Rabbi Shmuel Salanter

Rabbi Shmuel ben Tzvi Hirsh Salant - Rav of Yerushalayim (1816–1909)

Yahrzeit - 29 Av Burial place - Har HaZeitim Rabbi Shmuel Salant was born on 2 Shevat 1816 (according to another opinion – 6 Shevat 1815) in the town of Volkonik near Bialystok. His father, Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh, was the rabbi of several Lithuanian towns. He died when Shmuel was still very young. As a child, Shmuel studied in the yeshivas of Keidan and Vilna. In Vilna his teacher was Rabbi Aba Poswoler, head of the city's rabbinical court (Av Beit Din). Rabbi Aba granted the boy rabbinic ordination when he was only thirteen years old! And immediately asked him to rule on a particularly difficult divorce case. As was customary in those days, the boy's bar mitzvah day was also his wedding day. He was married to the daughter of the rabbi of Keidan. But the marriage was unsuccessful, and three years later the young couple divorced. Many marriage proposals poured in for the talented yeshiva student, but he refused to remarry until his former wife had remarried. Meanwhile he began to study at the Volozhin Yeshiva, and also in the Lithuanian town of Salant under the famous Rabbi Yisrael Lipkin (Salanter), founder of the Mussar movement. Rabbi Yisrael's teacher was Rabbi Yosef Zundel of Salant, whose daughter the young Shmuel married. As a student and follower of the Vilna Gaon, Rabbi Zundel fulfilled one of his main directives and moved to live in the Land of Israel. He suggested that his daughter and son-in-law follow him. Rabbi Shmuel agreed, but preferred to do so at a later time. Upon arriving in the Land of Israel, Rabbi Zundel temporarily took the position of rabbi of Yerushalayim's small Ashkenazi community at that time – the Perushim community, founded by students of the Vilna Gaon. A short time later his son-in-law fell ill with a lung disease, and the doctors advised him to move to a country with a warmer climate, such as Italy. Rabbi Shmuel decided that if he had to move to a country with a warmer climate, it should not be Italy, but rather the Land of Israel. And the young couple, with a two-year-old child, set out on the long journey. This was in 1840. Because of the war for control of the Land of Israel between the Turks and the Egyptian army led by Muhammad Ali, Rabbi Shmuel and his household had to stop over in Constantinople. At that time Sir Moses Montefiore was in Constantinople. He had come there to petition the Sultan for the release of the victims of the Damascus Affair (the blood libel). Rabbi Shmuel and Sir Moses Montefiore met, and thus began a lasting friendship of many years, which later did much to further the development of the Jewish settlement in Eretz Yisrael. Also present at this meeting was Rabbi Moshe Rivlin, one of the founders of the famous Jerusalem Rivlin clan. He too was heading to Eretz Yisrael to support the Perushim community. The community was in spiritual decline after its members had expected the coming of Moshiach in the Jewish year 5600 (1840) and were deeply disappointed when it did not occur. In 1841 Rabbi Shmuel and his family boarded a ship bound for Beirut. From there they sailed on a sailing vessel to Jaffa, and from there traveled by donkey to Yerushalayim. When they arrived in Yerushalayim, Rabbi Zundel transferred to Rabbi Shmuel the authority of rabbi of the Ashkenazi community. Rabbi Shmuel remained in this position until his death, for almost 70 years. Rabbi Shmuel's family received a tiny apartment near the Hurva Synagogue of Rabbi Yehuda HaChassid. In this apartment, whose only window was in the door, Rabbi Shmuel lived for fifty-two years. There he received visitors – ordinary Jews who came with questions, great rabbis, and high-ranking diplomatic representatives. Only when a certain philanthropist offered to build him an apartment that would become the property of the Etz Chaim Yeshiva, on condition that Rabbi Shmuel live in it, did he agree. The new apartment was built on the second floor of the same building and was also very modest, but unlike the first, it had plenty of light and air. Rabbi Shmuel became the central figure of the young Perushim community, which had been founded about thirty years earlier. He made great efforts to prevent the various disputes and quarrels that plagued Yerushalayim, populated as it was by Jews from many different countries and communities. One of the greatest achievements of his life was the founding of the Etz Chaim Yeshiva and Talmud Torah. Until then, the young Ashkenazi community had no Talmud Torah. Every father hired a melamed to teach his children at home, and those who could not afford this taught their children themselves. Rabbi Shmuel understood that this could not continue. He gathered the best private melamdim and, together with other heads of the Ashkenazi community, founded the Etz Chaim Talmud Torah.   