Everything about Shimon Shkop totally explained
Rabbi
Shimon Shkop (
1860-
1940) was a
rosh yeshiva ("dean") in the
Telshe yeshiva and a renowned
Talmudic scholar. He was born in
Tortz in 1860. At the age of twelve he went to study in the
Mir yeshiva, and at fifteen he went to
Volozhin yeshiva where he studied six years. His teachers were the
Netziv and Rabbi
Chaim Soloveitchik, with whom he was very close.
Telz
Rabbi Shkop married a niece of Rabbi
Eliezer Gordon and in
1885 was appointed to the
Telz Yeshiva, where he remained for 18 years until
1903. While there, he developed a system of talmudic study which combined the logical analysis and penetrating insights of Rabbi Chaim Brisker with the simplicity and clarity of Rabbi Naphtali Zevi Yehudah Berlin (the Netziv) and which became known as the "Telz way of learning".
In 1903, he was appointed Rabbi of Moltsh, and in
1907 of
Bransk. A famous pupil of his in Moltsh was Rabbi
Yechezkel Sarna who studied under him for a year in 1906, before leaving to
Slabodka when Rabbi Shkop himself left. During
World War I, the communal leaders urged him to leave before the Germans arrived, but he refused and stayed with his community.
Grodno
Between
1920 and
1939, at the request of Rabbi
Chaim Ozer Grodzinski, he succeeded Rabbi Alter Shmuelevitz as Rosh Yeshiva of the renowned
Sha'ar HaTorah in
Grodno. He raised the level of the institution and transformed it into one of the finest
yeshivos in Poland and beyond. Hundreds of young men flocked there from near and far. For many years,
Rabbi Zelik Epstein, who is married to a granddaughter of Rabbi Shkop, has headed a successor in
Queens. It is known as an exemplary institution.
As a young man of eighteen, Rabbi
Chaim Shmuelevitz was invited by Rabbi Shimon to give the third level lecture in the
Yeshivah Ketanah in Grodno. At the age of 22, he headed a group of students who transferred from Grodno to Mir. However, his four years in Grodno with Rabbi Shimon had a profound influence on his approach to Talmudic analysis.
Yeshiva University
In
1928 Rabbi Shkop traveled to the United States in order to raise much needed funds for the Yeshiva. After delivering a lecture at
Yeshiva University, he eventually acceded to Rabbi
Bernard (Dov) Revel's invitation to serve as the Rosh Yeshiva of
Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchanan (RIETS) in
New York. In his absence from Poland, he was greatly missed by Rabbis
Yisrael Meir Kagan and
Chaim Ozer Grodzinski, who pleaded with him to return. In the fall of
1929, Rabbi Shkop returned to Europe.
Character and personality
Alive to the problems of the day, Rabbi Shkop had a winning personality. He was an active member of the
Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of the
Agudas Yisroel. Many of his students attained distinction, among them Rabbis
Elchonon Wasserman of
Baronovitch,
Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman of
Ponevezh and
Isser Yehuda Unterman, a future
Israeli Chief Rabbi. Dayan
Michoel Fisher of London was also a pupil of Rabbi Shkop.
As one of Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik's three main students, the others being his son Rabbi Yitzchak Zev Soloveichik and Rabbi
Baruch Ber Lebowitz, it was told: If Rabbi Chaim had said, "This table is a cow," Rabbi Yitzchak Zev would say that the table had the same Talmudic laws as a cow, Rabbi Shimon would say the molecules in a table could be rearranged into a cow, but Rabbi Boruch Ber would go milk the table.
Rabbi Shkop formed close bonds with the somewhat younger Rabbi Yehuda Zev Segal, the future
Manchester Rosh Yeshiva. He would sometimes come to England to fundraise for his yeshiva, and Rabbi Segal took advantage of these opportunities to serve as his attendant, spending one vacation at Rabbi Shimon's summer resort, studying with him and accompanying him on his walks.
Major works
He published his classic essay titled
Sha'arei Yosher (The Gates of Honesty) in 1925 and
Ma'arekhet ha-Kinyanim in
1936. Novellae on the Talmud tractates
Bava Kamma,
Bava Metzia, and
Bava Basra were published posthumously in
1947 with a preface by his son, and on
Nedarim,
Gittin, and
Kiddushin in
1952, and on
Yevamos and
Ketuvot in
1957. Rabbi Shkop’s Talmudic novellae are still studied in yeshivos throughout the world today.
Sha'arei Yosher is largely concerned with the intellectual principles by which the law is established, rather than with concrete laws, and has a strong affinity to the
Shev Shema'tata of
Aryeh Leib HaCohen Heller, on which it was partly based.
Death
As the Russian army was about to enter Grodno during
World War II, he ordered his students to flee to
Vilna and he himself died two days later on the 9th of
Cheshvan 5701 (1940) in Grodno. Including his death, the Jewish people lost three Rabbis and Torah giants in 10 months: Shimon Shkop,
Boruch Ber Leibowitz of
Kamenitz and
Chaim Ozer Grodzinski.
His granddaughter,
Fayge Ilanit, became a
socialist Zionist and an
Israeli
Knesset member. Her son was Israeli solider
Uri Ilan.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Shimon Shkop'.
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