The Joyous World of Rabbi Meir Shapira of Lublin
By: Rabbi David Avraham Mandelbaum, son of the Rebbe, Rabbi Moshe Meir Mandelbaum z”l, who was a student of the Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva
A treatise on Rabbi Meir Shapira of Lublin, with seventy aspects, different topics and sections that encompass all parts of his relationship to Judaism and worship of G-d, which touch each and every one of us, because indeed Rabbi Shapira was a man of many talents.
Rabbi Meir Shapira of Lublin z”l, the head of the Chachmei Lublin yeshiva, holding a tiny Torah
Over the years, I have accumulated many wonderful stories related to the power of music and joy that the rabbi had. He used it on so many occasions, to blossom the spirit of life in himself and in all those around him, to forget difficulties and problems, to cause difficult moods to relax, and to amazingly continue his holy and miraculous work.
Rabbi Shapira himself, who knew his strength in the relams of singing and playing music, used to tell his students in the yeshiva how through the power of singing and playing music, he overcame enormous difficulties in times that were extremely challenging for him.
A wonderful description of our rabbi’s music and songs, we find in the verses written down by his student, the gifted writer Rabbi Yisrael Dov Itzinger, may G-d avenge his blood, of Lodz (in the newspaper Das Yidisheh Tagblat in the edition marking 30 days since Rabbi Shapira z”l’s passing, written under the pseudonym Alter Shneur) And these are his words:
The music of the Rabbi of Lublin, or rather, the music of his name: Rabbi of Lublin – was the most wonderful symphonic work of strictly orthodox Judaism in our generation.
The music was child’s play. His extreme sufferings of being on the move, all his troubles, all found an outlet through music.
He was a man who was all music, or rather: he was the music itself…
The First Dance on the Field of the Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva
About thirty years ago, when I was in Montreal in the presence of the great student of Rabbi Shapira, Rabbi Pinchas Hirschprung z”l, Rabbi Hirschprung told me that in a Jewish home for the aged in Montreal, there is an elderly man, the son of the famous philanthropist Rabbi Shmuel Eichenbaum, may G-d avenge his blood, one of the ten Polish Jews and the leaders of the Lublin congregation, who donated the huge plot of land on which the great yeshiva was built for Rabbi Shapira. Then Rabbi Hirschprung z”l added a sweet secret: It would be worth it to visit the son of Rabbi Eichenbaum; there is something to hear from him.
I went together with my friend, the chassid, Rabbi Shlomo Besser, to the old age home, and we met the elderly man, Rabbi Simcha Meir Eichenbaum z”l and asked to hear something about Rabbi Shapira from him.
The elderly man came to life, and began to describe a melave malka (post Shbbat) meal that took place in the city of Lublin somewhere in the years 5681-2 (1920-1) . Rabbi Shapira happened to be in the city of Lublin at that time and was invited to a Melava Malka meal at the home of Rabbi Eichenbaum senior z”l.
Rabbi Shapira, who had already decided to build a central and large yeshiva for the young men, arrived at Rabbi Shmuel’s residence accompanied by a group of businessmen and students. He laid out his plans before Rabbi Shmuel and asked for his help. To his surprise, Rabbi Shmuel told him that he had just bought a large lot in the center of Lublin , and he was ready to give him the lot in order to establish the yeshiva on it.
Rabbi Shapira was moved in an unusual way, and expressed his desire to go out at that moment, in the dead of night, at the end of the meal, and see the empty lot. When the whole entourage arrived at the empty field, Rabbi Shapira began a stormy dance, and swept all those present with him into a dance that lasted a long time and caused unusual excitement in everyone.
And suddenly, the elderly man, Rabbi Simcha Meir, continued his vivid description:
Rabbi Shapira bent down, inclined his ear to the ground as if he was hearing something, stood up, and turned to Rabbi Shmuel Eichenbaum z”l and asked loudly:
“Rabbi Shmuel, do you hear the voice of the Torah that is already emanating from this holy place?”
Rabbi Simcha Meir sobbed when he finished the story; he he was only able to add that it seemed to him that this story had only taken place yesterday…
While his voice was emotional and broken, the elderly man said in half words: “You do not understand what a huge impression the rabbi’s dance there made on those present; with this dance, the door was opened to the establishment of the huge fortress of Torah for generations, the Chachmei Lublin yeshiva…”
Crowds of participants at the inauguration of the Chachmei Lublin yeshiva
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The Vizhnitzer Rebbe told (in Kesher Eitan, vol. 64, pg. 23):
When the Imrei Chaim, the Vizhniter Rebbe z”l traveled to the USA in the year 5709-5710 (1948-9), to raise funds for the construction of a housing complex for Vizhnitz, many did not want to give a donation from their hearts to help this tzaddik (righteous man) to fulfill his wonderful vision, to reestablish the Vizhnitz community that had drank the cup of poison in the years of terror and all the house of its glory was cut down by the wrath of the tormentors.
