4 Cheshvan · Yahrzeit
The Piaseczna Rebbe - Rabbi Kalonymus Kalmish Shapira
The Piaseczna Rebbe - Rabbi Kalonymus Kalmish ben Elimelech Shapira
Yahrzeit - 4 Cheshvan
Burial place - Lublin, Poland
On his father's side, the Piaseczna Rebbe descended from the family of the renowned kabbalist Rabbi Nathan Nata Shapira, author of the work «Megaleh Amukot» (Revealer of Depths).
His great-grandfather and grandfather were close disciples of one of the founders of the Hasidic movement in Poland, Rabbi Yisrael Hopstein (the Maggid of Kozhnitz), and his grandmother was a granddaughter of the spiritual leader of the Hasidim of Galicia, Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk.
On his mother's side, he descended from the outstanding Hasidic thinker Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman of Kraków, author of a book that entered the treasury of Hasidic classics — «Me'or VaShemesh» (Luminary and Sun).
He was born on 15 Iyar 1889 in the town of Grodzhensk (Greiditz), in northwestern Poland. His father, Rabbi Elimelech, established a Hasidic court in Grodzhensk — in his final years he was the elder among the Hasidic leaders of Poland.
Kalonymus Kalmish was born when his father was already sixty-five years old. At the age of three he was orphaned and was raised under the guidance of his cousin, Rabbi Yerachmiel Moshe Hopstein, who headed the Hasidic court in Kozhnitz.
At the age of sixteen he married the young Rachel Chaya Miriam, daughter of Rabbi Yerachmiel Moshe, and lived in his father-in-law's house for four years.
After the death of his father-in-law, which occurred at the very end of 1909, the twenty-year-old Rabbi Kalonymus Kalmish settled in the town of Piaseczna, sixteen kilometers from Warsaw, and established a new Hasidic court there — hundreds, and later thousands, of his father's and father-in-law's Hasidim came to him for advice and guidance.
He was the youngest Admor (Hasidic Rebbe) of his generation.
In 5673 /1913/ he also became the rabbi of Piaseczna, at the age of twenty-four.
During the First World War he moved to Warsaw, and from then on visited Piaseczna only for the fall holidays — nevertheless, at the request of the townspeople, he remained the rabbi of that community, and the residents of Piaseczna turned to him on all the most important matters.
In 5683 /1923/ the Piaseczna Rebbe founded a yeshiva in Warsaw — he named it «Da'at Moshe» (Moshe's Knowledge) in memory of his father-in-law, Rabbi Yerachmiel Moshe of Kozhnitz.
At the time it was the only yeshiva in Poland with a dormitory and dining hall for its students — Rabbi Meir Shapiro later founded his famous Yeshiva Chachmei Lublin along a similar model.
Special attention was given at the Piaseczna Rebbe's yeshiva to the study of practical halacha — and in 5687 /1927/ the first class of young Torah scholars graduated, receiving semicha (rabbinic ordination) upon completion of the yeshiva.
Though he headed a flourishing Hasidic community and one of the most respected yeshivas in the Jewish world, the Piaseczna Rebbe was utterly free of self-satisfaction.
On 19 Iyar 5689 /1929/, at the age of forty, the Rebbe wrote in his diary:
«What do I lack? Simply to be a Jew — that is what I lack! I seem to myself like a man skillfully painted on canvas — everything is there: subtle gradations of color, perfection of form. Only one thing is missing in this man — he has no soul. Master of the Universe, Who sees all that is hidden, I admit with bitterness that I have been cast off and distanced from You and from Your holiness by a vast distance. I wish I could simply undergo conversion right now — starting today, to become a Jew! Master of the Universe, save me, so that I need not spend the rest of my years on the spiritual level of donkeys and dogs — draw me close to You, bring me into Your Sanctuary, into the Holy of Holies, bind me to You for all eternity» (Chovat HaTalmidim, Toldot HaMechaber).
In 5692 /1932/, in Warsaw, the Piaseczna Rebbe published his first book, titled «Chovat HaTalmidim» (The Students' Obligation).
