Rabbi Yosef Zundel of Salant רבי יוסף זונדל מסלנט
the link between Volozhin and musar: student of Rabbi Chaim, teacher of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter
He learned in Volozhin under Rabbi Chaim, and afterwards under Rabbi Akiva Eger—under two summits of his generation at once. And then he did what no one expected: he took no rabbinic post anywhere. He lived quietly in Salant, traded a little, learned and corrected himself, and did everything in his power to keep from being talked about.
Out of this came musar. The young Yisrael Lipkin, the future Salanter, followed him about and watched—not listening to sermons, which he did not preach, but watching how a man behaves when no one is looking. Tradition preserves the story that Rabbi Zundel noticed he was being followed, turned and said: "Yisrael, learn musar, and you will fear Heaven." One sentence—and with it began the movement that changed the Lithuanian world.
In 1837 he went up to Jerusalem and lived there until his death. He flatly refused money from the community funds, keeping a vinegar workshop and living from it. He is buried on the Mount of Olives.
On the timeline
Places
Related
Sources
Scholarship
- Encyclopaedia Judaica, “Salant, Joseph Sundel” — the years 1786–1866, study under Rabbi Chaim and Rabbi Akiva Eger, the move to Jerusalem in 1837, the refusal of public funds
- The standard reference works and encyclopedias — the musar movement's tradition about him and Rabbi Yisrael Salanter
Basis: documents and evidence.