Yoseph Zundel of Salant (1786–1866) was born in in Salantai, Lithuania and studied in the Volozhin Yeshiva under Rav Chaim Volozhin. Rav Zundel provided the spiritual inspiration for his most prized student, Rav Yisrael Salanter, the founder of the Musar movement who was later quoted as saying: “I have not found a true servant of G-D like my mentor Rav Zundel!”. A follower of the Vilna Gaon’s teachings, Rav Zundel longed to settle in Eretz Yisroel, and in 1838-39 he and his family made the trip to Jerusalem, where he became a leader of the Ashkenazi community. He opened the Ashkenazi Bet Din in Jerusalem and asked his son-in-law, Rav Shmuel Salant, to join it. Soon after, he appointed him Head of the Rabbinical Court, a position he held for nearly seventy years. Rav Zundel helped establish the famed Etz Chaim Yeshiva, Bikur Cholim Hospital and Chevrah Kadisha Society. He and Rav Shmuel Salant founded the Rav Meir Baal Haneis charity foundation, which became the basis of financial support for the local Jewish community. Rav Zundel died in the water plague in Jerusalem in 1866. On his will, he asked with characteristic modesty that no eulogies be held for him and no titles appear under his name on his tombstone.