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The Lithuanian rabbi who founded the Musar movement, making ethical self-discipline and character refinement central to traditional Jewish life.
Life
Israel Salanter (1809–1883) launched the Musar movement, which called for systematic cultivation of ethical character (musar) alongside Talmudic study, through introspection, the study of moral texts, and disciplined self-examination. Working amid the pressures of modernization on Eastern European Jewry, he sought to renew inner piety and integrity within the traditional world. The Musar approach he pioneered reshaped the Lithuanian yeshivas and remains an influential strand of Jewish ethical and spiritual practice.