On one occasion when the Imrei Chaim stood on the steps of the Ark of the Covenant in one of the synagogues in the United States, and tried to convince the audience to donate for his great life’s work, for some reason no one responded to his excited call, except for one woman who stood in the ladies’ section and said that she was giving the Rebbe two dollars… When our rabbi returned to the hotel, his soul felt very broken for the humiliations he had gone through and had trouble finding rest and relaxation.
The owner of the hotel, who tried to encourage the Rebbe, honoured him by giving him the room where Rabbi Shapira stayed in 5687 (1926 or 1927), when he came to fundraise for his yeshiva in Lublin. The owner of the hotel even told the Rebbe that Rabbi Meir Shapira also suffered harsh and bitter insults at the time from the misers of the USA, who did not recognize his great contribution to the Torah world.
On one occasion, Rabbi Meir Shapira stood and asked the crowd to help him, but not a single person offered. Rabbi Shapira returned to the hotel with a broken heart and was depressed by the situation, and he walked there in the hallway, and as he walked he hummed with great emotion his famous tune. “If I said, ‘My foot has slipped,’ Your kindness, Oh G-d, supported me” (Psalms 94:18). And so he went on and on, singing with emotion and eloquence, until his intense emotions took effect, and Jews from all over came out of their rooms and handed him substantial donations.
Upon hearing this, the Imrei Chaim became enthusiastic and said that this act of self-sacrifice for the sake of keeping the Torah at any cost is what allowed Rabbi Meir Shapira to establish his holy program of studying a page of Talmud a day, the daf yomi program. As well, it is what allowed him to have his idea accepted by all of Klal Yisrael (the Jewish community) in every place, with thousands of Jews participating in it every day, and the merit of the public depend on it.
***
With respect to the tune “If I Said” that Rabbi Shapira composed, his distinguished student, the genius Rabbi Elimelech Ashkenazi, wrote in his book Ginzei Hamelech (pg. 449, note 95):
The above tune has two movements, and he composed the first movement when he was in trouble and did not have the money to pay the hotel fee, and then when his luck turned around, he composed the second movement, which is so joyful.
And he brings down in the book Siach Zekenim (part 6, pg. 361) what he heard from Rabbi Yoel Reicher, who heard it himself from the genius rabbi of Chebin (Trzebinia), who said:
“Once, when the genius Rabbi Meir Shapira was experiences harships (he had great debts), and we were sitting at a melave malka, and he was singing songs, and he raised the crowd’s spirits with such joy. I wondered how he was able to do that.” And he ended with: “Rabbi Yoel told me that the genius from Chebin loved the above-mentioned genius very much.”
About the power of Rabbi Shapira’s joy and his efforts to make people happy, the genius Rabbi Yitzchak Shaarer mentioned in his book Migdal Or (pg. 22) that he heard from his father Rabbi Gedalia Shaarer z”l, who remembered when Rabbi Shapira came to the United States to raise funds for his yeshiva, and together with him came his secretary Rabbi Moshe Shetzransyk z”l. On the day of Simchat Torah, the above-mentioned secretary, was unable to go to Hakafot (the service on Simchat Torah where any man who wants to can read from the Torah), and when Rabbi Shapira came to the inn, he saw that the above-mentioned secretary was very sad, being in a foreign country without friends and acquaintances, and also not being in good health, so Rabbi Shapira said the prayer “Ata Haraita” to him with a loud voice like in the synagogue – and danced in front of him to make him happy with the joy of the day.
The First Siyum HaShas (party for the completion of learning the entire Mishna) – Tu B’Shvat 5691/Feb. 2, 1931
A wonderful song is sung with excitement in all Jewish communities, and the moving lyrics are as follows:
When the Jewish people immerse themselves
In the joy of studying Torah
The Holy One Blessed is He,
Says to all His entourage
Look! Look! Look at my beloved children!
As they forget their own sufferings and immerse themselves in my loving Torah
Similar words to the wonderful lyrics of the song with a remarkably similar message and wording are found in the holy Zohar (part 3, Leviticus, page 22a). The genius Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky who asked about the origin of the words, displayed the words of the Gra (The Vilna Gaon rabbi) quoted at the end of the book Be’er Avraham, a commentary on the book of Psalms by Rabbi Avraham, son of the Gra (Vilna 5647/1887) under the title: Seder Simchat Beit HaShoeva, and his words are as follows:
“When you are engaged in the joy of the Simchat Beit HaShoeva (festivity during the holiday of Sukkot), the Holy One gathers all his entourage and says, ‘see the lovable sons that I have, they forget their own suffering and immerse themselves in My Torah,’ and immediately He is fulled with mercy for the Jewish People.”
