7 Cheshvan · Yahrzeit
Rabbi Yehuda Meir Shapiro - Daf Yomi
Rabbi Yehuda Meir ben Yaakov Shimshon Shapiro - Daf Yomi (March 3, 1887 - October 27, 1933) was a renowned Polish Hasidic rabbi and Rosh Yeshiva, also known as the Lubliner Rav.
Yahrzeit - 7 Cheshvan
Burial place - Har HaMenuchot, Jerusalem
He is known for promoting the Daf Yomi study program in 1923 and founding the Yeshiva "Chachmei Lublin" in 1930.
From 1922 to 1927, Shapiro was the first Orthodox Jew to become a deputy of the Sejm (Parliament) of the Second Polish Republic representing the country's Jewish minority.
Rabbi Yehuda Meir Shapiro was born in the city of Suceava (Shatz), Bukovina, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now Romania, in 1887.
He was a descendant of Rabbi Pinchas Shapiro of Koretz, one of the disciples of the Baal Shem Tov, and on his mother's side, of Rabbi Yosef ben Yitzchak Bechor Shor, a French Tosafist. After cheder, Shapiro studied under his grandfather, the Baal Minchas Shai (Rabbi Shmuel Yitzchak Shor). Another one of his early teachers was Rabbi Sholem Moskowitz (widely known as the Shotzer Rebbe, who was also a renowned kabbalist).
Shapiro began to gain a reputation and became known as the Ilui of Shatz. From an early age he was recognized as an outstanding leader and gifted speaker. He was soon ordained by many great scholars, including the Maharsham. His grandfather introduced him to the Chortkover Rebbe, and thus began his passion for Chassidus and his relationship with the Chortkover Rebbe.
Halina
His first rabbinical position came in 1911, when he was appointed rabbi of Halina. He spent ten years in the city, during which he founded a yeshiva called "Bnei Torah." Construction began in 1920. The yeshiva included a Talmud Torah, a place for training rabbis, and a kitchen to feed orphaned children. The budget exceeded half a million marks. This yeshiva served as the prototype for the Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva.
After leaving Halina, Shapiro became rabbi of Sanok in 1920.
In 1924, Rabbi Meir accepted his third rabbinical position, in Piotrkow.
On June 14, 1931, he was appointed rabbi of Lublin at the old Maharshal Synagogue.
Daf Yomi
Shapiro introduced the revolutionary idea of Daf Yomi (Hebrew: דף יומי, "page of the day" or "daily folio"), a daily study schedule of one page of the Babylonian Talmud (a daf consists of both sides of the leaf) each day.
According to this schedule, the entire Talmud is studied day by day in a cycle of seven and a half years. Rabbi Shapiro presented his idea at the First World Congress of Agudath Israel in Vienna on August 16, 1923. The first Daf Yomi cycle began on the first day of Rosh Hashana 5684 (September 11, 1923). Now, the 13th cycle of Daf Yomi has been taken up by tens of thousands of Jews around the world.
Even during his lifetime, Shapiro was considered a gaon (a genius of Torah). He studied Torah extensively and was a great scholar even by the high standards of the era in which he lived.
The Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva was, together with Daf Yomi, Shapiro's greatest achievement.
He envisioned a yeshiva for Hasidic Poland modeled on the Lithuanian yeshivas such as Volozhin, Slabodka, and Novardok, but one that would train Hasidic rabbis to be the next generation leading Polish Jewry. The yeshiva was housed in an enormous building, with hundreds of students studying there, and it had an extensive library of more than 100,000 books.
On May 22-28, 1924, the cornerstone-laying ceremony for the yeshiva building took place. About 20,000 people attended the event. The opening ceremony was held on June 24-25, 1930. In addition to thousands of local Jews, about 10,000 people came from all over Poland and from abroad. Shapiro served as Rosh Yeshiva until his death.
Lodz
In 1932, the leaders of the Lodz Jewish community approached Shapiro, wishing to offer him the position of Chief Rabbi of Lodz. Many people wanted to appoint Rabbi Mendel Alter of Kalisz (b. 1877, Ger) to the position, a brother of the Gerrer Rebbe (and the youngest son of the Sfas Emes). Rabbi Shapiro arranged for most of his salary to go toward paying off debts that Chachmei Lublin was still trying to repay. In the end, it was decided to give the position to Rabbi Shapiro. Lengthy negotiations took place for Rabbi Shapiro to take up the position, but he died three days after being appointed Chief Rabbi.
Agudath Israel
While serving in Halina, Rabbi Shapiro began his involvement with Agudath Israel. He attended its founding conference in 1912. In 1914, he was appointed head of the education department of Agudath Israel in Eastern Galicia, and in 1922 he became president of Agudath Israel in Poland. He took part in a meeting in Lvov whose purpose was to open a branch of Agudah in Galicia about two years after its founding in Katowice in 5672.
At that time he was also added as a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah. Rabbi Shapiro initially had great doubts about whether he should become a party deputy, but he was encouraged to do so by his Rebbe, the Chortkover.
Rabbi Shapiro, together with Aharon Levin and Zalman Sirtzokin, headed a committee that, as part of Poland's Ministry of Religious Affairs, was responsible for assigning rabbinical positions throughout Poland. He was also part of the Vaad HaChinuch.
From 1922, Rabbi Shapiro was a deputy in the Polish Sejm. In 1928, he stepped down from politics in order to devote all his energy to the Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva.
Shapiro contracted typhus in 1933 and died within a month, on October 27, 1933 (7 Cheshvan 5694), at the age of 46. His death was mourned in both Jewish and non-Jewish Poland. Countless newspapers across the political spectrum, from Orthodox to Yiddishist and socialist, ran biographies of Rabbi Shapiro on their front pages.
Shapiro's remains were reinterred in Israel in 1958 under the auspices of his brother. He was reburied at Har HaMenuchot. Rabbi Yitzchok Meir Levin delivered a eulogy, as did his students who survived the Holocaust.
Shapiro is widely revered throughout the Jewish world as the founder of Daf Yomi. The Zichron Meir neighborhood in Bnei Brak was founded in his memory by Yaakov Halperin; it is the neighborhood where many of Bnei Brak's major yeshivas are located.
May the merit of this great tzadik protect Am Yisrael!
(https://dailyzohar.com/tzadikim/342-Rabbi-Yehuda-Meir-Shapiro)