[1] Yisroel Lipkin was born in Zagare, Lithuania on November 3, 1809, the son of Zev Wolf, the rabbi of that town and later Av Beth Din of Goldingen and Telz, and his wife Leah.

[2] After his 1823 marriage to Esther Fega Eisenstein Lipkin settled with her in Salant where he continued his studies under Hirsch Broda[1] and Zundel, himself a disciple of Chaim Volozhin.

[5] When a minor scandal[further explanation needed] arose related to his appointment, he left the post to its previous inhabitant and moved to Zaretcha, an exurb of Vilna, and established a new yeshiva where he lectured for about three years.

Toward the end of his life, Lipkin went to Paris to organize a community among the many Russian Jewish immigrants, and he remained there for two years.

Lipkin was known as the father of the Musar movement[14] that developed, particularly among the Lithuanian Jews, in 19th century Orthodox Eastern Europe.

According to Lipkin, adhering to the ritual aspects of Judaism without developing one's relationships with others and oneself was an unpardonable parody.

Already in 1880,[17] the concept of conscious and subconscious processes and the role they play in the psychological, emotional and moral functioning of man are fully developed and elucidated.

He would stress that when a person is experiencing an acute emotional response to an event, he is not necessarily in control of his thoughts and faculties and will not have access to the calming perspectives necessary to allow his conscious mind to intercede.

Lipkin argued that the only solution to this dilemma is to study ethical teachings with intense emotion [limud hamusar behispa'alut].

He taught that a person should choose an ethical statement [ma'amar chazal] and repeat this over and over with great feeling and concentration on its meaning.

Through this repetition and internal arousal, a person would be able to bring the idea represented in the ethical teaching into the realm of his subconscious and thus improve their behaviour and "character traits".

Therefore, his closest disciples included not only leading rabbis of the next generation but also laymen who would come to exert a tremendous positive influence on the physical and spiritual lot of their brethren.

Among Lipkin's most famous students were: His layperson disciples included figures such as the banker Eliyahu (Elinka) of Kretinga and the tea magnate, Kalman Zev Wissotzky.