The accepted tradition in the world of Torah and Chassidism is that the night before the the first Siyum HaShas that was held in Lublin, Rabbi Shapira sat in his room in the yeshiva in Lublin and composed the famous melody on these wonderful words, a melody that became a folk tune that all Jewish communities sing, and wherever you go on the holiday of the giving of the Torah (Shavuot), you will hear the dear Jewish children singing and dancing.
“Look! Look! Look at my beloved children!“
Agudath Israel Conference
A tremor went through the hearts of thousands of Jewish people, when our teacher Rabbi Yitzchak Meir HaCohen Levin z”l, president of Agudath Israel in Poland, rose to eulogize Rabbi Shapira z”l when his coffin was brought to eternal rest (for reinternment) in Jerusalem in Elul 5718 (1958).
In his eulogy, Rabbi Yitzchak Meir HaCohen Levin z”l said:
“We will never forget the extent of his commitment with all his heart and soul to the Agudath Israel idea and the extent of his actions for it. In particular, he inspired and instilled in Agudath Israel the spirit of learning the Torah, singing, joy, enthusiasm, and self-confidence, and we struggled to keep up to his ideals! He was a man full of joy all of his life, until his last day, and in every time of trouble, he knew how to pronounce his verse, such as ‘this too shall pass.’ After every meeting, it was customary to go straight down from the stage into the audience and sweep up the entire audience into dancing and joy. He taught us to sing and be happy and he had chain of songs in his mouth: ‘Blessed is the man who does not forget You and the human being strives for You, blessed is the man who gains courage from You,’ or ‘Take counsel and it will be foiled; speak a word and it will not succeed, for G-d is with us,’ or ‘Purify ours hearts to truly serve You,” or ‘And let them all form one association to do your will with a whole heart,’ and each song had its own new melody. If there is anything left of these songs and of this joy today, then it from when he permeated the joy in Agudath Yisrael. What a shame it all stopped…”
(Imrei Daat, part 2, page 355)
A gathering for strengthening following the passing of Rabbi Meir Shapira of Lublin (In the photo, one can see, from right to left: Rabbi Yosef Moshe Haber – the head of the community in Kalisz, Rabbi Heshel Shetzransky, Rabbi Ysoef Koenigsberg, Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Levin, Rabbi Yaakov Trakenheim, and Eliyahu Mazor. In the front row, the third from the right: Aaron Level, and after him the students Leibeleh Gefen, Shmerl Finsterbosch, Chaim Leibush Berglas, Aaron Heller, and Rabbi Eliezer Gershon Friedenson)
The Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva
We will move on here to the Chachmei Lublin yeshiva, the great creation of Rabbi Shapira z”l.
The students of the Chachmei Lublin yeshiva remembered and lived until their last day the joy that Rabbi Shapira spread around him with the wonderful musical power in which he was gifted. I remember a conversation with a Chachmei Lublin student, the elderly chassid Rabbi Michael Tannenbaum z”l of New York when he was already full of in pain and suffering and confined to a wheelchair. However, when the memory of Rabbi Shapira came up on the table, Rabbi Michael forgot all about his difficult situation, recounted memories of him and the yeshiva, and cheerfully sang the tunes he remembered from the rabbi, and we saw in a tangible way, how Rabbi Shapira’s tunes restored Rabbi Tannenbaum’s soul even sixty and seventy years later, a most miraculous power…
Rabbi Shapira’s great student, the genius Rabbi Pinchas Hirschprung z”l of Montreal told a typical story about Rabbi Shapira. He said that when he once spoke with Rabbi Shapira about Torah, a young man was standing on the side and singing a melody.
Rabbi Shapira commented to the young man: “If I knew this melody, I would sing it all day long.” Rabbi Hirshprung was amazed at the words.
Rabbi Shapira said to him: “You don’t understand what the power of music is…”
How many times have I heard the yeshiva student,the Strykower Rebbe z”l singing and playing to himself the melody composed by Rabbi Shapira for the verse at the end of Ecclesiastes (12:13): “The end of the matter, everything having been heard, fear G-d and keep His commandments, for this is the entire man.” And he added the words in Yiddish: “Because this is the whole person, there is no more than that.” And this is how the Rebbe once expressed himself: “Thank G-d, I remember all the movements of the rabbi of Lublin, both in his prayers, and in his studies, and in his songs.”
And when the Vizhnitzer Rebbe, the Baal Yeshuot Moshe z”l visited (in Nisan 5754/1994) the Strykower Rebbe, the Rebbe repeated to him the tune of Rabbi Shapira, and added the ending like Rabbi Shapira did:
“This is the whole person, there is no more than that…”
Dozens of Jews, among them many students of the Chachmei Lublin yeshiva, gather to hear Rabbi Meir Shapira give a lesson in the new yeshiva building for the first time
Shabbat and Holidays in the Yeshiva
A student of the yeshiva, the chassid Rabbi Meir Lamt z”l of Sambor told of the rabbi’s prayers on Shabbat night when the rabbi led the service:
“The Shabbats and holidays that we spent in the presence of Rabbi Shapira, with supreme exaltation of the soul, are indescribable in writing; it was literally a kind of next world from the beginning of Shabbat until after the melave malka meal.”
