The title of ‘Alter’ was given by the yeshiva world to crown the three Jewish giants of the spirit who transmitted the concept of Mussar to the next generation, during the period between the two World Wars. This was a period marked by intense suffering for the Jews, who were also greatly affected by strong winds threatening to loose them from their Torah moorings – both from the maskilim and from the Zionists, who sought to uproot the Jews from their faith and transform them into just another people among the nations.

Each of these three great figures had his own method of dealing with the crisis; each one stood in the breach and made a giant contribution to klal Yisrael. These three were:

- The Alter of Slabodka, Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel ztz”l, who established the ‘Knesses Yisrael - Slabodka’ yeshiva on the outskirts of the town of Kovno – almost all the contemporary litvishe yeshivos owe their existence in some way to the Slabodka yeshiva.

- The Alter of Novardok, Rav Yosef Yoizel Horovitz ztz”l, who established yeshivos over the length and breadth of Russia with great mesirus nefesh. The multitudes of talmidim he raised up were renowned for their ability to sit and learn Torah and mussar as if the whole world and its enticements had absolutely no connection with them – they divorced themselves entirely from gashmius and devoted themselves to their spiritual ascent.

- The Alter of Kelem, Rav Simcha Zissel Ziv ztz”l – who was the first of the three to take on a position of leadership.

Rav Simcha Zissel Ziv (Broide) was born in the year 5584 in the town of Kelem, Lithuania. The family Zissel was renowned as one of the most established and respected in Kelem – it boasted a dynasty of rabbonim going back thirteen generations, back to the Gaon Rav Avraham Broide ztz”l, author of the seforim ‘Eshel Avraham’ and ‘Shemata Chedta’. Rav Avraham was also the grandfather of the great Rav Akiva Eiger ztz”l, and one of the descendants of the Maharal of Prague.
The father of Rav Simcha Zissel, Rav Yisrael Broide ztz”l, was an exceptional scholar and one of the gedolim of his generation. The Alter’s mother was also renowned for her piety and her scholarship – she was fluent in halachah to the extent that she was capable of issuing rulings – especially in matters pertaining to women. All of her days she was actively involved in tzeddokah and gemillus chassodim. One of her practices was that of collecting tzeddokah during levayos, for the poor people, as was the practice in most small towns. Even when it was her own small daughter who was niftar, she did not alter her custom, and circled among the assembled during the levayah with her tzeddokah box, saying; “just because I myself am in grief and mourning, do the poor of the town have to suffer?”

It was in this rarified atmosphere of Torah and chessed that Rav Simcha Zissel was raised and educated, for all the years of his youth in the town of Kelem. Nevertheless, as a young boy he was known for his pranks and would invariably emerge as the winner of all the games played among the children of the town. However, once he reached the age of eight or nine, he would seclude himself for hours at a time in order to learn the seforim of the Rambam or the sefer Chovos haLevovos. During these hours he would hide himself in the women’s section of the shul. Once he had determined that the time had come to abandon all his youthful pursuits and devote himself to Torah study, nothing could prevent him from carrying this out, not the jesting of his friends and not criticism from those elder than him who felt that he was yet too young for such seriousness.

Rav Simcha Zissel possessed a great intellectual capacity and he amazed his teachers with his sharp questions. After his marriage at a young age to the daugher of Rav Mordechai Moidz of Kelem, he travelled to learn in Kovno from Rav Yisrael Salanter, whose new mussar movement had already made great waves in the Torah world, the effect of which is still keenly felt until today.

The initial reason for his travelling to Kovno was not to actually study there. When he first heard of the existence of the Beis haMussar in Kovno, he had not understood the need for such an institution, and decided to visit it and voice his opposition to such a concept. However, after hearing just one speech by Rav Yisrael Salanter, his first impressions were erased and he became a firm disciple of the new movement, staying on for a full year to learn Torah and mussar.

In the beis medrash of the Beis haMussar Rav Simcha Zissel attached himself to Rav Yisrael Salanter and entirely adopted the methods of the mussar movement. He gained swift recognition as one of the finest talmidim learning there – when Rav Yisrael praised his talmidim, he would especially mention the qualities of Rav Simcha Zissel, using a possuk from Shir haShirim to accentutate his admiration for his talmid; “You are entirely beautiful, my beloved – there is no blemish in you.”

