Some Notes on Verifying the Authenticity of the Alleged Rav Yisrael Salanter Photographs

By Shnayer Leiman

There are some who claim that the photographs of R. Yisrael Salanter’s sons can be  used for the likeness of their father, since we have testimony that the sons looked almost exactly like their father. Let us examine the evidence.

1. Aside from the 3 published photographs of R. Yisrael’s son R. Yitzchak (see “The Recently Published Photographs of R. Yisrael Salanter”), the only other extant sketch of a son of R. Yisrael Salanter is the portrait of Lipman Lipkin (1846-1876).[1]

Indeed, Menahem G. Glenn would claim:[2]

The portrait of Dr. Lipkin reproduced in the Ha’asiph shows physical  features undoubtedly inherited from his father, a high, broad forehead, lively keen eyes, a prominent aquiline, sensitive nose, a short shorn beard encircling his face, making an impressive appearance. He must have borne a more striking resemblance to his father than any of his brothers. We thus have some idea of what his father, who never allowed himself to be photographed, looked like.

For our purposes, what needs to be noticed is that the likenesses of Lipman Lipkin and his brother R. Yitzchak are mutually exclusive. They are hardly interchangeable. And so, if the one is a replica of R. Yisrael Salanter, the other is not. But there is an even greater flaw in Glenn’s “testimony.” The sine qua non for testimony regarding any likenesses of R. Yisrael Salanter and a son of his – with the son shedding light on the image of the father — is: the witness must have seen both! But, Glenn, in all likelihood, never saw any of R. Yisrael Salanter’s sons. And I can say with absolute certainty that Glenn (1896-1978) never set eyes on R. Yisrael Salanter, who died in 1883.

2. In 1954, the earliest of the 3 extant photographs of R. Yitzchak Lipkin was published by his grandson, R. Hayyim Yitzchak Lipkin (1911-1988).[3] It appeared as follows:

At the right of the photo, the legend reads (in part):

According to eye-witness testimony, his likeness
[literally: his facial features] resembled that of his
father R. Yisrael.

Now this is more serious evidence. At least two issues, however, came to mind when I first saw this.

Issue 1: I suspect that almost every reader of this note has been told, at some point in his life, that he/she looks like his/her father, mother, or both. I have been told by some that I look “exactly” like my father, and by others that I look “exactly’ like my mother. In fact, I look “exactly” like neither, but inherited traits of both. In brief, this is hardly an exact science. So whenever someone testifies that A looks like B, it may well be more a personal opinion than a statement of fact.

Issue 2: I noticed that the “eye-witness” was not identified. Who was the witness? Is he a reliable witness? Did he actually see R. Yisrael and R. Yitzchak? Nothing in the 1954 volume sheds light on these questions.

In 2003, a fuller and much expanded edition of the 1954 R. Hayyim Lipkin volume appeared in print.[4] The photo and its legend were conspicuously absent! אין זה אומר אלא דרשני.

3. In 2017, R. Menahem Mendel Plato published a massive 445 page biography of R. Yisrael Salanter.[5] It included the following photograph of R. Yitzchak and the legend under it.[6]

The legend reads in part: “According to the testimony of his [i.e. R. Yisrael Salanter’s] descendant, Rav Dessler, his [R. Yitzchak’s] image is like that of his father.”

At last, the witness is identified. It is none other than Rav Eliyahu Dessler, a great-grandson of R. Yisrael Salanter, who is prominently featured elsewhere in the Plato volume.[7] He is surely a trustworthy witness for what he may have heard from others. But he cannot be an “eye-witness” for what R. Yisrael Salanter looked like. Rav Eliyahu Dessler (1892-1953) was born almost 10 years after R. Yisrael Salanter died in 1883.

In sum, until we have the testimony of an unequivocal witness who saw both R. Yisrael and R. Yitzchak, and testifies that indeed they looked almost exactly alike, we do not know what R. Yisrael looked like, other than by the vivid descriptions by those who actually saw him.[8] It is thus injudicious, to say the least, when a publisher recently reissued the classic anthology of R. Yisrael Salanter’s writings, אור ישראל, with an unidentified photograph of R. Yisrael’s son, R. Yitzchak, on the cover![9]

It honors neither R. Yisrael nor R. Yitzchak, who devoted their lives to teaching and telling the truth.[10]

NOTES

[1] Published in האסיף (Warsaw, 1884-85), part 2, p. 259.
[2] M.G. Glenn, Israel Salanter: Religious-Ethical Thinker, (New York, 1953), pp. 65-66.
[3] תורת רבי ישראל מסלנט (Tel-Aviv, 1954), part 2, p. 126.
[4] תורת רבי ישראל מסלנט (Jerusalem, 2003).
[5] אור ישראל מסלנט (n.p., 2017).
[6] Op. cit., p. 119.
[7] Op. cit., pp. 239-240. On Rav Dessler, see Y. Rosenblum, Rav Dessler (New York, 2000).
[8] Aside from the sources cited in “The Recently Published Photographs of Rav Yisrael Salanter,” see the description by R. Yitzchak Blazer, אור ישראל (Vilna, 1900), p. 120, ד“ה עליו נתקיים.
[9] אור ישראל (North Haven, Conn., 2020).
[10] I am indebted to my colleague, Zalman Alpert, who insisted that I address this issue; and to my son, R. Akiva, who provided the closing image of what the cover of a R. Yisrael Salanter anthology looks like when members of the family become interchangeable parts.

