Rabbi Meir Shapiro in the Yeshiva Library, which he built. Photo: provided.

Rabbi Yehuda Meir Shapiro was born in Shatz, Poland, on March 3, 1887. He was a descendant of renowned Chassidic Rebbes on both sides of his family. Although he initially had difficulty learning to read, he began to excel once he was taught to read words rather than letters. With his incredible memory and depth of understanding, he was soon renowned for his genius.

His mother, Rebbetzin Margulya, devoted herself to helping her son become a Torah scholar. Every single day, she would remind him that a day without learning Torah is a day that is lacking. Rabbi Shapiro described that shortly before they moved to a new city, his mother was concerned that her son would be unable to learn Torah on the day of the move.

Despite the natural stresses involved in moving, his Torah learning remained a priority. She decided to contact the teacher in the new city to ask him to meet them at the city entrance and learn Torah with her son as soon as they arrived. However, upon their arrival, he was nowhere to be found. Rebbetzin Margulya sat down near their wagon and cried. Her son tried to calm her down and said, “Mommy, don’t cry – I’ll learn tomorrow!” His mother responded, “Meir’el, you don’t yet realize what it means to miss a day of studying Torah!”

Those words, coming from the depths of his mother’s heart, would resonate for Rabbi Shapiro throughout his life and may have inspired the Daf Yomi movement he created.

Recognizing His Role

In 1906, when he was 19, Rabbi Shapiro married the daughter of Yaakov Dovid Brightman, a wealthy Jew from Tarnopol, which was a center of Torah learning in Galicia. Upon his arrival in Tarnopol, Rabbi Shapiro became a close follower of Rav Yisroel of Chortkov and remained a Chortkover Chassid all his life.

In fact, the Chortkover Rebbe helped create the mechanech and gadol Rabbi Shapiro would eventually become. Rabbi Shapiro once asked his teacher if he should become a chazzan since he had a beautiful voice. Recognizing Rabbi Shapiro’s greatness, the Chorkover Rebbe told Rabbi Shapiro that his mission was to teach and spread Torah by educating the next generation of the Jewish people.

Rabbi Shapiro’s father-in-law had committed to providing financial support so his son-in-law could study Torah for his entire life. Yet, Rabbi Shapiro decided to study full-time only until he felt ready to become a community rabbi.

At the age of 23, Rabbi Shapiro became the rabbi of a city called Galina. His mother-in-law was devastated and felt his greatness would now be compromised. She brought 20,000 gold coins to him and placed them before him, saying, “This is yours. You don’t need to go.” He responded gently, “If 20,000 gold coins would change my mind, then you are right. I should not go into the Rabbinate.” But it didn’t change his mind, and he would soon make his mark in Poland’s Jewish community, and eventually on the entire world.

A Member of the Polish Parliament

In 1922, elections were held for the Polish Parliament, the Sejm — and 35 Jews were elected, making them over 10% of the Polish Parliament. Out of the 35 elected, six were members of Agudas Yisroel, including Rabbi Meir Shapiro.

He was one of the youngest members of Parliament, yet he took on the role of defender of the Jewish people in the face of open antisemitism.

Rabbi Shapiro was renowned as a gifted speaker, although he was initially limited by his lack of fluency in Polish. Within a short time, he mastered that and was so eloquent that even his enemies would come to listen to him speak.

A member of the Sejm, intending to insult the Jews, commented that a sign in a park in Silesia prohibited Jews and dogs from entering it. Rabbi Shapiro responded with his sharp wit, “Then neither one of us can enter that park.” Rabbi Shapiro’s political career continued until 1928, when he left politics to have more time to focus on the Jewish community.

Daf Yomi

At the age of 36, Rabbi Shapiro introduced his idea for Daf Yomi at the First Knessiah Gedolah of Agudas Yisroel in Vienna on August 16, 1923. There was overwhelming approval for this idea, and the first cycle of Daf Yomi commenced on the first day of Rosh Hashanah in 1923.

The Gerrer Rebbe, who had the largest Chassidus in Poland at that time, helped give Daf Yomi a strong start by publicly studying the first page of Daf Yomi with his Chassidim following the Rosh Hashana davening.

The first Siyum Hashas was celebrated in 1931 in Lublin, with Rabbi Shapiro in attendance.

Poland’s Yeshiva: Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin

A second significant accomplishment of Rabbi Shapiro was the creation of a new model for yeshivas with the founding of Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin in 1930.

He felt that it was crucial to emphasize the importance of Torah study by establishing an institution with a respectable building, regular meals, a dorm, and a high level of study.