This book was based on the pedagogical experience he gained while leading the yeshiva. It is written in the form of a lively, intimate conversation between a mentor and a young student just setting out on the path toward spiritual growth.
The book became part of the classic canon of Jewish pedagogical and mussar literature — it has gone through numerous editions and is still widely studied today.
The Piaseczna Rebbe wrote a number of other works dealing with Jewish education: «Hachsharat HaAvreichim» (Preparing Young Torah Scholars), «Chovat HaAvreichim» (The Obligation of Young Torah Scholars), «Derech HaMelech» (The King's Way), and others.
In «Hachsharat HaAvreichim» the author introduced his young reader, already well-versed in the Talmud and the codes of Jewish law, to the hidden world of Kabbalah. This book was conceived as an introduction to the study of the esoteric dimensions of Torah.
By the late 5690s /1930s/, the number of students in his yeshiva had reached three hundred. The Piaseczna Rebbe often told those close to him: «The purpose of my life is the yeshiva, and the purpose of the yeshiva is to raise up even ten people who truly aspire to spiritual heights» (BeSeter Ra'am).
The outbreak of the Second World War found him in Piaseczna. He soon returned to Warsaw, where thousands of refugees from western Poland were flocking.
The Wehrmacht advanced rapidly on Warsaw, and the city shook with exploding bombs. In those days, one of his devoted Hasidim obtained a car for the Piaseczna Rebbe's family and urged him to flee the collapsing Poland eastward, to Vilna (Vilnius). The Rebbe refused, explaining: «I cannot slip away from the battlefield and abandon the Jews of Poland.»
On 13 Tishrei 5700 /1939/, a bomb exploded near the Rebbe's house, seriously wounding his only son, Rabbi Elimelech. A few hours later, his daughter-in-law — Rabbi Elimelech's wife, who had come to find out how her wounded husband was doing — was killed by a direct bomb hit at the entrance to the hospital. The next day, on the eve of Sukkot, the Germans burst into the city. In the very first hours of the occupation, the Nazis arrested one of the Rebbe's students. Interrupting his care for his dying son and the burial of his daughter-in-law, Rabbi Kalonymus set about urgently securing the young man's release. He obtained an audience with the head of the Gestapo and persuaded the Nazi to show mercy. The Gestapo officer ordered the Rebbe to come back for the young man the next day. That evening, the Rebbe held the first Sukkot meal in a small sukkah hastily built in a hidden courtyard. One of his students recalled that when people urged the Rebbe not to risk his own life by returning to the Gestapo the next morning, Rabbi Kalonymus replied: «A Rebbe who is not ready to descend into Gehinnom to save his Hasid cannot be a Rebbe.»
After the morning prayers he set off for the building occupied by the Gestapo, while his Hasidim fervently prayed for the success of his mission. Before long, the Rebbe returned beaming with joy, together with the young man he had saved (Gedolei HaDorot; BeSeter Ra'am).
On the evening of the following day, at the very onset of Shabbat, his son died of his wounds. On Shabbat the Rebbe, as usual, received his Hasidim at his table and discussed Torah with them — and only at the close of the holy day, when the first three stars appeared in the sky, did he burst into tears. Several thousand Jews, overcoming their fear of the Germans, took part in the funeral procession. In those days the Rebbe wrote in his diary: «This pain is greater than can be borne. …All the hopes bound up with my son are shattered, and my own future too …is cut off, …and my sins are the cause of it all. Merciful Father, have mercy on me and strengthen me — so that I may thank You for having granted me so priceless a treasure as my son was before his passing» (Chovat HaTalmidim, Toldot HaMechaber; BeSeter Ra'am).
Just a few days later, on Simchat Torah, the Rebbe danced with the Torah scroll and sang together with his Hasidim, strengthening their hearts with his faith. «I have already won this war!» he declared firmly. «With G-d's help, the entire people of Israel will also emerge from this war victorious» (Chovat HaTalmidim, Toldot HaMechaber).
His home in the ghetto became one of the centers of spiritual life.