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APPENDIX

Having devoted several postings to true and false claims (regarding photographs), we attach a brief, seasonal דבר תורה about true and false claims embedded in a commentary on the הגדה של פסח .

One of my favorite hasidic stories is about אמת. It reads as follows:

R. Pinchas of Koretz (1726-1791) was a man of truth. He devoted seven years to researching the definition of אמת. He spent another seven years researching the definition of שקר. He spent yet another seven years researching how one goes about acquiring truth and distancing himself from falsehood. In order to appreciate what R. Pinchas of Koretz accomplished, one need only examine the case of R. Shem of Kalshitz.

R. Shem of Kalshitz  used to go the mikvah in the darkness of the night, just prior to his fixed hours for Torah study after midnight. He ordinarily went to the mikvah together with an aide. One night, R. Shem noticed that the aide was sound asleep and he didn’t want to disturb him. He went by himself to the mikvah, deep in holy thought. Unfortunately, he stumbled and fell into a pit in the ground, breaking a rib in the process. The next morning, upon entering the  בית המדרש  for the morning prayers, the Hasidim were shocked not to see the Rebbe, R. Shem, sitting and learning in his usual seat. They made search, found him unconscious in the pit,  and brought him to his house. There, he spent many weeks in recovery, wrapped in bandages and barely able to move. During the entire recovery period, he never complained, indeed, he never even groaned!  His Hasidim asked him: “Rebbe, how is it possible that you haven’t groaned even once?” R. Shem answered: “I try to follow the teachings of R. Pinchas of Koretz, who taught that groaning — more often than is warranted by the pain —  is a subcategory of שקר. So, just to be on the safe side, I don’t groan at all.”   

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Since many are groaning about the arduous task of preparing for Passover, I thought the above story may prove useful. The story was translated (with minor modification) from the Hebrew version that appears in R. Shalom Meir Wallach’s  באהלי צדיקים   הגדה של פסח  (Bnei Brak, 1989, p. 159; Bnei Brak, 2007, p. 210). An English version of the Wallach Haggadah, entitled Haggadah of the Chassidic Masters, was published by ArtScroll in 1990 (and in many later editions; I saw the Fifth Impression published in 2020, where our passage occurs at  p. 115). Wallach’s Haggadah is a treasure trove of hasidic Torah, thought, and folklore.

The story itself teaches us how difficult it is to discover the truth, and how painful it sometimes can be when we strive to implement the truth. And it teaches these themes in more ways than one. Thus, for example, there never was a Rebbe named R. Shem of Kalshitz. I know this because there never was a town populated with Hasidim called Kalshitz. And a Rebbe without Hasidim will not long remain a Rebbe. (Kalshitz should not be confused with Kaloshitz, a small town in Galicia that did have a Rebbe, but never one whose name was R. Shem.) It is relatively easy, however, to identify the R. Shem of our story, since almost no Rebbe (or Rabbi, for that matter) bore the name Shem. The reference is clearly to R. Shem Klingberg (1870-1943), who was an outstanding rabbinic scholar  and Rebbe, known as R. Shem of Zaloshitz (also spelled: Zaloczyce and Dzialoshitz). Zaloshitz was a town some 44 kilometers northeast of Krakow, where R. Shem’s father, R. Avraham Mordechai served as Rebbe. R. Avraham Mordechai later moved to Krakow, and upon his death, was succeeded, as Rebbe, by his son R. Shem. R. Shem is properly known as מזאלושיץ בקראקא  האדמו”ר. Sadly, R. Shem died a martyr’s death in the Plaszow concentration camp in 1943.

The various accounts in the Wallach Haggadah give as the source for the story:  הקדמת אהל שם. No book by the name of  אהל שם   presents in its introduction the story of R. Shem of Zaloshitz. The reference should read: R. Shem Klingberg,אהלי שם על התורה ועל המועדים  (Jerusalem, 1961), הקדמה, p. 15. There, in a biography of R. Shem by one of his surviving sons (at the time), R. Moshe Klingberg, the story appeared in print for the first time.

The errors listed above appear in all the editions of the Wallach Haggadah, whether in Hebrew or in English. None of the editions even attempted to identify “R. Shem of Kalshitz.” Truth is elusive indeed. In general, see the essays on R. Shem of Zaloshitz in M. Unger, אדמו”רים שנספו בשואה  (Jerusalem, 1969), pp. 287-289; and in I. Lewin, ed., אלה אזכרה   (New York, 1972), vol. 7, pp. 266-270. R. Shem died על קידוש השם   on 28 Nisan 1943.