“As the shadows of the evening sun fell on on Shabbat eve, the face of our Rabbi, whose soul was carved from the world of poetry, was changing. At once he would renounce all the mundane concerns for the sacred purity of the upkeep of the the yeshiva, and together with the students who who were like his princes, he would ascend to the higher worlds and spheres of pure and great nostalgic emotions. The splendour of Shabbat and the holy time”.
“Rabbi Shapira would go to the prayer stand for the Mincha prayer, when suddenly a cry broke out from him, ‘Thank G-d for He is good,’ and then you could feel the holiness in his hands. On one occasion he revealed to us that when he approached for Mincha, because he was the grandson of the rabbi of Koritz, who used to pray on Shabbat night wrapped in a tallit (prayer shawl), so to preserve his custom he would approach the prayer shawl also wrapped in a tallit.”
“Then he would sit with us at the Shabbat meals, for a moment he would open a song full of longing and nostalgia as all the young men were carried away with him in a heart-wrenching melody, and at once he would switch to a stormy joyous melody of praise and singing to G-d. The students’ choir sang the chants together; they started with a modest tune, and the tune and the chanting went louder and louder, louder and louder until they became a storming melody of enthusiasm. And finally the singing ended with a sweeping and stormy dance with enthusiasm out of immense devotion, for a long time and without fatigue.”
In connection with Rabbi Shapira’s prayers before the ark, the following fact will be recounted, which is brought by his outstanding student Rabbi Elimelech Ashkenazi z”l in his book Ginzei HaMelech (pg. 442):
“I heard from my teacher, the Rabbi z”l (Rabbi Shapira), that while he was still the head of the beit din (religious court) in Sanok, he went to the capital city and agreed to meet with Rabbi Yisrael of Czortkow z”l on the Shabbat when the Torah portion of Beraishit is read, and the rabbi respected Rabbi Shapira very much, and said that they would respect the rabbi from Sanok with reciting the blessing for the new month. Because the Rebbe of Czortkow used to pray in his room, and later he was honored to pray Mussaf before the ark, he went to Rabbi Shapira later, upon coming to say ‘Shabta Taba’: ‘Well done, I really enjoyed your prayer.'”
“Then they invited Rabbi Shapira to a kiddush, and it was a great honour for Czortkow to have him, and during the kiddush the Rebbe spoke about Rabbi Shapira’s prayer. Rabbi Shapira replied: ‘I see that the Rebbe is talking about my prayer, am I not the grandson of the Rebbe, Rabbi Pinchas of Koritz? Perhaps the Rebbe’s intention is for me to continue in the way of my ancestors in the work of Heaven, and stop my work in the study of the Torah.”
“The Rebbe answered him, ‘I will tell you a story that took place in the city of Zalkawa. There lived a famous genius Rabbi Yosef (called Rabbi Yosef Zalkawer). The Rebbe, Rabbi Zusha arrived in the middle of his wanderings during the years of his exile in Zalkawa and wanted to get to know Rabbi Yosef, and entered his study hall while he was studying with his students and sat down there on the side. After the lesson, Rabbi Zusha approached Rabbi Yosef and said to him ‘Well done, I enjoyed the lesson very much.’ Rabbi Yosef replied ‘You enjoyed the lesson, and I enjoyed your appearance, because I see a graceful leadership in you, so please tell me where you are from.’ Rabbi Zusha answered him: ‘I move around the country,’ and Rabbi Yosef asked him, ‘can you study?’ Rabbi Zusha replied ‘no,’ but since Rabbi Yossi saw that he was a holy man, he began to plead with Rabbi Zusha to reveal who he was, until Rabbi Zusha replied, ‘I can pray a little.’ Rabbi Yossi said to him, ‘I want to hear and learn from you how to pray, and I will teach you how to learn,’ and they entered a special, and Rabbi Zusha began to study with him about the matters of prayer, and Rabbi Yosef began to feel a great light shining before his eyes and he felt great anxiety, and he felt that he could not endure that great light, and he answered and said to Rabbi Zusha: ‘I see that this is not for me, so stay in your prayer, and I will continue my studies.'”
“The Czortkower Rebbe finished: ‘Sanoker Rebbe (Rabbi Shapira), you were created to preach Torah and educate generations on Torah and Judaism, stay and stick to this goal and don’t mess with the Koritz heritage now.'”
