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Kalonimus Kalman Szapiro (English: Kalonymus Kalman Shapira or Klonimus Kalmish Szapiro) (20 May 1889–3 November 1943),[1] was the Grand Rabbi of Piaseczno, Poland, who authored a number of works and was murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust. He is best remembered for a series of homilies on parshah (weekly Torah portions) that were delivered almost every Shabbat during the time he spent with his students in the Warsaw ghetto between the years 1939 and 1942. Shortly after the final entry in this series of meditations, the entire community in the ghetto (between 80-90% of the population) was sent to the gas chambers in Treblinka. This work is collected under the title Esh Kodesh (often translated 'Holy Fire').[2]
Kalonymus Kalman Shapira | |
|---|---|
| |
| Title | Piaseczno Rebbe (sometimes transliterated from Hebrew as Piasetzna Rebbe) |
| Personal | |
| Born | Kalonymus Kalman Szapiro May 20, 1889 |
| Died | November 3, 1943 (aged 54) |
| Religion | Judaism |
| Spouse | Rochel Chaya Miryam Hopsztajn |
| Children | Rechil Yehudis, Elimelech Ben-Tzion |
| Parents |
|
| Jewish leader | |
| Successor | Elimelech Shapira |
| Began | 1920 |
| Ended | 1943 |
| Main work | חובת התלמידים Chovas haTalmidim |
| Dynasty | Piasetzno |
Rabbi Szapiro's father was Elimelech Szapira of the Grodzhisk Hasidic dynasty. Kalonymus Kalman Szapiro was named after his great-grandfather, known as the Maor VaShemesh. The elder Kalonymos Kalman (1753-1825) studied at the feet of Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk, eventually becoming his assistant. As such, he was present at the birth of Polish Hasidism, and studying and working alongside the Seer of Lublin, Yisroel Hopstein, and Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Riminov. Thus, there is an established and unbroken lineage, from teacher to student, linking Rabbi K. Szapiro back to the Elimelech of Lizhensk and his twin brother Zusya, who were the earliest promoters of chasidism, having studied with the Maggid of Mezeritch, grandson of the Ba'al Shem Tov who is said to have received the Lurianic Kabbalah from the place of its composition in Israel and transmitted it to the Jews of Eastern Europe.
Kalonimus Kalman Szapiro was born in Grodzisk Mazowiecki, Poland. He was born on the day after Lag BaOmer, 19 Iyar 5649 (May 1889)
His father died when he was three. In 1905 he married Rachel Chaya Miriam, daughter of his nephew Grand Rabbi Yerachmiel Moshe of the Kozhnitz dynasty. They had two children: a son, Elimelech Ben Zion, and a daughter, Rechil Yehudis, both of whom were also murdered in the Holocaust.
In 1909 he was appointed rabbi of Piaseczno, near Warsaw, and subsequently attracted many hasidim. He established the yeshiva Da'as Moshe in 1923, which became one of the largest Hasidic yeshivot in Warsaw between the wars.[3]: 1–2
Rabbi Szapiro's only son, his daughter-in-law, and his sister-in-law were killed during the Nazi aerial bombing of Warsaw in September 1939. After the invasion of Poland, Rabbi Shapira was interned with a few of his Hasidim in the Warsaw Ghetto, where he ran a secret synagogue. He invested enormous efforts in maintaining Jewish life in the ghetto, including arranging for mikveh immersions and kosher marriages. Rabbi Shapira was able to survive in the ghetto until its liquidation, avoiding the tragic deportations to Treblinka in the summer of 1942, because of the support of the Judenrat. Like other notables, he was given work at Schultz's shoe factory—a path to ongoing survival.[3]: 148–9
