Yisrael ben Ze'ev Wolf Lipkin, also known as "Israel Salanter" or "Yisroel Salanter" (November 3, 1809,
Zhagory – February 2, 1883,
Königsberg
Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was named ...
), was the father of the
Musar movement
The Musar movement (also Mussar movement) is a Jewish ethical, educational and cultural movement that developed in 19th century Lithuania, particularly among Orthodox Lithuanian Jews. The Hebrew term (), is adopted from the Book of Proverbs (1 ...
in
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses on M ...
and a famed
Rosh yeshiva
Rosh yeshiva ( he, ראש ישיבה, pl. he, ראשי ישיבה, '; Anglicized pl. ''rosh yeshivas'') is the title given to the dean of a yeshiva, a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primar ...
and
Talmud
The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...
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 () is a small town in Lithuania. It is located in the Klaipėda County, Kretinga district.
Etymology
Salantai is named after the Salantas River, which runs through the town.
History
Salantai area was known to be inhabited since the B ...
), where he came under the influence of
Rabbi
A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...
Yosef Zundel of Salant. He was the father of mathematician
Yom Tov Lipman Lipkin
Yom Tov Lipman Lipkin ( he, יום טוב ליפמן ליפקין, russian: Липман Израилевич Липкин; 1840 – ) was a Lithuanian Jews, Lithuanian Jewish mathematician and inventor. He was the youngest son of Rabbi Yisroel Sa ...
.
Biography
Yisroel Lipkin was born in
Zagare, Lithuania on November 3, 1809, the son of Zev Wolf, the
rabbi
A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...
of that town and later
Av Beth Din
The ''av beit din'' ( ''ʾabh bêth dîn'', "chief of the court" or "chief justice"), also spelled ''av beis din'' or ''abh beth din'' and abbreviated ABD (), was the second-highest-ranking member of the Sanhedrin during the Second Temple period, ...
of
Goldingen
Goldingen is a former municipality in the ''Wahlkreis'' (constituency) of See-Gaster in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland. On 1 January 2013 the former municipalities of Goldingen and St. Gallenkappel merged into the municipality of E ...
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, daughter of Yenta and Yaakov HaLevi Eisenstein (died August 1871, Vilnius), Lipkin settled with her in Salant. There he continued his studies under Hirsch Broda
[ and Zundel, himself a disciple of ]Chaim Volozhin
Chaim of Volozhin (also known as Chaim ben Yitzchok of Volozhin or Chaim Ickovits; January 21, 1749 – June 14, 1821)Jewish Encyclopedia Bibliography: Fuenn, Keneset Yisrael, pp. 347–349; idem, Kiryah Ne'emanah, pp. 156–158; Le ...
. Zundel exerted a deep influence on the development of Lipkin's character; he had stressed religious self-improvement ( musar), which Lipkin later developed into a complete method and popularized.
Around 1833 he met the decade-younger Alexander Moshe Lapidos, who became his lifelong student and friend.
He was a tremendous Torah
The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the s ...
scholar. Around 1842, Lipkin was appointed rosh yeshiva of Meile's yeshiva
A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are s ...
(''Tomchai Torah'') in Vilna
Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional u ...
. When a minor scandal arose related to his appointment, he left the post to its previous inhabitant and moved to Zarechya, an exurb of Vilna. While there, he established a new yeshiva, where he lectured for about three years.
At Lipkin's suggestion, the Musar writings of Moshe Chaim Luzzatto
Moshe Chaim Luzzatto ( he, משה חיים לוצאטו, also ''Moses Chaim'', ''Moses Hayyim'', also ''Luzzato'') (1707 – 16 May 1746 (26 ''Iyar'' 5506)), also known by the Hebrew acronym RaMCHaL (or RaMHaL, ), was a prominent Italia ...