At the Shabbat night meal, Rabbi Shapira surprised those present with his chants, as we have already mentioned above, and we quote from the article of Rabbi Meir Geshori z”l in the book on Maharam Shapira from Netzach publishing house (p. 261):
“On Shabbat nights, he used to open with singing the Eshet Chayil song with great enthusiasm, as was his custom, and with a catchy tune, until his face was like a flame. Every Shabbat he also used to sing the poem of Rabbi Avraham Ibn-Ezra: ‘Let my heart and my flesh turn to the living God’, and every Shabbat he would sing the last verse in his own version: “Our hands are exhausted and our strength is exhausted and a Heavenly voice will comfort us, your Father is still alive.”
(And a miracle should be noted in this, that on the last holy Shabbat of Rabbi Shapira’s life, the week fo the Torah portion of Noach 5694, he did not sing the above section: Our hands are exhausted… your Father is still alive. And it was a miracle).
A wonderous story was told by the Holocaust survivor, chassid, Rabbi Moshe Yehoshua Abovitz z”l of Bnei Brak (in Moshe Prager’s book Those Who Never Yielded, part 2, page 76):
“My father z”l taught me to sing in all moments of pain and distress. And this son, that I learned from him, became afterwards like a ghetto anthem. It was said the the words of the song were composed by Rabbi Meir Shapira, the rabbi from Lublin. The rabbi from Lublin, full of soulfullness, added a final stanza to Rabbi Avraham Ibn Ezra’s well-known poem: ‘G-d alone created us.’ Indeed, this new part of the song fully suited our situation in the ghetto, which is why the words with the melody stuck with us so much:
Our hands are exhausted
And our strength is exhausted
And a Heavenly voice will comfort us:
Your Father is still alive!
And so we lived in the ghetto with the music and with the strengthening of faith.”
On Shabbat night, during the meal, a close student of Rabbi Shapira, Rabbi Yisrael Avraham Stein z”l (a student of the Ahavat Yisrael of Vizhnitz z”l) sang the song “Kah Ribon Olam” in the style of Vizhnitz, and Rabbi Shapira very much enjoyed his singing and was moved by it, and sometimes Rabbi Shapira asked him to sing it two or three times.
And it is stated in the book Ish Al Ha’Eida (pg. 54) that when Rabbi Shapira was with the Rebbe, the Ahavat Yisrael z”l, and Rabbi Shapira heard the Rebbe sing Kah Ribon, Rabbi Shapira said to the Rebbe jokingly said, “I have a student whose name is Yisrael Avraham, and he sings just like you…”
Rabbi Shapira’s student, Rabbi Mordechai Fogelman z”l, rabbi of Katowice and later rabbi of Kiryat Motzkin, described the rabbi’s Shabbat table at the Chachmei Lublin yeshiva:
A group of students served as the yeshiva choir. This choir was to direct the singing on Shabbat during prayers and at the Shabbat meal and to open it with chants and tunes: “The student choir,” wrote Rabbi Fogelman, “opened with a modest tune, and the chant went back and forth, back and forth, as our Rabbi’s voice rose above all…” until a tumultuous melody arose, full of enthusiasm, which carried away all those present…The singing ended with an enthusiastic dance of all the students together with Rabbi Shapira. The dance lasted for an hour or two, and the melody of “Purify our hearts to serve You in truth” grew louder with the growing enthusiasm: “Purify your heart… and purify… and purify…” Everything was with great attachment to G-d, the chain of dancers became tighter and tighter… “To serve You… to serve You in truth…”
“This is how you add to the song and dance without fatigue. And the song is not merely a flourishing of letters. Here you see and feel with the senses the aspiration for purity, the desire to simply serve G-d, the longing for true Torah…”.
Rosh Hashana with Breslov
It is well known that the famous gathering of the Breslov chassidim was held in the great study hall of the Chachmei Lublin yeshiva in the last years before the outbreak of the Holocaust.
Rabbi Shapira, himself, also prayed with them and not in the city synagogue as was requested from the rabbis of the city where he held office, and he also led the Maariv prayer on Rosh Hashana night.
And I heard at the time from Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Korman z”l, who prayed at the yeshiva at that time, that Rabbi Shapira’s prayers would shake the hearts in an unbelievable way, and the followers of Breslov, who are used to prayer that is all about holy flame, did not recognize their own souls from the great upliftment that our Rabbi Shapira’s prayer caused them.
After that, Rabbi Shapira sat down for the holiday meal with the multitudes of Breslov chassidim, as he moved the entire course of the meal with his chants and his holy service.
