Simcha Zissel Ziv threats to traditional Judaism and to strengthen the cause of the Musar movement, Simcha Zissel decided to open a school in Kelm, the Kelm Talmud Torah. At the time, Simcha Zissel was almost forty years old. The Talmud Torah opened in approximately 1865 and attracted young students, mainly thirteen and fourteen-year-olds. Simcha Zissel’s teacher – Rabbi Yisrael Salanter – had taught Simcha Zissel the importance of Musar and so the Talmud Torah aimed not only to enhance its student’s Torah knowledge but also to shape their personalities and develop their character traits using the Musar approach. Indeed, much of daily
Simcha Zissel Ziv Simcha Zissel's funeral, his friend and colleague Rabbi Eliezer Gordon, the Rabbi and Rosh Yeshiva of Telz, said that aside from Simcha Zissel’s greatness in Torah, he had never heard a single word from him that was not related to Torah and to fear of Heaven. Simcha Zissel was not only great in Musar but also in his knowledge of Torah and Talmud. Gordon, who was known as a fiery and tempestuous genius, would repeat his Talmudic thoughts to Simcha Zissel and seek his opinion on them, for he valued Simcha Zissel’s scholarship highly. Gordon said that his friend had