, Solomon ibn Gabirol
Solomon ibn Gabirol or Solomon ben Judah ( he, ר׳ שְׁלֹמֹה בֶּן יְהוּדָה אִבְּן גָּבִּירוֹל, Shlomo Ben Yehuda ibn Gabirol, ; ar, أبو أيوب سليمان بن يحيى بن جبيرول, ’Abū ’Ayy ...
, and Menachem Mendel Lefin Menachem Mendel Lefin (also Menahem Mendel Levin) (1749–1826) was an early leader of the Haskalah movement.
Biography
He was born in Satanov, Podolia, where he had a traditional Jewish education supplemented by studies in science, mathematics, ...
were reprinted and popularized in Vilna. He began to be known as Rabbi Salanter.
Despite the prohibition against doing work on Shabbat
Shabbat (, , or ; he, שַׁבָּת, Šabbāṯ, , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical storie ...
(the Jewish Sabbath), Lipkin set an example for the Lithuanian Jewish community during the cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...
epidemic of 1848. He ensured that any necessary relief work on Shabbat for Jews was done by Jews. Although some wanted such work to be done on Shabbat by non-Jews
Gentile () is a word that usually means "someone who is not a Jews, Jew". Other Groups claiming affiliation with Israelites, groups that claim Israelite heritage, notably Mormons, sometimes use the term ''gentile'' to describe outsiders. More ra ...
, Lipkin held that both Jewish ethics and law mandated that the obligation to save lives took priority over other laws. During Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur (; he, יוֹם כִּפּוּר, , , ) is the holiest day in Judaism and Samaritanism. It occurs annually on the 10th of Tishrei, the first month of the Hebrew calendar. Primarily centered on atonement and repentance, the day's ...
(the Day of Atonement), Lipkin 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. Some claim that, to allay any doubts, he himself went up to the synagogue pulpit on that holy day, recited the Kiddush prayer, drank and ate - as a public example for others to do the same.
In 1848, the Czarist government created the 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, Russian Empire. The school opened in 1847 with two divisions: a rabbinical school and ...
. Lipkin was identified as a candidate to teach at or run the school. As he feared that the school would be used to produce rabbinical "puppets" of the government, he refused the position and left Vilna. Salanter moved to Kovno
Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Trakai ...
, where he established a Musar-focused yeshiva at the Nevyozer Kloiz.
He retained charge until 1857, when he left Lithuania and moved to Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
to recover from depression. He remained in the house of philanthropists, the Hirsch brothers of Halberstadt
Halberstadt ( Eastphalian: ''Halverstidde'') is a town in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, the capital of Harz district. Located north of the Harz mountain range, it is known for its old town center that was greatly destroyed by Allied bombi ...
, until his health improved. In 1861 he started publication of the Hebrew journal ''Tevunah'', devoted to rabbinical law and religious ethics. After three months the journal had failed to garner enough subscriptions to cover its costs, so he closed it.
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, Lipkin was called to Paris to organize a community among the many Russian Jewish immigrants, and he remained there for two years.
Lipkin is known as one of the first people to try to translate the Talmud
The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...
into another language. However, he died before he could finish this immense project. Lipkin died on Friday, February 2, 1883 (25 Shevat 5643), in Königsberg, then part of Germany. For many years, the exact location of his grave was unknown. Following a lengthy investigation, in 2007 the grave was located in Königsberg.
Personality and character
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 discriminatory against Jews. For example, in order to be able to legally travel outside of the Pale of Settlement
The Pale of Settlement (russian: Черта́ осе́длости, '; yi, דער תּחום-המושבֿ, '; he, תְּחוּם הַמּוֹשָב, ') was a western region of the Russian Empire with varying borders that existed from 1791 to 19 ...
, he became a master dye-maker. This enabled him to receive a permit allowing free travel within Russia.[
Lipkin had an outreach philosophy and was the first major East European rabbi to move to Western Europe, where the Orthodox considered religious standards to be lower. He was considered one of the most eminent Orthodox rabbis of the nineteenth century because of his broad Talmudic scholarship, and his deep piety.
