Israel Salanter
Born in Zhagare, Lithuania, into a rabbinical family, Israel ben Ze’ev Volf Lipkin (widely known as Israel Salanter) was the founder of the Musar ethical movement, which stressed dedication to moral virtues along with strict adherence to religious commandments. In the early 1840s, Salanter established a Musar house in the Vilna area, where he taught moral and behavioral concepts to a generally middle-class society. In 1848, he declined an offer to teach at a government-created yeshiva in Vilna and moved to Kovno; then, facing opposition for allegedly separating the community into groups, he moved to Prussia, where he opposed the rise of modern Orthodoxy.
Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator
Primary Source
Be’ure ha-midot (Clarification of the Virtues)
Related Guide
Rabbinic Scholarship, 1750–1880
Despite the challenges of the early modern period, rabbinic scholarship flourished in Central and Eastern Europe in the latter half of the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century.