Rabbi Szapiro is especially well known because of a book he wrote while in the ghetto. The book, which is a compilation of weekly sermons to his students, contends with complex questions of faith in the face of the mounting suffering of the Jews in the ghetto. When it became apparent to Rabbi Szapiro that the end of the ghetto and all its inhabitants were near, he transferred this book and other manuscripts to the Ringelblum "Oneg Shabbat" Archive. They were buried with other documents in a large milk canister which was found by a construction worker after the end of the war. The book, originally simply entitled "Torah Innovations from the years 5700-5702," was published in Israel in 1960 under the title *Esh Kodesh* ("Sacred Fire").[3]: 1–14 Daniel Reiser republished it in a two-volume critical edition, "Sermons from the Years of Rage", in 2017.[4]
After the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was crushed in 1943, Rabbi Szapiro was taken to the Trawniki work camp near Lublin. Although offered the opportunity to escape from the concentration camp, he apparently refused. Following the Jewish uprising in the Treblinka death camp (August 2, 1943) and in Sobibor extermination camp (October 14, 1943), there was increasing concern among the Nazi authorities that there would be further outbreaks of violence at other concentration camps. For this reason, Aktion Erntefest (Operation Harvest Festival) was launched. During this operation, carried out on November 3, 1943, all the remaining Jews in Trawniki, including Rabbi Szapiro, were shot to death.[3]: 155 [5]
The current Rebbe of Piaseczno is Rabbi Kalman Menachem Shapira, a great-nephew of the first Rebbe, Klonimous Kalman. Rabbi Kalman Menachem resides in Ramat Beit Shemesh, Israel and leads Congregation Aish Kodesh,[7] which is both a synagogue and the worldwide headquarters for spreading the teachings of his great-uncle. Study halls named Aish Kodesh are also located in Moshav Mevo Modi'im, Beitar Illit and in Bnei Brak. There is a yeshiva in Baka, Jerusalem called Yeshivat Chovat Hatalmidim, where students under the helm of Rabbi Yair HaLevi learn the legendary teachings of The Piaseczna Rabbi.[8] In Samaria there is a small settlement named "Aish Kodesh". It was established in memory of Aish Kodesh Gilmore, who was killed in a terrorist attack by the PLO on October 30, 2000, during the Second Intifada.[9][4]
Congregation Aish Kodesh, founded in 1992 and dedicated to the memory and teachings of Rabbi Szapiro, is the first synagogue to call itself by that name. Led by Rabbi Moshe Weinberger, the neo-Hasidic synagogue is located in Woodmere, Long Island, New York.[8] There is also a yeshiva called Aish Kodesh in Virginia.[8]
There is also a synagogue in Boulder, Colorado, founded in 2000,[10] named Aish Kodesh.[11] It was led by Rabbi Gavriel Goldfeder for ten years between 2003 and 2013.[12] There is a recently founded synagogue in Manchester England named Aish Kodesh.
In 2010, the first synagogue in Post-holocaust Europe was opened under the name Adass Aish Kodesh and is led by Rabbi Y. Reuven Rubin Archived 2016-03-17 at the Wayback Machine, formerly of South Manchester Synagogue.
Henry Abramson: Torah from the Years of Wrath 1939-1943: The Historical Context of the Aish Kodesh, 2017.
Nehemia Polen: Divine Weeping. Rabbi Kalonymos Shapiro's Theology of Catastrophe in the Warsaw Ghetto, in Modern Judaism 7 (1987) 253-269;
Nehemia Polen: The Holy Fire: The Teachings of Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, the Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson Press, 1999.
Isaac Hershkowitz: Rabbi Kalonymus Kalmish Shapiro, the Piasechner Rebbe: His Holocaust and pre-Holocaust Thought, Continuity or Discontinuity?, M.A. Thesis, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel (2004).
Rabbi Szapiro appears as a major character in Joseph Skibell's 2010 novel A Curable Romantic.
Moshe Weinberger: "Warmed by the Fire of the Aish Kodesh: Torah from the Hilulas of Reb Kalonymus Kalman Szapiro of Piaseczna", Adapted by Benjamin Wolf. Jerusalem, Feldheim Publishers, 2015.
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