Reb Yisrael Salanter

Rabbi Yisroel ben Ze'ev Wolf Lipkin, also 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 Talmudist. 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.

Rabbi Lipkin was born in Zagare, 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 (mussar), 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 religious ethical works of Moshe Chaim Luzzatto and Solomon ibn Gabirol were reprinted and popularized in Vilna.

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.[citation needed] Fearing backlash, he left Vilna and moved to Kovno, Lithuania, where he established another yeshiva.

He retained charge until 1857, when he left Lithuania and moved to Prussia to recover from depression. 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 (25th 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. 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. He was considered one of the most eminent Orthodox rabbis of the nineteenth century because of his broad Talmudic scholarship, and his deep piety.

Famous disciples

Among Rabbi Lipkin's most famous students were:

• Rabbi Naftali Amsterdam (נפתלי אמסטרדאם)
• Rabbi Yitzchok Blazer
• Rabbi Eliezer Gordon
• Rabbi Jacob Joseph
• Rabbi Yerucham Perlman
• Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv

Published works

-Many of his articles from the journal "Tevunah" were collected and published in Imrei Binah (1878).

-His Iggeres HaMussar ("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 Blazer).

-His disciples collected many of his discourses and published them in Even Yisrael (1853) and Eitz Peri (1880).

References

• This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia article "Lipkin / Israel Lipkin" by Herman Rosenthal and J. G. Lipman, a publication now in the public domain.

Bibliography

• Finkelman S. The story of Reb Yisrael Salanter; the legendary founder of the mussar movement. New York, New York: Mesorah Publications, . ISBN 0-89906-798-0.
• Etkes, Immanuel. Rabbi Israel Salanter and the Mussar Movement. Jewish Publication Society. ISBN 0827604386.

http://wiki.geni.com/index.php/Jewish_Dynasties

--------------------------------------

Biography

Rabbi Yisroel Lipkin, better known as "Rav Yisroel Salanter" was the father of the Mussar movement in Orthodox Judaism and a famed Rosh yeshiva and Talmudist. The epithet Salanter was added to his name due to the influence on his thinking by Rabbi Yosef Zundel of Salant.

Rabbi Lipkin was born in Zhagory 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 developed a method of self-improvement (mussar), which Rabbi Lipkin adopted.

Not only was Rabbi Lipkin a great teacher of mussar, he was a tremendous Torah scholar. Around 1842, Rabbi Lipkin was appointed rosh yeshiva of the Rabbi Meile yeshiva (Tomchai Torah) in Vilna. While there, he established a new yeshiva in Zarechye, a suburb of Vilna, where he lectured for about three years.

At Rabbi Lipkin's suggestion, the classic religious ethics works of Moshe Chaim Luzzatto and Solomon ibn Gabirol were reprinted at Vilna. Had Rabbi Lipkin not been such a great Torah scholar, it is unlikely that his mussar school of thought would have been accepted in the Orthodox world.

In 1848, the Czarist government decided to create a government-sponsored Rabbinical College to train rabbis. 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.

He retained charge until 1857, when he left Lithuania and moved to Prussia to recover from depression. 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, Konigsberg 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 2nd February (25th Shevat) 1883 in Konigsberg, 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 Konigsberg.

Personality and character

Rabbi Lipkin was unique and his views were not always in the mainstream. 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. 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 Lipkin had a son who became a noted mathematics professor at the University of St. Petersburg in the nineteenth century and no longer followed an Orthodox way of life. In response to this appointment, some of the leading maskilim placed a congratulatory advertisement in one of the Hebrew newspapers of the time. It blessed Rabbi Yisrael for the nachat (derived satisfaction) that his son’s appointment to the college faculty must have brought to him.

Rabbi Lipkin then placed his own counter-advertisement in the next issue of that paper and stated that he had no nachat whatsoever from his son because of the latter’s forsaking Jewish life and practice. And he further stated that he would be grateful in this world and in the next world to anyone who could induce his son to return to a life of Jewish tradition and observance

http://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%99%D7%A9%D7%A8%D7%90%D7%9C_%D7%9E%...

Rabbi Yisroel Lipkin, better known as "Rav Yisroel Salanter" was the father of the Mussar movement in Orthodox Judaism and a famed Rosh yeshiva and Talmudist.

The epithet Salanter was added to his name due 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.

• 1810--Born in Lithuania.
• At an early age he came under the influence of [Rabbi] Zundel, a figure who went around in common dress and placed a strong emphasis on the quality of humility. Zundel instructed Salanter to study "musar," the literature of medieval Jewish moralistic and ethical teachings.
• Salanter established his own following, and was appointed the head of a yeshivah in Vilna, where he lived in poverty. In 1842 he established the first Musar society.
• 1848--Salanter left Vilna when he refused a Professorship in Talmud at a government-run seminary (Such institutions usually had conversionist objectives).
• He moved to Kovno, a known centre of reformist and "enlightenment" forces. Under Salanter it was transformed into a traditional Orthodox community.
• In Kovno Salanter established a "musar shtiebel," a small synagogue where ethical texts were studied. This act aroused some opposition, since it was viewed as separation from the main community.
• Later in his life, Salanter moved to Germany where he was successful in transplanting the Lithuanian "style" of Jewish life and learning.
• He attempted to establish an advanced academy for married students ("kolel p'rushim") in Berlin.
• He continued to travel through Europe fund-raising and assisting in the organization of local Jewish communities (especially in Paris).