And here the elderly chassid Rabbi Bentzion Apter (whom Rabbi Shapira loved in a special way, and the yeshiva student Rabbi Yehuda Meir Abramovitz testified that Rabbi Shapira went himself once on the eve of Rosh Hashana to Rabbi Bentzion Apter z”l (See Nitzotzot, Adar 5779/2019 pg. 32) and began to sing the well-known Breslov melody on the verse “Your people, Oh G-d, they crush” (Psalms 94:5), (which is attributed in their view to the Rabbi Pinchas of Koritz z”l). The melody vibrated the veins of the heart, the students sobbed, Rabbi Shapira’s eyes were also shedding tears like water, and then suddenly he stood up, reached out his hand to Rabbi Bentzion and began to dance with him. The crowd surrounded them in stormy circles, dancing and crying…sobbing and asking G-d to take the Shechina (G-d’s presence on earth) out of exile, but they danced, rejoiced and cried… the exciting dance was about two hours long, but the public did not rest; they danced and danced… (Nitzotzot, issue 23 pg. 138).
Yom Kippur Night
A student of Rabbi Shapira, Rabbi Yisrael David Itzinger – may G-d avange his blood – wrote (under his pseudonym, Alter Schneur):
“On Yom Kippur night, already late at night, in the great hall of the Chachmei Lublin yeshiva, sat a number of students learning – discussing chassidism, and praying amongst theselves. Some dozed on top of the shtenders (small lecturns). And behold, at the door stood the rabbi, wrapped in a tallit and a kittel (white robe for Yom Kippur), and his voice, the voice of a lion, thundered:
‘To make known!'”
“Everyone remained seated and tied to their places; however, the rabbi was not interested in this, and immediately a two-hour dance began…from all the rooms the young men came in a hurry…the dance increased with the enthusiasm…the rabbi was burning with passion… the intense seriousness of Yom Kippur disappeared…everyone was happy, beaming, in their holy song: “To make known and to reveal that He is King over the whole earth’.” After all this, the rabbi began by saying Torah words about the song they sang. Of course – no one thought about sleep anymore…”
His Passing
And when Rabbi Shapira lived, a life of joy and music, so his sudden passing was wrapped in a miraculous veil of joy and dancing, and for those who followed the chain of events, they were “unbelievable”, and the whole chain of events was obscure, incomprehensible, and will never be understood.
A student of Rabbi Shapira, the genius Rabbi Yisrael Avraham Stein z”l told in his book Ish Al Ha’Eida (pg. 59), that at the end of the month of Tishrei, the rabbi was very strained and they saw that he was very disturbed and his peace of mind had left him. Rabbi Shapira sat with the students, and he spoke about the matter of joy, and said: “And is it not fitting that at the great and special moment of the attachment of the soul and its return to the source of its quarry to the Creator of the world, we should be sad and sigh. We need to bring the soul back festively by drinking to life and playing music, and by worshiping G-d with joy and good-heartedness…”
The students heard his words and did not understand…
And then on Tuesday, in the week between the readings of the Torah portions of Noach and Lech Lecha, Rabbi Shapira fell asleep. His students who were used to seeing him first in the study hall, for the morning prayer, were surprised when they learned that our Rebbe did come out to the study hall to pray, and they realized that things were wrong.
One of the students who was close to him approached Rabbi Shapira’s residence and knocked on the door. To his question, the rebbetzin (rabbi’s wife) replied that Rabbi Shapira was not feeling well; at night he felt chills in his body and the thermometer indicated a significant increase in temperature, apparently a common cold.
He entered Rabbi Shapira’s room and was amazed to see him lying down, his face fallen, and his mood dampered.
From then on, this contrast dominated the entire sequence of events, to the outside it seemed to everyone that it was just a cold, while Rabbi Shapira, who knew the bitterness of his soul, felt that things were more serious.
Rabbi Shapira ordered for a Jewish doctor to be called; the doctor came and determined that it was a normal sore throat, prescribed some routine medicine and left. His diagnosis did not reassure the rabbi. To calm his spirit, additional doctors were invited from the city of Lublin, but everyone’s diagnosis was the same – Rabbi Shapira had a common sore throat.
The students who were standing by his bedside in regular shifts noticed that the situation was not so good; their anxiety grew and grew, but the concealment also increased. The students felt and saw how Rabbi Shapira was lying and moaning and fighting for his life, but they did not have the courage to challenge against the doctors who stood their ground and repeated and said that it was nothing but mild inflammation…
On the fifth day, the rabbi no longer had the energy to put on tefilin (phylacteries). His students wrapped him in his tallit and put his tefilin on him. He closed his eyes and sank into his prayer; his lips moved and his voice was not heard. Like this, he lay immersed in his ideas and thoughts for long hours.
During the morning hours, he was visited by the genius of Chebin (Trzebinia) z”l and the overseer Rabbi Shma’le of Zlichow z”l, both of them left his room shaken to the core, and did not agree to express their feelings in front of the students, even with a single word.
