Simcha Blass Simcha Blass Simcha Blass (November 27, 1897 – July 18, 1982; ) was a Polish-Israeli engineer and inventor who developed the drip irrigation system with his son Yeshayahu. Simcha Blass was born in Warsaw, Poland, which was then part of the Russian Empire, to an Orthodox Jewish family. He was active in the Jewish self-defense units organized in Warsaw to defend Jews during the end of World War I. His engineering studies in Warsaw were interrupted by the Polish-Soviet War and completed after that war. During the war, he was recruited to the Polish Army, there he invented for the
Simcha Zissel Ziv his foremost students. He shared a special relationship with the group's members and he worked on writing out his discourses for them, which, unfortunately, required more strength than he had. A number of his students settled in Palestine in 1892, opening the "Beis HaMusar" in Jerusalem, under Simcha Zissel’s auspices and with his support. Simcha Zissel died on Wednesday 26 July 1898 – the eve of Tisha B'Av, shortly after having recited the morning Shema. He died while in the middle of the paragraph “Ezras avoseinu”. Simcha Zissel was known for his humility, lovingkindness, thoughtfulness, and focus on order. At