  ---

רבי ישראל ליפקין מסלנט (או סלנטר; 3 בנובמבר 1810 - 2 בפברואר 1883), הוא מייסד תנועת המוסר שקמה ביהדות אירופה במאה ה-19.

נולד בשנת ה'תק"ע בעיירה זגר (בליטאית:Žagarė) שבקרבת שאולאי, בצפון ליטא, לאביו רבי זאב וואלף ליפקין, ולאמו לאה. היה נחשב לעילוי עוד בצעירותו ולמד אצל רבי צבי ברוידא מסלנט ואצל רבי יוסף זונדל מסלנט.

בגיל 14 נישא לבתו של רבי יעקב הלוי אייזנשטין מסלנט.

רבי זונדל הוא שקירב אותו ללימוד המוסר. הוא החל לפעול להחדרת לימוד המוסר, תוך שהוא מנצל את ההכרה בגדולתו בתורה. סגנון המוסר אותו לימד בא כתגובה להשכלה, ועל כן הוא הרבה להשתמש במושגים כמו 'דעת', 'חכמה' ו'אור', מושגים שהיו שגורים בפיהם של המשכילים של אותה תקופה. תחילה פעל להקמת "בתי מוסר" אשר יפעלו בקרב הציבור הרחב. הדבר לא כל כך הצליח, ולכן התמקדה תנועתו בישיבות. מהלך זה, של הכנסת תכנים נוספים לישיבות מעבר ללימוד הגמרא, נתקל בהתנגדות חריפה. המחלוקת סביב תנועת המוסר נמשכה שנים רבות, ופילגה סביבה את העולם הרבני הליטאי. כיום כמעט שאין זכר לאותה מחלוקת, ולימוד המוסר התקבל כמעט בכל הישיבות, מלבד ישיבות בריסק. הוא העמיד תלמידים רבים, ומתורת המוסר שלו יצאו שיטות מוסר שונות, ובהן שיטות המוסר של ישיבת קלם, ישיבת נובהרדוק וישיבת סלבודקה.

מכתביו לעידוד לימוד המוסר, שהם בעצמם ספר מוסר עמוק, יצאו כספר בשם "אור ישראל".

הרמטכ"ל לשעבר אמנון ליפקין-שחק הוא מצאצאיו.

[%D7%94%D7%A1%D7%AA%D7%A8%D7%94]תקופת חייו של ישראל מסלנט על ציר הזמן

רבי ישראל סלנטר האמין בכך שכדי להשפיע על אנשים רבים, עליו לקבל על עצמו את משרת ה"משגיח" בישיבה, בעיר וילנה. תפקיד המשגיח הוא לפקח את התנהגותם של הצעירים-התלמידים. לאחר זמן מה, החליט רבי ישראל לייסד ישיבה משלו בוילנה.

רבי ישראל סלנטר היה נואם מוכשר, ודרשותיו הפתוחות לקהל הרחב משכו אלפים. מרבית דרשותיו עסקו בחובותיו המוסריות של היהודי והתבססו על ספרות המוסר של היהדות - ספרים כמו "חובת הלבבות" של רבינו בחיי ו-"מסילת ישרים" של רבי משה חיים לוצטו.

אישיותו החזקה ושיטתו המעניינת והמהפכנית משכו אל ישיבתו תלמידים רבים - במרוצת הזמן, נוסדו ישיבות נוספות בהנהגתו ברחבי רוסיה, ליטא ופולין. תלמידיו של רבי ישראל סלנטר פיתחו את שיטותיו בצורה שונה - לכן נוצרו זרמים רבים בתנועות המוסר. לא כל ראשי הישיבות היו מרוצים מהתפתחות תנועה זו, שכן הם חששו שהיא תפגע בלימוד שאר חלקי התורה. בישיבות מסוימות אף נאסר על אנשי תנועת המוסר להיכנס לישיבה.

שימש כראש ישיבה ור"מ בוילנה בין השנים ת"ר - תר"ח (1840 - 1848). בשנת תר"ט (1849) עבר ר' ישראל לקובנה ובשנת 1857 עבר רבי ישראל סלנטר לפרוסיה, שם הוא התיישב בקניגסברג. משם הוא הפיץ כתב עת בענייני האתיקה היהודית. בשנת תרל"ט (1879) ייסד הרב כולל בעיר קובנה, שבליטא. משם, בשנת תר"מ (1880) עבר הרב לפריז כדי להפיץ את תורתו ושיטתו אף במערב אירופה.

שנתיים מאוחר יותר, חזר רבי ישראל סלנטר לעיר קניגסברג, שם נפטר בכ"ה בשבט תרמ"ג.