Simcha Zissel Ziv
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Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv (1824–1898) was one of the foremost students of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter and one of the primary figures of the Mussar movement. Rabbi Ziv is also known as The Alter of Kelm (The elder of Kelm) on account of his founding and running the Kelm Talmud Torah.
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[edit] Biography
Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv was born in 1824 in Kelmė, Lithuania. His father, Reb Yisroel, belonged to the well-known Lithuanian Braude family. His mother, Chaya, was a descendant of Rabbi Zvi Ashkenazi, the Chacham Tzvi.
Rabbi Ziv married Chaya Leah, the daughter of Reb Mordechai of Vidzh, a small town near Kelm. Following his marriage he travelled to Kovno, where he studied under his foremost mentor, Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, the founder of the Mussar movement. Among the other outstanding students were Rabbi Yitzchok Blazer, Rabbi Naftali Amsterdam, Rabbi Eliezer Gordon, Rabbi Yerucham Perlman and Rabbi Jacob Joseph. Rabbi Ziv established himself as one of Rabbi Salanter’s closest disciples and Rabbi Ziv devoted his life to furthering Rabbi Salanter’s teachings.
During this time, Rabbi Salanter sent Rabbi Ziv to Zhagory, to strengthen the Beis HaMussar (Mussar study house), which had been established there. He also delivered lectures in the town of Kretinga.
At the time, Kalman Zev Wissotzky (who later became famous as a tea magnate) was another of Rabbi Salanter’s students living in Zhagory. Wissotzky had studied in the Volozhin Yeshiva and had become very wealthy and had many connections within government circles. He was a great supporter and beneficiary of many Jewish causes. When Wissotsky decided to move to Moscow, Rabbi Salanter instructed Rabbi Ziv to accompany him, out of concern that the move to Moscow might have a negative effect on Wissotzky’s spirituality. Rabbi Ziv then moved to Moscow, where he lived for two years.
Following his time in Moscow, Rabbi Ziv moved to St. Petersburg, then the largest city in Czarist Russia. After spending almost a year there, the communal leaders brought Rabbi Ziv a signed document appointing him as their Rabbi. He was unwilling to accept the position, however, and proposed that his friend from the yeshiva in Kovno – Rabbi Yitzchok Blazer – be appointed to the position.
[edit] Kelm Talmud Torah
In the mid-1800’s the Haskalah movement was making inroads into Lithuanian Jewry. To combat this, Rabbi Ziv decided to open the Kelm Talmud Torah. At the time, Rabbi Ziv was almost forty years old.
The Talmud Torah opened in approximately 1862 and attracted young students, mainly thirteen and fourteen year olds. Rabbi Ziv’s teacher – Rabbi Yisrael Salanter – had taught Rabbi Ziv the importance of Mussar and so the Talmud Torah aimed not only to enhance its student’s Torah knowledge but also to shape their personalities and develop their character traits using the Mussar approach. Rabbi Ziv felt that this was the best way to counter the influences of the Haskalah movement.
In 1872, Rabbi Ziv purchased a plot of land and erected a building for the Talmud Torah. A few short years later, however, in 1876, the Talmud Torah was denounced to the authorities, who began to watch it closely and to hound it. Rabbi Ziv decided to open elsewhere, and re-established in Grobin, in the Kurland province. He arranged for the purchase of a fine building, situated in a spacious yard. There was a main study hall, smaller rooms for classes, a dining room and dormitories.
Rabbi Ziv, suffered from failing health which necessitated his spending long periods in his home, which was in Kelm. In 1881 he returned to Kelm, leaving his son, Rabbi Nochum Zev Ziv to run the Talmud Torah in Grobin. Young men from Kelm and the surrounding areas flocked to study under Rabbi Ziv and the town once again became a center of Mussar.
From his home in Kelm, Rabbi Ziv continued to play a role in the running of the Talmud Torah in Grobin. This, however, began to be too difficult and Rabbi Ziv decided to close the yeshiva. He sent a member of his family to consult his teacher, Rabbi Yisroel Salanter who was living at the time in Germany.
Rabbi Salanter disagreed with the idea and the Talmud Torah remained open in Grobin until 1886. In that year, Rabbi Ziv’s health took a turn for the worse and his doctors warned him that there was real danger to his life if he continued making the effort that the running of the yeshiva in Grobin required. At this point, Rabbi Ziv was forced to close the Talmud Torah in Grobin.
With the closure of the Grobin Talmud Torah, the focus of his work shifted back to Kelm, which now reassumed its former prominence. Rabbi Ziv established a group that was known as Devek Tov, comprising his foremost students. He shared a special relationship with the group's members and he worked on writing out his discourses for them, which required more strength than he had.
A number of his students settled in Israel in 1892, opening the Beis HaMussar in Jerusalem, under Rabbi Ziv’s auspices and with his support.
Rabbi Ziv died on Wednesday 26th July 1898 – the eve of Tisha B'Av, shortly after having recited the morning Shema. He died was while in the middle of the paragraph “Ezras avoseinu”.
[edit] Personality
Rabbi Ziv was not only great in Mussar but also in his Torah knowledge. At Rabbi Ziv’s funeral, his friend and colleague Rabbi Eliezer Gordon, the Rabbi and Rosh Yeshiva of Telz, said that aside from Rabbi Ziv’s greatness in Torah, he had never heard a single word from him that was not related to Torah and to fear of Heaven. Rabbi Gordon, who was known as a fiery and tempestuous genius, would repeat his Talmudic thoughts to Rabbi Ziv and seek his opinion on them, for he valued Rabbi Ziv’s scholarship highly. Rabbi Gordon said that his friend had been fluent in three orders of the Talmud, to such a level where he knew every comment of Rashi and Tosafos word for word. He was also fluent in all four divisions of the Shulchan Aruch and could locate any given Halacha within it with pinpoint precision.
[edit] Mussar Approach
Rabbi Ziv’s approach to Mussar can be described as consisting of three guiding principles:
- One should become emotionally involved in his studies, whether joyful or sad.
- One should ask oneself after everything one learns, "What did I think before, and what do I know differently now?"
- One's study should always delve beyond the external facets and arrive at the essence of the topic.
Rabbi Ziv taught that the whole world is a classroom where one can learn to improve one’s character and increase one’s belief in God. Rabbi Ziv would frequently quote Socrates, who said that true wisdom is knowing that one doesn't know.
[edit] Students
His students included many of the mussar greats of the next generation: Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel of Slabodka, Rabbi Yosef Yoizel Horowitz of Novhardok, Rabbi Aharon Bakst, Rabbi Reuven Dessler (whose son Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler authored the classic Michtav M'Eliyahu), Rabbi Nachum Ziv, and Rabbi Hirsch Braude.
There were many other great Rabbis who only spent a short period in Kelm, yet were greatly influenced by Rabbi Ziv. Among these are Rabbi Yosef Leib Bloch, the Rabbi and Rosh Yeshiva of Telz and Rabbi Yeruchum Levovitz the Mashgiach of Mir.
[edit] Published Works
Only a small portion of Rabbi Ziv’s written legacy has been published as Kisvei HaSabba MiKelm.
