| | FEATURE
HaRav Yisroel of Salant, zt'l - 25 Shevat 5785 - One Hundred and Forty-Two Years After His Passing
by Rabbi Shalom Meir
A picture of HaRav Yitzhak Salanter, zt'l, the son of HaRav Yisroel Salanter, zt'l. HaRav Dessler wrote on the back of this picture: I have a tradition from my father zt'l that his appearance was similar to his father, HaGaon Rav Yisroel Salanter, zt'l.
What Was Innovative About HaRav Yisroel Salanter's Approach?
This was originally published in 1993.
For Part II of this series click here.
Part I
What was new and unique about HaRav Yisroel Salanter's approach? Ethical works had been authored generations earlier. Men who had perfected themselves and feared Hashem existed in every era. What did R' Yisroel propound? Did he put more stress on mitzvos bein adam lechavero, or did he merely wish to place these mitzvos on an equal footing with mitzvos bein adam laMakom? What can we learn from his letters and from the stories of his conduct that abound?
The gaon HaRav Chaim Shmuelevitz, zt'l, rosh yeshiva of Mir, stood before the shtender and said, "What was unique and innovative about the yeshivos of the Mussar movement? What did they invent? Does anybody know? They invented...the lunch room!
"Learning? Everyone learned, in all yeshivos, both prior and subsequent to the founding of the Mussar movement. However, when seder ends, everyone goes down to the lunch room. Five or six bochurim sit at a table, and the bowl of French fries arrives. Then, they are put to the test. Will everyone reach for the bowl in a mad frenzy, in an effort to grab the crispest, brownest, fries? Or will each person offer the bowl to his neighbor, offering him the best portion..."
The gemara explains that "sheker hachen" is a reference to the generation of Moshe and Yehoshua. "Vehevel hayofee" refers to the generation of Chizkiyah. "Ishah yiras Hashem hee tishallol" refers to the generation of R' Yehuda Bar Ilai, when six would share one tallis and learn Torah.
"How could six men cover themselves with one tallis?" wondered R' Chaim, grasping his lapels. "I'll tell you how. When every individual wants to be covered by the tallis, then each person pulls it towards himself, and as a result no one is covered. They pull it to and fro until it tears.
"When each person has his friend's welfare in mind, then one tallis is sufficient, and all are covered by it! This was the secret of R' Yehudah's generation. They learned mussar, and were sensitive to others. They are therefore called 'yirei Hashem!'"
HaRav Chaim Leib Shmuelevitz
The Candy
Without question, there is something biting about this definition of the mussar yeshivos. To say that their distinction lies in the lunch room! What's more, the fact is that Mir, the yeshiva of R' Yeruchom Levovitz and Rav Yechezkel Levenstein (both important figures in the mussar movement) had no lunchroom! The yeshiva used the prevalent system of essen teg, in which bochurim ate with a different family each day of the week.
However, R' Chaim, as usual, wanted to zero in on the main point, and in this he succeeded. He was saying that the mussar movement's principle aim was to instill good character traits: To think about another, and promote his welfare. R' Moshe Tucaczinsky, zt'l, the mashgiach of Slobodke, once remarked, "Eating a candy is ta'avah. Giving a candy to someone else is chesed."
This is the essence of mussar study.
Is this really so? Had I not heard it with my own ears, I wouldn't have believed that R' Chaim Shmuelevitz had expressed himself thus. R' Chaim was outstanding in his erudition, profundity, and originality. Towards the end of his life, he devoted all of his talents and abilities to chochmah umussar. His talks, some of which have been published, have become a basic source of mussar thought. They are lofty intellectual constructs, supported by strong foundations and backed by numerous solid proofs. This deep and penetrating individual, whose breadth of knowledge and diligence were renowned, extolled... the lunchroom?!
"All The Rivers ...
