mudic studies) in the Lithuanian town of Volozhin, which he headed
until his death in 1821. He thereby laid the foundations for the recon-
struction and renewal of the institutions of Torah study in Lithuania.

It was in this milieu of Mitnaggedic Lithuanian Jewry that Rabbi
Israel Salanter grew up and toward which he directed the major part
of his public activity. Moreover, in the person of his teacher, Rabbi
Zundel of Salant, Rabbi Israel had a direct connection with the school
of the Gaon of Vilna and of Rabbi Hayyim of Volozhin -- the two most
important figures in shaping the image and path of Mitnaggedism. For
this reason, I have chosen to devote the opening chapters of this book
to a description of the teaching and path of these three personalities --
the Gaon of Vilna, Rabbi Hayyim, and Rabbi Zundel -- and to Rabbi
Salanter's relationship with them. By this means, we shall attempt to
determine whether and in what sense the teaching and activity of Rabbi
Israel Salanter was a natural continuation of his Mitnaggedic roots, and
in what respects they reflected elements of innovation and change that
went beyond the influence of those roots.

SEVERAL chapters of this book are devoted to the descrip-
tion and characterization of Rabbi Israel Salanter's ethical teaching,
known as the "Mussar system." This system of thought revolves around
two main focii: the relationship between Torah (that is, the study of
Jewish religious law, or halakhah) and yir'ah (the fear of God), ³ and
the individual's psychological motivation in Divine service.

The problem of the relationship between Torah and yir'ah -- that is,
between the value of religious study in the intellectual-scholastic sense,
and that of religio-ethical perfection -- is one that appears repeatedly
throughout the history of Jewish thought. The dialectical tension be-
tween these two values already appears in the classical Rabbinic tra-
dition. On the one hand, the Sages were unsparing in their praise of
the unique importance of Torah study. On the other hand, they qualified
this central value by saying that the study of Torah cannot be separated
from the desire for ethical perfection. This tension raises the question
of the relative weight to be attached to each of these two values:
whether, and in what sense, a reciprocal relation exists between the
effort invested in Torah study, on the one hand, and that devoted
toward ethical improvement, on the other.

In addressing these questions, Rabbi Israel Salanter expressed his
own opposition to what he saw as the neglect of yir'ah, joining a long
line of individuals and movements, including Hasidism itself, that pro-
tested against such phenomena in earlier ages. The criticism lodged by
the leaders of Hasidism against the learned elite included complaints

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