Rabbi Yisrael Lipkin of Salant
Just like one can not see without eyes and it is impossible to hear without ears, one cannot truly change without learning mussar.
From Tenuas HaMussar (The Mussar Movement)
This quote was suggested to me by R Micha Golshevsky
Rabbi Yisrael Lipkin of Salant
Like a bird, man can reach undreamed-of heights as long as he works his wings. Should he relax them for but one minute, however, he plummets downward.
From Tenuas HaMussar (The Mussar Movement)
From Emunah v”Bitachon by the Chazon Ish (Rav Avraham Karelitz z”tl):
The words of R. Yisrael Salanter on this matter in his letter* are very pertinent: In prohibitions of unkosher meat, in mixtures of meat and milk, man is rules by habit: he naturally recoils from the forbidden, and is not overwhelmed by his evil inclination. On the other hand, in matters between man and man, he sins blithely and has no fear. Even when his fellow-Jew sues him, he finds ways to avoid both him and the trial. But the prohibition of robbery is more severe than the prohibition of eating non-Kosher meat, for when it comes to robbery, even Yom Kippur does not provide atonement, and as long as the object is not his according to the law, he is guilty of robbery. But since there is no regular habit of observing this law, his soul has not acquired love and fear of it.
*A pdf of Rav Yisrael Lipkin of Salant’s Iggeres HaMussar is available here.
Rav Yisrael Lipkin of Salant
The door of the synagogue opened suddenly, and a man rushed in to hear Kedushah. In his haste, he stepped on the shoes of one of the mispalelim and soiled it.
After Kedushah, R’ Yisrael called the man over to a corner and told him to apologize to the person on whose shoe he as stepped. “True, hearing Kedushah is a great and precious mitzvah,” said R’ Yisrael. “But the mitzvah gets ruined if it by doing it one harms another person.”
From Sparks of Mussar by R Chaim Ephraim Zaitchik
Rav Yisrael Lipkin of Salant
On the eve of Rosh Hashanah, Rav Yisrael Salanter would instruct each member of the family how to behave. He would warn them against getting angry and against idle conversation, for they were all in grave danger. Their carefulness was to last at least through the morning when the judgement is strictest.
From Sparks of Mussar by R Chaim Ephraim Zaitchik
Musar and good behavior cannot be rendered durable without extensive stratagems, to bind the instruments of the mind thereto, until a strong impression is made upon the heart, whereupon the outer limbs are suffused with strength and bring forth into actuality the exalted goal: lowly physical lusts- shameful vainglory and jealousy- can no longer restrain one [in this strategic effort].- Rav Yisrael Lipkin (Salanter) from Letter One in Ohr Yisrael
Translated and cited on page 31 of Israel Salanter: Text, Structure, Idea by R Hillel Goldberg
Rav Yisrael Lipkin of Salant use to say:
The greatness of the Ari Zal and the Vilna Goan went beyond their command of vast amounts of Torah knowledge- both open and the esoteric parts; their greatness lay in never deviating in the slightest from the directives of the Shulchan Aruch.
From Tenuas HaMussar
“”Had he seen my teacher, Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, who developed his character traits to a degree of perfection that fully expressed the essence of the Divine Image, he never could have entertained the possibility that human beings evolved from monkeys,” said the Alter.
R’ Yisroel Salanter used to pray for the welfare of the government. When he happened to be in a synagogue where the prayer was not read, he read it himself.
Rav Yisrael Lipkin of Salant
At twilight one evening he was seen gazing at the sky in order to determine the exact moment of nightfall. It turned out that his doctors had ordered him to rest for three days without learning, and R’ Yisrael carried out the instructions to the letter. At the end of the third day, he set out to determine the exact moment of nightfall, for “Just as it is forbidden to delay the study of Torah of even one moment, so is it forbidden to begin one moment too early, because of the obligation of guarding one’s health.”
From Sparks of Mussar by R Chaim Ephraim Zaitchik