There is yet another troublesome question: R' Chaim put all the mussar yeshivos in one category, classifying them all with a single remark. Yet, no one was more aware of the vast differences between these schools of thought than he, the grandson of the Alter of Novorhodok, married to the granddaughter of the Alter of Slobodke and rosh yeshiva of Mir, the bastion of the Kelm school. He knew well the variations and differences in emphasis between the mussar yeshivos.
Within Mir itself, R' Yeruchom emphasized depth and profundity, while R' Yechezkel stressed sensory fear (i.e. fear of Hashem as of something tangible). Elsewhere, R' Isaac Sher's sunny radiance was in contrast to R' Leib Chassman's demands. The gaon R' Yosef Leib Bloch's (of Telz) rigid order was the antithesis of R' Moshe Rosenstein's (of Lomzha) spontaneity.
Thus, adherents of the mussar movement spanned a broad range of ideas and behavior. Many rivers flowed forth from the mussar movement. Some gushed out in an angry torrent, and some flowed serenely. Some, overflowing their banks, were deep and difficult to cross, while others were clear and inviting to those who wished to quench their thirst. Is it possible to place them all in one category?
A recent picture of the building that was once the Mir beis medrash
... Flow To The Sea"
The answer is yes, because all of these rivers flow to a single sea. The different approaches all attack the same fortress. They advance from different directions, and use different strategies, but all have the same goal: To penetrate the stubborn citadel — the heart of man. The mashgiach's shmuessim will differ from yeshiva to yeshiva, from system to system, but the results will be discerned... in the lunchroom.
To be sure, the lunchroom is only a moshol. The idea is that this is a test: Has the heart's armor been penetrated? Is the person capable of feeling for another and seeking that other's good above his own? Indeed, even at his own expense? It is then that we discover whether the mashgiach's lecture hit its mark, whether the intellectual study has been internalized and found expression in deed.
All of these schools of thought, these various systems, utilize proofs and deep insights which are directed at the mind, but intended for the heart. How did R' Yisroel of Salant say it? "It is true that the distance between the mind and heart is as great as the distance between heaven and earth. But the fact is, that the rains which fall from the heavens cause the earth to blossom."
To Know Chochmah and Mussar
There is irrefutable proof that all these systems and schools of thought are only means to an end: They all stem from one source — from the Torah of the mussar movement's progenitor, the gaon Rav Yisroel Salanter. What transpired over the course of two generations, that resulted in such a divergence of paths?
R' Yeruchom of Mir answered this question once while expressing veiled criticism of his own path: "In R' Yisroel, fear of Hashem exceeded his wisdom. In my Rebbe — the Alter of Kelm, zt'l— fear of Hashem and wisdom were found in equal amounts. In my case, my wisdom exceeds my fear..."
This statement has many facets. However, as far as we're concerned, the idea is that over the years, emphasis was placed on wisdom, on chochmas hamussar, as the path to attain fear of Hashem. In wisdom and knowledge there are many paths: "Just as no two faces are alike, no two minds are alike." However the source and the goal of everything is the heart— fear of Hashem and character refinement.
The Gedolim Of The Time Were Dumbfounded
Hearing that R' Yisroel's fear of Hashem was greater than his knowledge, one might erroneously conclude that this is an indication of his level of knowledge, instead of viewing this statement as a tribute to his great fear of Hashem.
Let us, therefore, try to gain some idea of R' Yisroel Salanter's great wisdom. The gaon was less than thirty years old, and a stranger in Vilna, the "Yerushalaim of Lithuania." Despite this, and despite the fact that he hadn't occupied any intermediate posts, he was asked to serve as head of the largest yeshiva in that city.
"The gaon shined a new light on the paths of learning and on depth in halacha. He began to say chidushei Torah and pilpulim, weaving together all of Shas and Tosafos, with awesome sharpness. He demonstrated such wonders that the gedolim of the time were dumbfounded, astounded at his broad outlook." (HaRav Yitzchok Peterberger, Nesivos Ohr)
"The Av Beis Din of Mir related that when he tried to speak with R' Yisroel about a topic in Choshen Mishpat, he was like a mute before the gaon's astuteness and astounding breadth of knowledge." (From his hesped, in the sefer Sfas Hayam.)
