I’ve spent a good bit of this summer exploring 19th-century Lithuanian Jewish life. And, I have done it from the Berkshire mountains in Western Massachusetts. After staring at two volumes on my growing shelf of Mussar books for several years, I decided that this was the summer during which I was going to take the plunge. And so, I pulled the two volumes ff my shelf and I dove into Professor Immanuel Etkes’ Rabbi Israel Salanter and the Mussar Movement: Seeking the Torah of Truth, and Rabbi Geoffrey Claussen’s Sharing the Burden: Rabbi Simhah Zissel Ziv and the Path of Musar. These biographies of the Founder of the Mussar Movement, Rabbi Yisrael Salanter (1809-83), and of one of his primary disciples, Rabbi Simchah Zissel Ziv (1824-98), grounded and expanded my own appreciation of and interest in Mussar. They shed new light for me on some of the realities and tensions within 19th century Eastern European Jewry. Reform Judaism and Hasidism, for that matter, were not the only innovations in Jewish life resisted by the more traditional Yeshiva-oriented world of that time and place. More about that another time. I found my visit to 19th century Lithuania to be enlightening, uplifting and inspiring in a number of ways. Along the way, I uncovered many new insights, and I happened upon a number of new sources, resources, and teachings which have now been added to my growing reading list.
Today I write to share one such teaching, which I uncovered just a few days before the start of our Hebrew month of Elul. This month is a time of spiritual preparation for our coming High Holy Days which begin with Rosh Hashanah (this year on Sunday evening, September 9th). Courtesy of Rabbi Claussen’s work I was introduced to a short piece which Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv posted on the door of his Talmud Torah (study hall) in Kelm during this month of Elul sometime in the 1860’s. As I read this notice from another time and place, I was struck by how much Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv’s missive could have been written for us in our time. Rabbi Geoffrey Claussen published a translation of the piece in the Jewish Review of Books in 2013, from which I share a few excerpts here as we prepare ourselves for the coming Holy Days. 
Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv’s message opens: “As is known, the Sages taught [that God commanded]: “recite verses of Sovereignty (a reference to a section of the Shofar Service on Rosh Hashanah) before Me . . . so that you make me Sovereign over you” (Babylonian Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 34b). When we meditate upon the power to maintain a kingdom [ruled] by [a sovereign of] flesh and blood, [we find that] the kingdom is maintained only when the sovereign’s subjects are all like one person in their service to him. And if . . . division was to emerge among the subjects of the king, the knot of the kingdom would be untied, and (God forbid) the world would be destroyed. As our Sages of blessed memory said, “were it not for the fear [of the government], a person would swallow his neighbor alive” (Mishnah Avot 3:2). Thus [it is] the unity of the subjects [which] maintains the kingdom.”
As I read these words from a teacher in 19th century Lithuania, speaking no doubt to the divisions within the Jewish community of his time, I was struck by their resonance, both for our Jewish community in this 21st century, but also their resonance for us as Americans in these days. And Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv’s missive continues ... “There is an obligation upon us, prior to the Day of Judgment, may it come upon us for good, to occupy ourselves during the entire year with the positive commandment “You shall love your fellow as yourself” (Lev. 19:18). And through this, there will be unity among the subjects of the Blessed Ruler, and [God’s] Sovereignty will come into our hands well ...
“If God forbid, the sin of hating people is on our hands, how can we not be ashamed and disgraced to be speaking lies . . . when we ask, in prayer for God to ‘rule over the entire world, in Your glory’? We have not prepared ourselves to do what is essential for maintaining the kingdom of heaven . . . And so we must accept upon ourselves the work of loving people and of unity. With this, one’s path will slowly, slowly improve—and, in any case, one will already have turned a little bit toward repentance. And, if we merit a community that is immersed in this work during the entire year, who can measure the greatness of the merit for us and for the entire world?
“No one should say that this work is too difficult. It is not only the decree of [our God], but we hope that when one works at this, with appropriate reflection, it will slowly, slowly, become easier, and one will find great joy in it . . . This message should remain before our eyes all year long. And so may we all merit to be written and sealed for good [in the Book of Life] with the whole people of Israel. Amen— may this be God’s will.”
My friends, these are, I believe, words worthy of our contemplation in these days of prelude and preparation for our Days of Judgment, our Days of Awe! They come to us from a teacher in another time and another place. But they easily could have been written for us. May we use these days to reflect, prepare for the work of Teshuvah- of repentance, and the work of healing ourselves, our relationships, and I pray, our world!
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