Rav Yehuda Meir Shapiro of Lublin

Early years

Rav Yehuda Meir Shapiro of Lublin zt"l was born in Shatz (Suczawa), Bukovina, then part of Austria-Hungary and now in Romania, on 3 March 1887 (5647). His father was Rav Yaakov Shimshon. His mother, Margala, was the daughter of Rav Shmuel Yitzchok Shor, author of Minchas Shai, and a descendant of the Tevuas Shor.

On his father's side he descended from Rav Pinchas of Koretz, a talmid of the Baal Shem Tov. On his mother's side he descended from Rav Yosef Bechor Shor of Orleans, one of the Baalei Tosafos.

After cheder he learned with his grandfather, the Minchas Shai. Another of his early teachers was Rav Shulem Moshkovitz, the Shotzer Rebbe, who was also a well-known mekubal (Kabbalist). The young man soon became known as the Illui (prodigy) of Shatz, and from an early age he stood out as a leader and a gifted speaker. Many great scholars, among them the Maharsham, gave him semichah (rabbinic ordination).

It was his grandfather who brought him before the Chortkover Rebbe, Rav Yisroel Friedman, and that meeting began both his love for Chassidus and a bond with the Rebbe of Chortkov that lasted all his life. He married in 1906.

Rabbinic posts

In 1911 Rav Meir received his first rabbinic position, as Rav of Galina. During his ten years there he founded a yeshivah called Bnei Torah. Construction began in 1920. It included a Talmud Torah, a program to train rabbanim, and a kitchen to feed orphaned children, and it ran on a budget of more than half a million marks. It became the model for what would later be Chachmei Lublin.

He then became Rav of Sanok, and in 1924 he accepted his third position, as Rav of Piotrkov. There he wrote his sefer of responsa, Or HaMeir, printed in 1926. His appointment as Rav of Lublin came on 14 June 1931, and he took up the post in the Maharshal0027s old shul.

Daf Yomi

Rav Meir shared a revolutionary idea at the Knessia Gedola of Agudas Yisroel in Vienna. The idea was that Jews in every land would study one and the same daf (folio) of Gemara daily, finishing all of Shas every seven and a half years.

The first cycle of Daf Yomi began on Rosh Hashanah 5684 (11 September 1923) and finished 2,702 days later, on Tu Bishvat 1931. Since then tens of thousands of Jews around the world have taken part in Daf Yomi.

Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin

Together with Daf Yomi, the great achievement of his life was Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin, which he founded in 1930. He envisioned a yeshivah for Chassidic Poland, modeled on Lithuanian yeshivos such as Volozhin, Slabodka and Novardok, that would train Chassidic rabbanim to lead the next generation of Polish Jewry.

The cornerstone for the great building was laid on 22 to 28 May 1924, with about 20,000 people present. The yeshivah opened on 24 and 25 June 1930, and some 10,000 people came from across Poland and abroad, alongside thousands of local Jews. The building housed hundreds of talmidim and a library of more than 100,000 seforim. Rav Meir served as rosh yeshivah until his passing.

Askanus and public life

Rav Meir was active in Agudas Yisroel from his years in Galina. He attended its founding conference in 1912, and in 1914 he was named head of its Education Department for East Galicia. In 1922 he became president of Agudas Yisroel in Poland. He took part in the conference in Lvov that launched Agudas Yisroel in Galicia, about two years after its founding in Katowice in 5672, and he served on the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah.

He was at first unsure whether he should stand for the Polish parliament for the party, but his Rebbe, the Chortkover, encouraged him. Beginning in 1922 he served in the Sejm of the Second Polish Republic, the first Orthodox Jew to sit there, representing the country's Jewish minority. He later stepped down so that he could give all his energy to Chachmei Lublin.

Together with Aron Levine and Zalmen Sirtzokin, he chaired the committee, within the Polish Ministry for Religious Affairs, that was responsible for filling rabbinic posts across Poland. He also sat on the Vaad HaChinuch.

Teachings and seforim

In his own lifetime Rav Meir was regarded as a gaon (Torah genius), a great scholar even among the great scholars of his generation. His responsa, Or HaMeir, range from philosophy to halachah. His Imrei Daas, a collection of Torah thoughts on halachah and aggadah with an approbation from Rav Meir Arik of Meturnah, was lost during World War II. He was also a quick and brilliant thinker, and many of his vortelach (short Torah thoughts) have been collected in volumes and quoted in many seforim.

Later years and passing

In 1932 the leaders of the Jewish community of Lodz approached Rav Meir with an offer to serve as its Chief Rabbi. Many had wanted Rav Mendel Alter of Kalish, a brother of the Gerrer Rebbe and the youngest son of the Sfas Emes, in the role. Rav Meir negotiated that a large part of his salary would go toward paying off the debts that still burdened Chachmei Lublin. After long negotiations he was appointed, and he passed away three days later.

Rav Meir fell ill with typhus in 1933 and passed away within the month, on 7 Cheshvan 5694 (27 October 1933), at the age of forty-six. Both Jewish and non-Jewish Poland mourned him, and newspapers of every political stripe, Orthodox, Yiddishist and socialist alike, ran front-page accounts of his life.

In 1958, under the direction of his brother, his remains were brought to Eretz Yisroel and laid to rest on Har HaMenuchos with a full ceremony. Rav Yitzchok Meir Levin spoke, as did several of his talmidim who had lived through the Holocaust.

Legacy

Throughout the Jewish world Rav Meir is revered as the one who founded Daf Yomi. The Zichron Meir neighborhood of Bnei Brak, home to many of the city's major yeshivos, was established in his memory by Rav Yaakov Halperin.