The greatest scholars of the time, possessed of the most outstanding mental faculties, developed headaches during his lectures in their efforts to understand him.
Like A Mighty Gush Of Water
R' Yisroel himself was afflicted with headaches from his intense study. R' Y. Mark had the fortune of knowing R' Yisroel in Plunge, his birthplace. The doctors sent R' Yisroel there, so that he might benefit from the fresh air and find relief from his headaches. However, even there, his mind remained active. He was carried away by his thoughts, and, deep in contemplation, meandered out of the village bounds while carrying his tallis and tefillin bag.
Rav Y. Mark was among the group of boys who found R' Yisroel in the thick of the forest, supporting his head in his hands while immersed in thought. In later years, when R' Yisroel was staying in Konigsberg, Germany, he was arrested by the police, who found him wandering outside the city, deep in thought and oblivious to his surroundings. They brought him to the police commissioner, who discerned the greatness of the man before him. He made a notation in R' Yisroel's passport that no one should disturb him, as he was constantly deep in thought.
Rav Yisroel's mind didn't rest for a minute. The pamphlet Sha'arei Zion, (3, Maamar Tzvi Yisroel, 12) cites the testimony of "The elderly R' Yosef Zundel of Salant, who Admor (R' Yisroel) invited to stay with him while in Paris."
He reported that R' Yisroel slept very little. His guest was frightened to the point where "it became unbearable, for even when R' Yisroel did sleep, his mind remained alert. His lips moved continuously, at times with joy, his face shining, and at times with trembling and melancholy countenance. This continued to the point where fear of G-d fell upon the R' Yosef Yoizel, and all his limbs trembled in terror."
There was only one instance in which R' Yisroel's tumultuous thoughts were restrained: when he entered an area in which one may not think in Torah. Immediately upon emerging from places in which it is forbidden to think divrei Torah, "his thoughts would burst forth in a torrent, with a terrifying roar, like a mighty gush of water suddenly breaking out of a dam."
HaRav Naftali Amsterdam
The List Of Sources That Was Exchanged
His talmid Rav Naftali Amsterdam relates one incident which reveals his quick mind, breadth of knowledge, and profundity. During one of the journeys R' Yisroel embarked upon for the purpose of spreading the mussar movement's ideology, he arrived in a certain city. His objective was so exalted, that he permitted himself to reveal his greatness in Torah so that people would be more inclined to listen to him. Thus, he was to speak in the largest shul in the city, on a complicated sugya which was repeated — with all its ramifications — in many places throughout Shas. R' Yisroel hung a paper containing over one hundred sources from different sugyos on the door of the shul, in preparation for his lecture.
Before ascending the bimah on Shabbos afternoon, he asked the shammash to bring him the paper. When he looked at it, he received a shock: An opponent of the new movement had changed the list of sources. Before him was a list of one hundred different sources from various masechtos, which were totally unrelated!
Sitting before him in the beis medrash were masses of learned men who had studied the entire sugya at hand, reviewed all of these sources, and were now waiting to hear how the renowned gaon would connect and weave them into his pilpul. R' Yisroel turned white as chalk, and stood silent for ten minutes, totally confounded. When that time elapsed, he rallied forth, and began a penetrating discourse, in which he found the thread that connected all of the new sources.
R' Naftali Amsterdam adds spice to this amazing tale: It's clear to him that R' Yisroel didn't need ten minutes to construct a new lecture. He did that instantly, the moment he decided to speak. During those ten minutes, he was engaged in an internal battle: Should he reveal his wondrous mental powers to the congregation, and risk succumbing to a tinge of pride, or was it preferable to descend from the bimah, as though filled with shame, and risk damaging the reputation of the mussar movement? Only after searching his soul and determining that he wouldn't become arrogant, did he construct a new and complex lecture on the spot, a lecture which astounded everyone.
End of Part 1
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