Rabbi Shapira’s cousin, Pinchas HaLevi Heller-Bakenroth z”l told:
“The doctors spoke to each other in Latin, and no one understood what they said, but I understood Latin and listened; for some reason I had the impression that the doctors were not really aware of the nature of his illness. I decided to take the initiative, and I ran to the phone and wanted to call a Polish doctor who lived near the yeshiva. I thought he would know better and diagnose our rabbi’s illness and the appropriate treatment accordingly, but suddenly the director of the yeshiva, Rabbi Heshel Shetzransky, came from behind and said to me in a loud voice:
‘Did you not hear from our rabbi that he does not agree to be treated by an uncircumsized doctor?'”
Pinchas Heller-Bakenroth z”l finished:
“To this day, I do not forgive myself for giving in and not trying another option to bring the Polish doctor to our rabbi; all the time, it seems to me that I could have saved him, even though the strong belief says that everyone’s days are limited and facts cannot be changed…”
The students closest to Rabbi Shapira began to make noise, and went out to pray at of the graves of the great men of previous generations located in Lublin.
Urgent letters were also sent to the great rebbes in Poland to make them aware of the seriousness of the situation.
His close student, Rabbi Aaron Level, wrote a letter to Rabbi Shapira’s teacher and rabbi, Rabbi Yisrael of Czortkow z”l, and in it he described the gravity of Rabbi Shapira’s situation.
He showed the contents of the letter to Rabbi Shapira, but he did not want to cause grief to his rabbi and tore a part off of the postcard as a hint not to send it at all.
His student, Rabbi Yisrael Avraham Stein z”l sent an urgent telegram to Vihznitz to Rabbi Yisrael of Vizhnitz, and as testified by the chassid Rabbi Menachem Mendel Shnelberg in the book Siach Zekenim (Vol. 5, pg. 131) the telegram reached Vizhnitz in the middle of the preparation of the table, and it was given to the Vizhniter Rebbe. He looked at it and didn’t respond…
In the evening, Rabbi Shapira had difficulty praying by himself, and he asked a number of boys to enter his room to pray out loud so that he could fulfill the mitzvah. It clearly seemed that his agony was unbearable, but he lay still and only his face was illuminated.
In the middle of the night, the elderly Rabbi Rafael Feldsher of Lublin was called to make steam in our rabbi’s room, the steam eased his breathing a little, and Rabbi Shapira asked for a cup of tea and drank it.
The rebbetzin came in and seeing that his condition had improved a little, she tried to encourage him and said:
“Well, on Shabbat I hope that you will recover completely and we will have a happy Shabbat.”
“Yes,” Rabbi Shapira replied, “on Shabbat we will have real joy…”
According to Rabbi Shapira’s request, his bed was moved from his private apartment to the large guest room that was next to the study hall; around the bed stood his close disciples crying and anxious, while their rabbi lay down and his face shone.
Suddenly our Rabbi wrote on a note in broken handwriting:
“Everyone, please drink a l’chaim.”
In the blink of an eye, glasses of brandy were brought. The young men took a sip of the drink that was mixed with their flowing tears. And thus they went one by one to his bed; Rabbi Shapira reached out and affectionately and warmly shook the hands of each and every student and looked at each one with eyes full of love.
According to Rabbi Binyamin Mintz z”l in the Meir B’Ahava booklet:
“There was a simple Jew standing there who always sold cakes and eggs and the like to the students and he was standing on the side. He did not have the courage to approach Rabbi Meir and bless him with a l’chaim. Rabbi Meir fixed his eyes on him with great pity, hinted to him to approach him, took his hand in his holy hand and held it for five minutes.”
And Rabbi Binyamin z”l finished:
“Who knows what intentions Rabbi Shapira had with this in his last moments of his life. Who knows what thoughts passed through his holy mind then, because his thoughts were higher than our thoughts.”
When he finished, he asked them to start singing “In You our ancestors trusted” in a tune that he had composed.
In the middle of the song he hinted that they should dance around his bed in a circle, adding in writing “only with joy.” The students danced, with tears flowing from their eyes, danced and cried, danced and cried. The feeling was strange, a mixture of Yom Kippur night and the night of a holiday, a supreme atmosphere of a judgement day together with a joy that rises and rises. In the middle of this lay Rabbi Shapira, his eyes shining and his face beaming like the face of an angel, and from time to time he encouraged the singing and dancing with hand movements as he used to do in all times of happiness.
The dancing stopped. Rabbi Shapira lay calmly in his bed.
Next to Rabbi Shapira, only his close student, Rabbi David Weisbrod-Halachmi z”l was standing at this point, and Rabbi Shapira held his hand very tightly.
Suddenly, at about 3:15, the student saw that beads of cold sweat were covering the rabbi, his grip loosened and his hand dropped.
He let out a terrible scream:
“Der Rebbe iz nishtu!” (The rabbi is not here)
The students who were sitting in the next room heard the scream and quickly came.
This was already after his soul left him…
At that time, the yeshiva hall was completely full with students weeping and chanting, with books of Psalms their hands, as they urged Heaven to cancel the decree.