When Rav Yisrael Salanter left Kovno for Germany, Rav Simcha returned to the town of his birth, to Kelem. There he continued to devote himself with ever-increasing intensity to the study of Torah and mussar, to the extent that he was almost entirely detached from the material world. He would shut himself in a special room from which he would only emerge on rare and urgent occasions, and there he learned with amazing diligence, according to his own schedule which he would under no circumstances alter. For instance, at one point he decided to adopt the seder halimmud of the Vilna Gaon, and so he slept for just two and a half hours of the day, divided into half-hour periods. He would learn for twelve hours at a stretch without interruption – no one was permitted to disturb him during this time. This practice earned him much criticism, to which he replied in a letter, bringing sources from Chazal to defend himself, and explaining that his methods were those endorsed by Chazal as his own fixing of times for learning, and that therefore he was not permitted to interrupt his studies, for this would be considered bittul Torah. To the question that perhaps there were times of pikuach nefesh when it would in fact be permitted for him to take a break; he replied that there was no need to concern oneself with that possibility.

Apart from studying sifrei mussar in great depth, Rav Simcha also reviewed his learning many times with great passion, according to the method of Rav Yisrael Salanter, to the extent that once Rav Yisrael told him that he hardly needed to study mussar for his own self-perfection.

This method of mussar study involving constant review brought him to a high level of refinement, both in his character and his deeds. This was even readily apparent merely from gazing upon his visage. His every action was measured and to-the-point; his every step was calculated and his every word was carefully considered. Rav Simcha Zissel gained a complete mastery over the emotions of his heart, and had such a control over his thoughts that he was able to constantly maintain his practice of reviewing every evening all the thoughts that he had had during the day, in order to account for each one.

Rav Simcha Zissel was a master of the human psyche, and as such he was able to ascertain which practices he should undertake in order to perfect himself in various areas. Occasionally he would go out to an outlying village where he was not known, where he would dress in bizarre clothing, or disguise himself as a pauper or an invalid, in order to rid himself of the evil traits of pride and honour-seeking. For this reason, he did not allow his talmidim to rise in his honour, or to call him by the title of ‘Rav’. He made himself a personal rule never to become angry, no matter what the circumstances; if he ever felt that he must become angry, then he first donned a special garment set aside for this purpose. He made a personal stringency not to eat fruit soup for his entire life, since he felt that it was too much of a sensual pleasure. When he awoke in the morning he would immediately spring out of his bed in great haste, as if a highwayman was standing behind him threatening to kill him – in order to cure himself of laziness and implant in himself the trait of zeal.

In fact, all of his particular behaviours originated from the list of practices that he had taken upon himself on erev Yom Kippur of every year, in order to ensure that he would continually ascend in spirituality from year to year. This list of his new customs was adhered to strictly. Once, during the shacharis prayers, he suddenly jumped out of his seat and rushed over to a different bench, where he opened a sefer, looked in it for a moment and then returned to his place. When he was questioned on his behaviour, he replied that he had taken upon himself to daven only from a siddur, and when he had reached the phrase ‘Ezras avoseinu’ in his siddur, he had seen that the words were torn through – therefore he had quickly rushed to recite the words from another siddur, so as not to break his self-imposed rule.

Rav Simcha was also known as a baal regesh, with a fiery emotion which found expression in his passionate tefillos. Once, Rav Ben Zion Zev Krenitz cornered one of the Alter’s talmidim, wanting to question him on his teacher’s practices. The talmid related that he had once seen the Alter singing and dancing for a full half an hour to the words of the possuk; “I rejoiced with Your words [of Torah] as one who had found a great treasure.”

All this notwithstanding, (his amazing diligence in Torah study and his great enthusiasm in tefilla), the main area of avodas HaShem stressed by the Alter was that of ‘mitzvos bein adam l’chaveiro’. In fact, the Alter saw the perfection of interpersonal relationships as the basis for improving one’s relationship with the Creator. The main kabbalah that he took upon himself each Yom Kippur was that of ahavas habrius – love of one’s fellow man, since he saw this as the foundation of all the interpersonal mitzvos. Even the kabbalah that he took upon himself as a merit for his deceased mother stressed mitzvos bein adam l’chaveiro and taking extra care not to speak loshon hora, coming in second place to his determination to set himself extra hours of study of Torah and mussar. He would never sigh or groan in the earshot of another person, even when he was gravely ill and suffering terrible pains, in order not to cause distress to those around him. On leil Shabbos, when he returned from the beis medrash after maariv, he would pause for a moment before entering his home, to bring to mind all the preparations for Shabbos that his wife had undertaken, in order that he would be able to show her the proper appreciation. A few days before his petirah, he asked that his clothes be laundered, so that when they were later donated to the poor, they would be received in good, clean condition.

The Alter was also known to be especially careful in monetary matters, after the manner of his great teacher, of whom he testified that; “he was excessively meticulous in all matters relating to money, possible theft or damages.” And despite the lofty levels he reached in these matters, he constantly aspired to ascend higher and higher.