Rabbi Shmuel knew by sight all the children who studied at the Talmud Torah. He showed them fatherly care, always asking about their lives and their studies. In old age, having become blind, he recognized the children by their voices. In 1848 he traveled to Europe for two years to strengthen the financial position of the young community, but even during those years he remained actively involved in the life of Jewish Yerushalayim. Rabbi Shmuel also supported Montefiore's proposal to hire a teacher of Arabic – the spoken language of Jerusalem at that time – for the students of the Talmud Torah. In one particularly telling case, Rabbi Shmuel Salant stood up in defense of a man who called for expanding secular education while not deviating one iota from the values of Torah. This concerns the herem that the zealots of Jerusalem placed on Rabbi Yechiel Michel Pines. He had come to Eretz Yisrael in 1878 and wished to establish a school for young men who could not boast of particular success in Torah study. In this school, alongside Torah study, the young men were to study secular subjects so that the students could acquire a trade. Rabbi Shmuel openly opposed the herem and supported Rabbi Pines. His only son, Rabbi Binyamin, became the founder of the first neighborhood of the Perushim community located outside the walls of the Old City – Nachalat Shiva. But when the wife of Zerach Barnett, a well-known entrepreneur and Zionist, came to Rabbi Shmuel with complaints that her husband wanted to drag her off to some wilderness, Rabbi Shmuel treated her with great understanding (although he later sided with the husband). Interestingly, it was none other than Rabbi Moshe Yehoshua Leib Diskin, rabbi of the zealot community of Yerushalayim, who ultimately inspired Barnett's wife with the idea of settling the Land of Israel. In 1858 he traveled to Europe again on behalf of the Perushim community. There he raised funds for the Etz Chaim Yeshiva, the Perushim community's hospital – Bikur Cholim, and also for building a large synagogue in the Old City, near the Hurva. While Rabbi Shmuel was in Europe, Rabbi Meir Auerbach, one of the greatest rabbis of the time, arrived in Eretz Yisrael. Rabbi Shmuel transferred to him the authority of rabbi of Jerusalem for the duration of his absence. When Rabbi Shmuel returned, both of them were considered rabbis of the Ashkenazi community of Yerushalayim. Only after Rabbi Meir's death in 1878 did Rabbi Shmuel yield to the community's pleas and agree to accept official appointment as Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Jerusalem. While holding this position, Rabbi Shmuel found himself caught between two fires: the zealots on one side and the enlighteners on the other. He tried to preempt possible disagreements. When Rabbi Moshe Yehoshua Leib Diskin, the unofficial rabbi of the zealot community, came to Eretz Yisrael, Rabbi Shmuel appointed him responsible for shechita (ritual slaughter) in Jerusalem. When Rabbi Yaakov David Willowski (the Ridvaz) came to Jerusalem, Rabbi Shmuel, knowing his uncompromising nature on certain issues, appointed him rabbi of Tzfat. A certain well-known rabbi once asked Rabbi Shmuel: "Why do they listen to you, and not to me?" Rabbi Shmuel answered: "Because I don't say things that I know won't be listened to." However, he also knew how to stand his ground when necessary. Once he said to one of the famous rabbis of Jerusalem, with whom he had halachic disagreements: "I received rabbinic ordination at the age of thirteen from Rabbi Aba Poswoler. I do not take away your title of gaon, but I am the rabbi of the local community, not you." And from then on, that rabbi accepted all the halachic rulings issued by Rabbi Shmuel. No visiting hours It is said that even in his youth, when he was still a yeshiva student, he was regarded as a halachic authority. He studied Torah the way the Vilna Gaon taught – primarily according to