When the Ukase
Ukase
A ukase , in Imperial Russia, was a proclamation of the tsar, government, or a religious leader that had the force of law...
, making military service obligatory, appeared, he wrote an appeal to the rabbis and community leaders urging them to keep lists of recruits, so as to leave no pretext for the contention that the Jews shirked such service. Notwithstanding this fact, he fought vigorously through political connections in St Petersburg for the nullification of the Cantonist Decree and commented to his disciples that the day that the decree was annulled (26 August 1856) should be declared a Yom Tov. He was considered one of the most eminent Orthodox rabbis of the nineteenth century because of his broad Talmudic scholarship, and his deep piety.
Teachings
Rabbi Salanter is recognized as the father of the Musar movement developed in 19th century Orthodox Eastern Europe, particularly among the Lithuanian Jews. The Hebrew term musar (מוּסַר, properly transliterated as musar), is from the book of Proverbs 1:2 meaning instruction, discipline, or conduct. The term was used by the Musar movement to refer to disciplined efforts to further ethical and spiritual development. The study of Musar is a part of the study of Jewish ethics.Rabbi Salanter is best known for stressing that the inter-personal laws of the Torah
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
bear as much weight as Divine obligations. According to Rabbi Lipkin, adhering to the ritual aspects of Judaism without developing one's relationships with others and oneself was an unpardonable parody. There are many anecdotal stories about him that relate to this moral equation, see for example the following references.
The concept of the subconscious
Subconscious
The term subconscious is used in many different contexts and has no single or precise definition. This greatly limits its significance as a definition-bearing concept, and in consequence the word tends to be avoided in academic and scientific settings....
appears in the writings of Rabbi Salanter well before the concept was popularized by Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
. Already in 1880, the concept of conscious and subconscious processes and the role they play in the psychological, emotional and moral functioning of man are fully developed and elucidated. These concepts are referred to in his works as the "outer" [chitzoniut] and "inner" [penimiut] processes, they are also referred to as the "clear" [klarer] and "dark" [dunkler] processes. They form a fundamental building block of many of Rabbi Salanter's letters, essays and teachings. He would write that it is critical for a person to recognize what his subconscious motivations [negiot] are and to work on understanding them.
Rabbi Salanter would teach that the time for a person to work on not allowing improper subconscious impulses to affect him was during times of emotional quiet, when a person is more in control of his thoughts and feelings. He would stress that when a person is experiencing an acute emotional response to an event, he is not necessarily in control of his thoughts and faculties and will not have access to the calming perspectives necessary to allow his conscious mind to intercede.
Based on his understanding of subconscious motivation, Rabbi Salanter was faced with a quandary. Given that a person's subconscious motivations are often not apparent or under the control of a person and are likely to unseat conscious decisions that they may make, how is it then possible for a person to control and modify their own actions in order to improve their actions and act in accordance with the dictates of the Torah
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
? If the basis of a person's actions are not controlled by them, how can they change them through conscious thought?
Rabbi Salanter writes that the only possible answer to this quandary is to learn ethical teachings with great emotion [limud hamusar behispa'alut]. He taught that a person should choose an ethical statement [ma'amar chazal] and repeat this over and over with great feeling and concentration on its meaning. Through this repetition and internal arousal, a person would be able to bring the idea represented in the ethical teaching into the realm of his subconscious and thus improve their behaviour and "character traits".
Rabbi Salanter felt that people would be embarrassed to study ethical teachings [limud ha'musar] in such a way in a normal study-hall [bet ha'medrash] and he therefore invented the idea of a "house of ethical teachings" [bet ha'mussar] that would be located next to an ordinary study hall and that would be designated for learning ethics in this way.
Famous disciples
Among Rabbi Lipkin's most famous students were:- Rabbi Naftali Amsterdam (נפתלי אמסטרדאם)
- Rabbi Yitzchak BlazerYitzchak BlazerYitzchak Blazer , also known as Reb Itzelle Peterburger, was one of the early leaders of the Musar movement, a Jewish ethical movement based in Lithuania. He was a student of the founder of the movement, Yisrael Salanter, and was responsible for publishing many of Salanter's letters in Or Yisrael...
- Rabbi Eliezer GordonEliezer GordonEliezer Gordon also known as Reb Laizer Telzer, served as the Rabbi and Rosh Yeshiva of Telz, Lithuania.-Early years:...
- Rabbi Jacob JosephJacob JosephJacob Joseph served as chief rabbi of New York City's Association of American Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, a federation of Eastern European Jewish synagogues...
- Rabbi Yerucham Perlman
- Rabbi Simcha Zissel ZivSimcha Zissel ZivRabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv Broida , also known as the Alter of Kelm , was one of the foremost students of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter and one of the early leaders of the Musar movement...
- Rabbi Yosef Yozel Horwitz
Published works
Many of his articles from the journal "Tevunah" were collected and published in Imrei Binah (1878). His Iggeres HaMusar ("Ethical Letter") was first published in 1858 and then repeatedly thereafter. Many of his letters were published in Ohr Yisrael ("The Light of Israel") in 1890 (Edited by Rabbi Yitzchak BlazerYitzchak Blazer
Yitzchak Blazer , also known as Reb Itzelle Peterburger, was one of the early leaders of the Musar movement, a Jewish ethical movement based in Lithuania. He was a student of the founder of the movement, Yisrael Salanter, and was responsible for publishing many of Salanter's letters in Or Yisrael...
). His disciples collected many of his discourses and published them in Even Yisrael (1853) and Eitz Peri (1880).
External links
- Biography on www.ou.com
- Biography on Eli Segal's page
- An examination of the life and accomplishments of Reb Yisroel Salanter
- Iggeret ha-Mussar, the Letter of Ethics—Rabbi Salanter's most well-known work (PDF)
- Rabbi Isroel Salanter, the Haskalah and the "Theory of Secularization": An Analysis from a Folkloristic Point of View
- Family Tree