Rav Simcha Zissel exerted himself to the utmost in the matter of education – he invested all his formidable intellectual abilities in transmitting Torah to others. His first place of employment was in the town of Zagar near Kovno – few details are known of this period, except that he taught young children and headed a beis hamussar for older students. At the time that the Alter was living there, Rav Kalman Ze'ev Visotzki was also residing in that town, apparently upon the instructions of Rav Yisrael Salanter, in order that he should guard himself and not stray from the derech haTorah, despite his great wealth. Two years later, Rav Simcha Zissel left Zagar, after having a difference of opinion with Rav Visotzki over the use of his riches, when the maskilim made attempts to have the money diverted for their own purposes. The Alter then returned to Kelem and began to give droshos on Shabbosim in the main beis medrash, displaying his great talent for speaking. He spoke in great depth, although the content was far beyond the capabilities of understanding of the majority of his listeners. Later, between the years of 5626 - 5636, he headed a new Torah institution for youths, by the name of the ‘Talmud Torah’. His main assistant in this enterprise was Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel ztz”l, who was later to become renowned as the Alter of Slabodka.

At first the ‘Talmud Torah’ occupied rented premises, but in the year 5634 it moved to a new, beautiful building. In the attic of this building were living quarters for the Alter and his family – but the Alter himself only came home on Shabbos and Yomim Tovim. He and his family never took any financial benefit from the Talmud Torah – despite the fact that their financial situation was always difficult and sometimes dire. His wife, a righteous woman, was determined that her husband should not be disturbed from his spiritual endeavours, and she undertook the full yoke of supporting the family. Nevertheless, there were times when there was no bread in the house, or when the family shivered in the winter’s cold and the rain seeped through the roof. Only when the situation became particularly dire, without even having to utter a word, Rav Simcha Zissel gave his wife a sum of money that he had received for his work, and then their material situation improved somewhat.

Around the year 5636, a libel was brought before the government that the Alter’s educational institution taught civil disobedience. Police and government officials began to make enquiries and searches, and it was then that the Alter changed his family name from ‘Broide’ to ‘Ziv’. The Talmud Torah was shut down and reopened in the town of Grobin, Korland (currently Latvia). It was there that the Beis haTalmud reached its peak of flourishing and influence. The Alter invested all his strength and energy, spiritual and material, into his new project, and it remained in the town of Grobin until the year 5646, when it was forced to close due to the Alter's waning health.

A number of years before, when he had first began to feel unwell and it was no longer possible for him to continue to head the Beis haTalmud and to carry its financial burden, Rav Yisrael Salanter refused to allow it to close, saying that the closure of the Talmud Torah would be tantamount to a degree of the churban Beis haMikdash. But the health of the Alter continued to deteriorate, and eventually he was left with no choice other than to close the Grobin Talmud Torah. He closed it rather than let it pass into the hands of another, in deference to the ruling of his rebbe, Rav Yisrael Salanter, who had been niftar in the meantime, but had previously expressed the view that only Rav Simcha Zissel was capable of heading such an institution. Rav Simcha then returned to Kelem where he reopened and headed the Talmud Torah there, and this time, in contrast to when he had been in Grobin, he attracted only a small number of outstanding students. Rav Simcha Zissel, however, was pleased with this development, preferring to have only a core number of talmidim who were entirely dedicated to living their lives in accordance with the derech hamussar.

The derech of Kelem emphasised a complete mastery over the self, to the highest degree, as demonstrated by the personal orderliness of the individual, his forethought to every deed, and even his consideration before every motion – the goal was that each deed should only be undertaken if absolutely necessary. It was even related that during the learning sessions in the beis medrash, a noise was heard outside and one of the talmidim turned his head for a second to the window to see what was going on. For this infraction, he was barred from the yeshiva for a week. The talmidim were also taught to recognise their greatness and personal worth, by recognising the greatness of their mission. They had to be immaculately dressed, to accentuate the dignity of man. All of these principles the Alter transmitted to his talmidim.
The Beis haTalmud in Kelem produced hundreds of talmidim great in Torah, yiras Shamayim and mussar – a large number of them went on to head other prominent institutions and further spread the mussar derech. They included; Rav Aharon Baksht, Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer, Rav Moshe Mordechai Epstein, Rav Naftali Tropp ztz”l and many others. Other great students of Rav Simcha Zissel were Rav Yosef Yoizel Horvitz ztz”l, the founder of the Novardok yeshivos, and Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel ztz”l.

Rav Simcha Zissel Ziv was niftar on the eighth of Av in the year 5658 – the levayah was on Tisha b’Av and was attended by many gedolei Torah and mussar, including Rav Eliezer Gordon of Telz, Rav Yitzchak Blazer of Kovno and Rav Tzvi Yaakov Openheim ztz”l, the rav of the town. The Alter of Kelem left a son, Rav Nachum Zev Ziv, and daughters, all of whom he had educated in his way and who continued in his derech.