For several years a regular minyan gathered at his home. True to his custom, every Shabbat he held a tisch (festive gathering) for his Hasidim and discussed with them the weekly Torah portion (BeSeter Ra'am).
In a talk delivered in the fall of 5701 /1940/, the Rebbe elevated his own tragic experience of losing his son into a broader reflection on the fate of the entire people of Israel.
He compared the murder of Jews taking place all around him with the «Binding of Isaac»: «When Abraham raised his son Isaac upon the altar, only their intentions were tested, but the sacrifice itself was not carried out — for the angel said to Abraham: “Do not lay a hand on the boy” (Genesis 22:12).
But ever since then, whenever a Jew is killed at the hands of foreigners — even without the Jew's intention to sacrifice himself — a sacrifice takes place, and in this sense the Binding of Isaac is, as it were, completed. There, there was desire and intention; here, there is the deed itself completed» (Eish Kodesh).
Based on these talks, Rabbi Kalonymus wrote, chapter by chapter, a book commenting on the entire Chumash. One of the ghetto survivors recalled that when visiting the Rebbe on weekdays, he «usually found him bent over his manuscripts» (BeSeter Ra'am).
Being a highly skilled mohel, the Rebbe continued performing circumcisions on infants born in the ghetto. When the Nazi authorities destroyed all the mikvahs in Warsaw, the Rebbe organized a secret mikveh in Piaseczna, and many Jews, risking their lives, traveled there to immerse in its waters (Chovat HaTalmidim, Toldot HaMechaber; BeSeter Ra'am).
In the winter of 5702 /1942/, the first «actions» began — operations to systematically murder the Jews of the ghetto, street by street.
In this situation, when the Nazis' ultimate goal was no longer in doubt, the Rebbe urgently advised his Hasidim to seize any opportunity to flee Warsaw and to hide their children among the surrounding non-Jewish population (Chovat HaTalmidim, Toldot HaMechaber; BeSeter Ra'am).
In his talks from this period, the Rebbe noted that the Nazi persecutions crippled not only the bodies but also the souls of the Jews.
On Chanukah 5702 /1942/ he said: «To our sorrow, even some of those who have always had a strong faith now find their faith shaken — they ask, “Why has G-d abandoned us?” …Yet troubles like these have periodically befallen the people of Israel every few hundred years. Why, then, have these people's faith wavered specifically because of today's suffering, and did not waver before, when they knew well of the torments the people of Israel endured throughout past centuries? …The reason is that a person feels more acutely the suffering and troubles that happen to him personally. …But if everyone clearly saw that we are being persecuted not because we stole or harmed anyone, but only because we are Jews — …then faith and devotion to Torah would only increase. In some of us faith weakens because we feel only our physical suffering, without realizing that its true purpose is to bring the Jewish people back to Torah and to G-d» (Eish Kodesh).
The Rebbe called on his students to have «self-sacrificing faith.» He explained: «Even in an age when “the Face of the Almighty” is hidden, a person with self-sacrificing faith realizes that everything that happens comes from Him and is done in accordance with His justice, for the good of the world — and therefore all the suffering of Israel is dictated by the Creator's love for His people» (ibid.).
In early spring of that same year, 5702 /1942/, the Rebbe bitterly observed: «Everyone walks about bent, broken, filled with grief, bowed down to the ground — the complete opposite of the state …of joy and confidence required for serving the Almighty. Even those who at first held themselves together and strengthened other Jews' faith have grown weary of holding on and supporting those around them, …for after so many years of suffering, all the words of comfort have already been said and repeated many times over.»
In the summer of 5702 /1942/, the Nazis carried out a large-scale operation to transport the population of the Warsaw Ghetto to the Treblinka concentration camp.
The Nazis conducted round-ups and deported four to five thousand people from the ghetto every day — those who tried to resist were shot on the spot. Those brought to Treblinka were murdered in the gas chambers that same day. During this period all the hospitals and orphanages of Jewish Warsaw were destroyed. By the beginning of autumn, out of the ghetto's half-million residents, only about fifty thousand Jews remained alive.
