Rabbi
Yosef Zundel of Salant (1786-1866) (also known as
Zundel Salant) was the primary teacher of Rabbi
Yisrael Salanter.
Reb Zundel was born in 1786 in Salantai, Lithuania. Little is known of his early years. He descended from Rabbi Fayvush Ashkenazy of Vilna (late 17th-early 18th century) and his father was Rabbi Benyamin Beinush, who was a shochet and chazzan in Salant.
As a young man, Reb Zundel studied in the Volozhin Yeshiva under Rabbi Chaim Volozhin. Following Rabbi Chaim's death in 1821, Reb Zundel would make trips to study with Rabbi Akiva Eiger.
Reb Zundel provided the spiritual inspiration for his most famous student, Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, the founder of the Mussar Movement.