Until this point, yeshiva bachurim would often sleep in shuls and receive meals by eating in community members’ houses on a rotation basis. Rabbi Shapiro had shared the idea for this yeshiva at the same Knessiah Gedolah at which he had initiated Daf Yomi. He suggested that Jews set aside a small coin every time they studied the Daf, and in this way, every Jew could have a portion in “their Yeshiva.”

He named the yeshiva “Chachmei Lublin” after the “wise men of Lublin” who had lived in generations past, including Rabbi Shlomo Shachna, the Maharam of Lublin, the Rema, the Maharshal, and the Chozeh of Lublin.

Rabbi Shapiro built a magnificent building on a piece of land generously donated by a wealthy Jew in Lublin, Rabbi Shmuel Eichenbaum. The impressive structure was built with funds raised worldwide and still stands today. It was taken over during the Nazi occupation and then was used by the Medical University of Lublin for many years after the Holocaust. In 2003, it was finally returned to the Jewish community of Lublin.

The opening of the yeshiva in June of 1930 was celebrated with nearly 100,000 Jews arriving from all over to participate. In addition to a dining room and dormitory, the building housed a magnificent library with over 30,000 volumes

Rabbi Shapiro also commissioned Rabbi Chanoch Weintraub to create a breathtaking and detailed replica model of the Bais Hamikdash (Temple in Jerusalem) housed in a special room in the yeshiva.

Applying to the yeshiva was challenging, to say the least. To even be considered for acceptance, one had to know at least 200 pages of Gemara by heart. The yeshiva’s learning was on a very high level, and the students it produced were tremendous talmidei chachamim.

“Never Laugh at a Child’s Dream”

Rabbi Shapiro once was traveling and met a man who introduced himself as Rabbi Yaakov Halberstam. He explained that he was a son-in-law of the Shatzer Rebbe, a rabbi in Rabbi Shapiro’s hometown of Shatz. After greeting him, Rabbi Shapiro asked Rabbi Halberstam if his wife had accompanied him on the trip. Surprised, Rabbi Halberstam answered in the affirmative. Rabbi Shapiro asked to speak to her.

When the rebbetzin came over, Rabbi Shapiro asked if she remembered them playing together as young children, and the rebbetzin said she did. Rabbi Shapiro then said, “You might also remember that I was enamored with the idea of creating a program through which Jews all over the world would learn the same page of Gemara every day … and maybe you also remember how the children would make fun of me and my dream?”

The rebbetzin nodded.

“I want you to know,” Rabbi Shapiro continued, “that the laughter almost dissuaded me from bringing this idea to reality, but I decided to try to do it anyway. Always remember,” he concluded, “Never laugh at a child’s dream.”

Final Days

Rabbi Shapiro died suddenly after a short illness when he was only 46. His death was a severe blow to Polish Jewry, for whom he was both a caring leader and an inspiring visionary.

My late grandmother, who lived in Poland then, told me, “When Rabbi Shapiro passed away, all of Poland went into mourning.”

He was buried in Lublin, and his was the only grave remaining when the Holocaust ended. In 1958, under the guidance of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudas Yisroel, his body was reinterred in Jerusalem in the Har Hamenuchot cemetery.

Although he had no children, his legacy would be his “son,” Daf Yomi, and his “daughter,” Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin.

A Final Story – The Eternal Jewish People 

With over three million Yiddish-speaking Jews in Poland before the Holocaust, there were various publications to cater to its populace. The two most well-known newspapers were Heint and Moment, both of which were secular. At the time, frum Jews printed their own newspaper called Der Yid (the Jew).

Rabbi Shapiro once passed a newsstand and asked to purchase a copy of Der Yid. The storekeeper nonchalantly asked him why he would buy Der Yid, instead of the more sophisticated Heint or Moment, pointing out that Der Yid was on the bottom of the pile.

Rabbi Shapiro responded with a smile. “Heint means today, and Moment means a minute. Both will soon disappear. I am choosing Der Yid, because even if he is downtrodden, a Yid is a Jew, and a Jew is eternal.”

Rabbi Menachem Levine is the CEO of JDBY-YTT, the largest Jewish school in the Midwest. He served as Rabbi of Congregation Am Echad in San Jose, CA, from 2007 to 2020. He is a popular speaker and writes for numerous publications on Torah, Jewish History, and Contemporary Jewish Topics. Rabbi Levine’s personal website is https://thinktorah.org A version of this article was originally published in Hamodia’s Inyan Magazine.