Rosh Yeshiva of Chachmei Lublin

Rav Meir Shapiro asked the Koziglover Rav to take over as rosh yeshiva of Chachmei Lublin while Rav Meir was still alive, promising that he would step aside. The Koziglover Rav declined. He was too close to his talmidim and could not bear to leave them and his friends behind.

When Rav Meir Shapiro passed away at forty-six, the hanhala asked him again, and this time he felt it was his duty and could not refuse. One of his talmidim described Shabbos in the yeshiva, with the Rav davening Mincha before Shabbos in tears like a river. After a fiery Kabbolas Shabbos, he recited aloud the passage of Zohar from the Friday night zemiros and explained it, his only public shiur in Zohar. Sometimes it lasted for hours, so long that talmidim who had gone to sleep were startled awake by his booming voice as he made Kiddush before dawn. On Shabbos day, they said, whoever never heard him say Nishmas, which took over half an hour as he spoke every word with love, never tasted the true taste of tefillah.