Suddenly, the director of the yeshiva, Rabbi Heshel Shetzransky, entered the study hall and in a trembling voice screamed:
“Say Barcuh Dayan Ha’Emet…” (Blessed be the true Judge)
All the students immediately fell to the ground, tore their clothes, banged their heads against the wall, and their cries rose to the heart of the sky. Cries of terror pierced the space, “why?… why?…” The sound of the wails filled the entire huge building that Rabbi Shapira erected and founded with the essence of his heart until its last touches. The walls wept like water, and the whole yeshiva turned into a valley of tears…
Our Rabbi’s close friend, Rabbi Avraham Meir Krongrad, may G-d avenge his blood, who was the general secretary of “Agudath Israel Youth” in Poland, wrote in the newspaper “Orthodoxer Yungt Blatter” a story about his experiences:
“It was three-quarters of a year after the passing of Rabbi Eliyahu Kirschbroin z”l. The rabbi lived at the time at the “Krakowsky” hotel in Warsaw. We were then together with several of his close friends. Rabbi Shapira talked a lot about the “righteous in their death.” He told how the deaths of the tzadikim (righteous ones) of Czortkow, Sadigora, and more occured.”
“Suddenly, he called out:
Master of the world, I am not asking you for anything more – just that I will be die by the kiss of death (death without suffering).”
“And he immediately added:
Only happily! I want everything to be happy! Even judgment day will be joyful! When my day comes, I will order people to drink cheers and dance.”
“And so it was.”
“But who among us imagined then that it would come so quickly…”
Students of Rabbi Meir Shapira escort his coffin. In the photo, one can see Mendel Weitz, Yosef Hochberg, Moshe Okonowsky. In front of the coffin is Rabbi Shmuel Eichenbaum.
A wonderful thing is told in the book Shaul Bechir Hashem, the history of the righteous genius Rabbi Shaul Brach z”l of Kasho, Hungary, (pg. 278):
“We noticed that his moments left were few, and we immediately began to say the verses and prayers of the Ashchabta book. In the meantime the chassid Rabbi Yehuda Leib Goldstein, may G-d avenge his blood, one of Rabbi Shapira’s closest friends, remembered his request from years ago. When the famous genius Rabbi Meir Shapira left, he asked the members of his yeshiva that before the time of his departure everyone should play a cheerful tune together, because he wanted his soul to part with him out of joy. Rabbi Goldstein said this several times, and said, ‘how jealous I am of the rabbi (Shapira) from Lublin who merited it, and I wish I will merit it too.’ And here now Rabbi Leib recalled this conversation at the time of the departure of his rabbi’s (Rabbi Shaul Brach) pure soul. Immediately all the hands that were there at that time joined together and we began to play the ‘Raninu Tzaddikim’ song in the tune we always sang with him. Suddenly we saw something like a small shock at the pillow that Rabbi Brach was covered with, and another one a moment later and then no more. He lay down and remained like that with his eyes and mouth closed, and even after we took him down from the bed, the appearance of his face did not change, and he looked like he was sleeping. His face looked reddish. And his pure soul rose up in the storm that on the eve of Monday, the week that the Torah portion of Truma is read, the 26th of Shvat 5700 (Feb. 5, 1940).”
***
In the book Zecher Kodsho (by the Vizhnitzer-Monsey Rebbe z”l, pg. 409), it states:
The Vizhnitzer-Monsey Rebbe, the Torat Mordechei, told in his dedication, that in the Imrei Chaim’s obituary for Rabbi Shapira, he insisted that we really need to understand that why we cry at the passing of a righteous person, is not because of the joy that the departed is granted in the next world. The Torat Mordechai added that indeed in the death of Rabbi Shapira this type of joy was seen; that near his death he commanded that they dance around his bed and knew that it was his time to say goodbye to the world, so he wanted to be surrounded in joy by the broken hearted, and that his passing from this world would be with joy.
***
We will finish the matter with the words of his student, Rabbi Yisrael Dov Itzinger, may G-d avenge his blood:
“The tune called ‘The Rabbi of Lublin’ embodied the symphony of the most cheerful and mighty victory song. Rich in tones, steeped in sounds, penetrating the depths and breaking through the depths of inner originality. The end of the melody came suddenly, as if it was cut off, as if the song stopped in the middle of a note and the audience was trembling and waiting for the continuation.”
“They stand still and wait, the continuation does not come. It is explained to the audience: the song is ending.”
“Yes. It was a melody that was full of life, the sounds of a music playing life that materialized before our eyes; we felt this life, we felt it with all our senses – and it is gone.”
“He was the conductor of the musicals. His choir added to the song; at the Chachmei Lublin yeshiva, the sound of the Torah continued to be played, the same sound, the same melody.”
“But not for long…”