the peshat (plain meaning of the text). His Torah study was directed mainly toward issuing halachic rulings. As rabbi of Jerusalem, he took into account the poverty in which the Jews of Jerusalem lived at that time, and always sought ways to render a more lenient ruling. He saw his main role as precisely this – to issue halachic rulings and to always be available to ordinary Jews who wished to come to him with a question. When it was suggested that he set visiting hours, he replied: "We must learn from the Almighty, Who has no visiting hours." On Pesach night he would end the Seder early, rest a little until the dizziness caused by the four cups of wine drunk at the Seder passed, and then receive visitors who came to him with questions related to the holiday. Although he regularly published articles on halacha in the newspapers, he did not write books. Only eleven years ago did his great-grandson, Rav Nissan Aharon Tikochinski, publish several volumes titled "The Teachings of Our Teacher Shmuel," in which he collected his sayings, articles, and stories about his life. In the last ten years of his life, Rabbi Shmuel became blind, but continued to lead the community. He looked for a younger rabbi who would help him with this difficult work and would also succeed him when the time came. Rav Eliyahu David Rabinowitz-Teomim (the Aderet), father-in-law of Rav Kook, was chosen for this position. The Aderet did much to establish religious ordinances in Jerusalem. For instance, he issued a ruling on the creation of an eruv in all the new neighborhoods of Yerushalayim. But his days were not prolonged, and he died in 1905, during Rabbi Shmuel's lifetime. When Rabbi Shmuel turned ninety, the "Shmuel Fund" was established in his honor to help the poor and to build homes in Yerushalayim. With the funds of this foundation, twenty years after Rabbi Shmuel's death, the Jerusalem neighborhood of Kiryat Shmuel was founded and named after him. After the Aderet's death, Rabbi Shmuel once again became the sole rabbi of Jerusalem. Despite his blindness, he was thoroughly informed about the public life of the city. A few months before his death, he signed, together with other rabbis, a document defending the honor of Rav Kook, then rabbi of Jaffa, after someone had attempted to claim the title of rabbi of that city and opened a separate kosher slaughterhouse. In the month of Av 5669 (1909), Rabbi Shmuel fell ill. He remained clear of mind and sound of memory until his very last day. In all his final days he never stopped praying and reciting Tehillim. On the morning of the day he died, he was asked a halachic question, and he ruled, as was his custom: "Kosher." When he felt better, he asked to have tefillin put on him. On the night of 29 Av he passed away. Since it was not safe to bury him at night, the funeral was postponed until morning. About 50,000 people took part in the funeral, among them government officials and diplomats. There were almost no eulogies, in accordance with Rabbi Shmuel's own request. After the shiva ended, a special gravestone was placed on his grave – an ancient column that had lain in the courtyard of the Hurva Synagogue, which had always been called "Rabbi Shmuel's stone." With the death of Rabbi Shmuel Salant, the most important period in the history of Yerushalayim and the entire Jewish people came to a close. When Rabbi Shmuel arrived in Yerushalayim, the city's Ashkenazi community numbered about five hundred souls. When he died, there were fifty thousand Jews in Yerushalayim alone, and the whole of Eretz Yisrael was flourishing.   Sipurei Tzadikim - Rabbi Shmuel Salant The neck of a chicken that was brought to Rabbi Shmuel Salant was swarming with fleas. Seeing this, Rabbi Shmuel said: "The kashrut of this chicken is in question." Those present were astonished: "Where does it say that fleas make a chicken non-kosher?" When the chicken was examined, it turned out that its neck vertebra was broken, meaning it was indeed non-kosher. Everyone marveled that Rabbi Shmuel was a seer, but he objected: "There is no miracle here at all. Every chicken has fleas living in its feathers, but chickens catch them with their beaks. When I saw that this chicken was swarming with fleas, I guessed that it might have a problem with its neck, and therefore could not turn its head to catch the fleas." (http://midrasha.net/muzh-nad-ehtojj-obshhinojj-rabbi-shmuehl-salant/)