Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe רבי שלמה וולבה
mashgiach and teacher of Mussar; Alei Shur
Born in Berlin. He went to learn in Mir, in Poland, where his teachers were Rabbi Yeruchom Levovitz and Rabbi Yechezkel Levenstein. Through them he inherited the Kelm training—order, exactness, work on clarity.
Thirty years in Be'er Yaakov. From 5710 to 5741 he was mashgiach of the yeshiva at Be'er Yaakov. Later he was mashgiach at the Lakewood yeshiva in Israel, and founded Yeshivat Givat Shaul, where Mussar was not an appendix but the foundation.
Alei Shur. The first volume appeared in 5726 and is about how to order the life of a yeshiva student. The second, twenty years later, is detailed instruction and exercises on the traits of character. The book is meant for someone who will work through it over weeks, not read it in an evening.
He gave Mussar in many yeshivot and founded "houses of Mussar"—places where exactly this was done.
He died on 16 Nisan 5765.
On the timeline
Places
Related
Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- Alei Shur, vol. 1 (5726) and vol. 2 — his book on the work a person does on himself
Scholarship
- Encyclopaedia Judaica, “Wolbe, Shlomo” — the years, his teachers in Mir, Be'er Yaakov
Basis: documents and evidence.