When the ]Ukase
In Imperial Russia, a ukase () or ukaz (russian: указ ) was a proclamation of the tsar, government, or a religious leader (patriarch) that had the force of law. "Edict" and "decree" are adequate translations using the terminology and concepts ...
was established to require obligatory military service, they collected youths from the Jewish communities. Lipkin wrote 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. At the same time, he fought vigorously through political connections in St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
for the nullification of the Cantonist
Cantonists (Russian language: кантонисты; more properly: военные кантонисты, "military cantonists") were underage sons of conscripts in the Russian Empire. From 1721 on they were educated in special "canton schools" (К ...
Decree. He told his disciples that the day the decree was annulled (26 August 1856) should be declared a Yom Tov
Jewish holidays, also known as Jewish festivals or ''Yamim Tovim'' ( he, ימים טובים, , Good Days, or singular , in transliterated Hebrew []), are holidays observed in Judaism and by JewsThis article focuses on practices of mainstre ...
(Jewish holiday).
Teachings
Lipkin is recognized as the father of the Musar movement
The Musar movement (also Mussar movement) is a Jewish ethical, educational and cultural movement that developed in 19th century Lithuania, particularly among Orthodox Lithuanian Jews. The Hebrew term (), is adopted from the Book of Proverbs (1 ...
developed in 19th century Orthodox Eastern Europe, particularly among the Lithuanian Jews. The Hebrew term musar (מוּסַר), 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.
Lipkin is best known for stressing that the inter-personal laws of the Torah
The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the s ...
bear as much weight as Divine obligations. According to 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
In psychology, the subconscious is the part of the mind that is not currently of focal awareness.
Scholarly use of the term
The word ''subconscious'' represents an anglicized version of the French ''subconscient'' as coined in 1889 by the psycho ...
appears in the writings of Lipkin well before the concept was popularized by Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...
. Already in 1880,[The first appearance of this concept is in an essay entitled "An Essay on the Topic of Reinforcing those who Learn our Holy ]Torah
The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the s ...
," subsequently published in a collection of essays entitled "Etz Pri" written by a student of Lipkin based on his teacher's notes. 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" '' hitzoniut' and "inner" '' enimiut' processes, they are also referred to as the "clear" '' larer' and "dark" '' unkler' 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 '' egiot' are and to work on understanding them.
Lipkin 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, Lipkin 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
The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the s ...
? If the basis of a person's actions are not controlled by them, how can they change them through conscious thought?
Lipkin 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".
Lipkin 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.
One of the more popular teachings of Lipkin is based on a real life encounter he had with a shoemaker one very late night. It was Motza'ei Shabbat The term Motza'ei Shabbat ( he, מוצאי שבת—literally, the going out of the Sabbath) in Judaism refers to the time in the evening immediately following Shabbat, that is Saturday night. It is a time when, following one's declaration of the i ...
(Saturday night after Shabbat) and Lipkin was on the way to the synagogue
A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...
to recite Selichot
Selichot ( he, סְלִיחוֹת, səlīḥōt, singular: , ''səlīḥā'') are Jewish penitential poems and prayers, especially those said in the period leading up to the High Holidays, and on fast days. The Thirteen Attributes of Mercy are ...
. Suddenly he felt a tear in his shoe, so he looked around town to see if there was a shoemaker still open for business at this late hour. Finally he located a shoemaker sitting in his shop working next to his candle. Lipkin walked in and asked him, "Is it too late now to get my shoes repaired?" The shoemaker replied, "As long as the candle is burning, it is still possible to repair." Upon hearing this, Lipkin ran to the synagogue and preached to the public what he had learned from the shoemaker. In his words, as long as the candle is burning, as long as one is still alive, it is still possible to repair one's soul.[https://www.otzar.org/wotzar/Book.aspx?179049 ''עבודת המדות (Avodat haMidot)'', Page 133]
Famous disciples
Lipkin believed that accomplishment in spiritual growth is not limited to rabbinic figures but is also the realm of the ordinary layman. Therefore, his closest disciples included not only leading rabbis of the next generation but also laymen who would come to exert a tremendous positive influence on the physical and spiritual lot of their brethren. Nevertheless, there is little detailed information available concerning his non-rabbinic disciples.
