Salanter, Yisraʾel

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SALANTER, YISRAʾEL

SALANTER, YISRAʾEL (1810–1883), born Yisraʾel Lipkin, Lithuanian rabbinic scholar and leader, founder of the Musar movement. Yisraʾel Lipkin, the son of a rabbi and an exceptionally educated woman, showed scholarly promise at an early age. At the age of twelve he traveled to the town of Salant to continue his studies under the tutelage of the noted scholar Tsevi Hirsh Braude. From his stay of some fifteen years in Salant derives Rabbi Yisraʾel's usual designation, Salanter.

The young Yisraʾel came under the influence of the charismatic but reclusive rabbi, Yosef Zundel of Salant. Characteristic of the latter's approach were an intense concern with the moral aspects of Jewish law and the development of psychological techniques meant to heighten moral sensitivity and inspire righteous action. Yisraʾel Salanter's discipleship under Zundel also put him in a direct line of discipleship from Zundel's teacher Ḥayyim of Volozhin to Ḥayyim's master, Eliyyahu ben Shelomoh Zalman (the "Vilna Gaon," 1720–1797), the most revered figure in the Lithuanian rabbinic tradition.

Salanter's public career began upon his arrival in Vilna (modern Vilnius) in 1840. He first served as the head of a major yeshivah in the city but soon left to found his own academy in a Vilna suburb. During this period Salanter began his efforts to set up a mass movement dedicated to individual ethical improvement. He addressed audiences of all social classes, arranged for the reprinting of classical ethical tracts, established the musar-shṭibl, a place for the study of moral works, and formed a nucleus of disciples who would spread the Musar doctrine.

Salanter was a widely revered figure known for his scholarship, his personal saintliness, and his concern for the suffering of others. His independent spirit and his moral authority in the community are illustrated by an incident in which Salanter suspended the Yom Kippur fast during a cholera epidemic in 1848. That same year government officials offered him the post of Talmud instructor in a newly opened modern rabbinical seminary, but Salanter, who opposed cooperation with government-sponsored Enlightenment programs or with maskilim ("enlightened" Jews), instead took up residence in Kovno (modern Kaunas).

In Kovno, Salanter forged the model of the Musar yeshivah, where the study of ethical works and the practice of self-contemplation became regular parts of the curriculum. From Kovno, Salanter sent letters to his followers outlining aspects of his Musar doctrine. These letters, later collected and printed in numerous editions, constitute the greater part of Salanter's written legacy.

In 1857, seeking medical treatment for depression and nervous disorders, Salanter moved to Germany, where he remained the rest of his career. In 1860 he published one of the first Orthodox periodicals, Tevunah, and in 1877 founded an advanced yeshivah in Kovno for married students. In Germany he met with university students, proposed a project to translate the Talmud into other languages, and asked that Talmud study be accepted as part of the university curriculum. He helped organize religious institutions for eastern European immigrants in Memel (modern Klaipeda, Lithuania), Paris, and other cities. Throughout his later years Salanter maintained correspondence with and influence over his disciples in Lithuania.

Bibliography

The best historical study of Salanter and his movement is Immanuel Etkes's R. Yisraʾel Salanter ve-reʾshitah shel tenuʿat ha-Musar (Jerusalem, 1982), which, however, as its title indicates, does not cover all of Salanter's career. The only full-length study of Salanter and his disciples remains Dov Katz's hagiographic Tenuʿat ha-Musar, 5th ed., 5 vols. (Jerusalem, 1974), which must be consulted with caution. Volume 1 of Katz's work has been translated by Leonard Oschry as The Musar Movement: Its History, Leading Personalities and Doctrines (Tel Aviv, 1977). On the development of Salanter's thought, see Hillel Goldberg's highly detailed study Israel Salanter: Text, Structure, Idea (New York, 1982), which includes a comprehensive bibliography of works by and about Salanter. In Kitvei R. Yisraʾel Salanter (Jerusalem, 1972), Mordecai Pachter presents most of Salanter's writings with explanatory notes and a long, insightful introduction. An English translation of Salanter's key "Letter on Mussar" appears in Menahem Glenn's Israel Salanter: Religious-Ethical Thinker (New York, 1953). For an early short survey of Salanter's life and teachings, see Louis Ginzberg's Students Scholars and Saints (New York, 1928), pp. 145–194.