Just half a year before these mass «liquidations,» the Rebbe wrote in his diary:
«Those who think that the people of Israel have never before experienced such suffering are mistaken — this already happened at the destruction of the Temple and the siege of Beitar» (Eish Kodesh).
However, after the ghetto had been emptied, he added a note in the margin at that same place in the diary: «This is true only with regard to the troubles that occurred before the middle of 5702. But such monstrous suffering and executions as befell the people of Israel at the end of 5702, as far as I know from the books of our sages and from historical records, have never happened before.»
During the period of the mass «liquidations,» in order to survive, the Piaseczna Rebbe worked in Schultz's shoemaking workshop, where the few rabbis and Hasidic leaders who had survived in the ghetto gathered as «shoemakers.»
One visitor to the workshop recalled: «At the nearest workbench sat Rabbi Aryeh Tzvi Frumer, …who in the years before the war had headed the famous Yeshiva Chachmei Lublin.
From time to time he would turn to the Piaseczna Rebbe, author of «Chovat HaTalmidim,» who sat across from him. In low voices they discussed the most intricate Talmudic problems: the sayings of the sages and codifiers hung in the air, …of the Rambam and the Raavad. …One had the impression of being not in a shoe workshop, but in the chamber of the Great Sanhedrin» (BeSeter Ra'am).
The Piaseczna Rebbe's job was to gather scraps of leather and sweep the floor. Once, those nearby heard the Rebbe cry out to the Creator, without pausing in his work: «How does the universe continue to exist?! Why does it not revert to its original state of chaos?! For when the Romans executed the Ten Martyrs, the angels cried out: “Is this the reward for their study of Torah?!” And a Voice came from Heaven: “If you add even one more word, I will return the universe to chaos!” And now, when innocent children and holy Torah scholars are being killed simply for being Jews, when the entire expanse of the universe is filled with their dying screams — the world has not turned upside down and the universe continues to exist as though nothing had happened?!» (Chovat HaTalmidim, Toldot HaMechaber).
In the middle of the winter of 5703 /1943/, the Germans resumed the mass round-ups, but this time the Jews responded with armed resistance.
As a result of the street fighting, about a thousand resistance fighters were killed and another six and a half thousand were deported to Treblinka. In those days the Rebbe wrote in his diary: «Even the few who remain …are crushed by the fear of death. …There is no one left to guide, and no heart remains that could be awakened to serve the Almighty and study Torah» (Eish Kodesh).
That winter the Rebbe hid his numerous manuscripts in one of the ghetto cellars, placing them inside an old jug (BeSeter Ra'am).
On the eve of Pesach 5703 /1943/, large German units entered the ghetto to complete its destruction.
The remaining inhabitants of the ghetto, feeling they had nothing left to lose, responded with a general uprising. The Nazis opened gas lines and blew up building after building — flames engulfed the entire ghetto, and within a few days it was razed to the ground. The few surviving Jews — including the Piaseczna Rebbe and a few of his Hasidim — were sent to concentration camps (Chovat HaTalmidim, Toldot HaMechaber).
He spent the last months of his life in the Bodzin concentration camp, near Lublin.
On 2 Cheshvan 5704 /1943/, two Swedish diplomatic representatives offered the Rebbe a visa granting him the right to leave Poland — but he refused to part from his Hasidim. Two days later, the Jews rose up in the concentration camp. In retaliation, the Nazis set the camp on fire, in which the last Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto also perished (R. Lichtenstein, The Piaseczne Rebbe).
Rabbi Kalonymus Kalmish Shapira, the Piaseczna Rebbe, died sanctifying G-d's Name on 4 Cheshvan 5704 /1943/, at the age of fifty-five.
In 5715 /1955/, the Rebbe's manuscripts were discovered by a Polish laborer while clearing rubble on the site of the former Warsaw Ghetto. The notes of the talks he gave in the ghetto, together with his diary entries, were published in Jerusalem in 5720 /1960/ under the title «Eish Kodesh» (Holy Fire).
May the merit of the Tzadik protect Am Yisrael!
(Toldot ru)