Among Lipkin's most famous students were:
*Naftali Amsterdam
Naftali Amsterdam (1832-1916) was a Lithuanian-born Orthodox rabbi and a leader in the Mussar movement.
Mussar movement role
A student of Rabbi Yisroel Salanter, the Mussar movement's founder, his teacher categorized the roles of three top follo ...
(נפתלי אמשטרדאם)
*Yitzchak Blazer
Yitzchak Blazer (Hebrew: יצחק בלאזר) (1837–1907) was an early important leader of the Musar movement.
He is also sometimes referred to as Rav Itzele Peterburger due to his position as Chief Rabbi of St. Petersburg at a time when i ...
*Eliezer Gordon
Eliezer Gordon ( he, אליעזר גוֹרְדוֹן; 1841–1910) also known as Reb Laizer Telzer (), served as the rabbi and ''rosh yeshiva'' of Telz, Lithuania.
Early years
Eliezer Gordon was born in 1841 in the village of Chernyany (or ...
*Jacob Joseph
Jacob Joseph ( he, יעקב יוסף 1840 –July 28, 1902) served as chief rabbi of New York City's Association of American Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, a federation of Eastern European Jewish synagogues. Born in Krozhe, a province of Kovn ...
* Yerucham Perlman
*Simcha Zissel Ziv
Simcha Zissel Ziv Broida ( he, שמחה זיסל זיו; 1824–1898), also known as Simhah Zissel Ziv or the ''Alter of Kelm'' (the Elder of Kelm), was one of the foremost students of Yisrael Salanter and one of the early leaders of the Musar mo ...
*Yosef Yozel Horwitz
Yosef Yozel Horowitz ( he, יוסף יוזל הורוביץ), also Yosef Yoizel Hurwitz, known as the Alter of Novardok (1847–December 9, 1919), was a student of Rabbi Yisroel Salanter, the founder of the Musar movement. Horowitz was also a stude ...
His layperson disciples included figures such as the banker Eliyahu (Elinka) of Kretinga
Kretinga (; german: Crottingen) is a City in Klaipėda County, Lithuania. It is the capital of the Kretinga district municipality. It is located east of the popular Baltic Sea resort town of Palanga, and about north of Lithuania's 3rd largest c ...
and the tea magnate, Kalman Zev Wissotzky.
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 Yitzchak Blazer
Yitzchak Blazer (Hebrew: יצחק בלאזר) (1837–1907) was an early important leader of the Musar movement.
He is also sometimes referred to as Rav Itzele Peterburger due to his position as Chief Rabbi of St. Petersburg at a time when i ...
). His disciples collected many of his discourses and published them in ''Even Yisrael'' (1853) and ''Etz Peri'' (1881).[
]
References
*
Bibliography
* Etkes, Immanuel. ''Rabbi Israel Salanter and the Musar Movement''. Jewish Publication Society. .
* Finkelman S. ''The story of Reb Yisrael Salanter; the legendary founder of the musar movement''. New York, New York: Mesorah Publications, . .
* Goldberg, Hillel.
The Fire Within: The living heritage of the Musar movement.
' Artscroll/Mesorah. 1987.
*Goldberg, Hillel. ''Israel Salanter, text, structure, idea: the ethics and theology of an early psychologist of the unconscious''. KTAV Publishing House. .
External links
*
* ttp://www.aishdas.org/igeresHamussar.pdf 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
Rav Yisrael Salanter biography from 1899
{{DEFAULTSORT:Salanter, Yisrael Lipkin
1809 births
1883 deaths
Lithuanian Haredi rabbis
Musar movement
Philosophers of Judaism
Rosh yeshivas
19th-century Lithuanian rabbis
People from Žagarė
People from Salantai
Rabbis from Kaunas