Shimon Shkop


Rabbi
Shimon Yehuda Hakohen Shkop
Rabbi Shimon Shkop, left, conversing with Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski
Born 1860
Torez
Died October 22, 1939(1939-10-22) (aged 78–79)
Grodno
Occupation Rosh Yeshiva of Telz and Grodna

Shimon Yehuda Hakohen Shkop (Hebrew: שמעון שקופ‎; 1860 – October 22, 1939) was a rosh yeshiva ("dean") of the Yeshiva of Telshe and then of Yeshiva Shaar Hatorah of Grodno, and a renowned Talmudic scholar. He was born in Torez 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 for six years. His teachers were the Netziv and Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik, with whom he was very close.

Education

Rabbi Shkop was born in Turets, today in Belarus, in 1860. At age 12, he studied in the Mir Yeshiva for two years. He then traveled to the Volozhin yeshiva and studied with the Netziv zt"l. He was part of a special group of students with whom Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik interacted.[1]

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. Among his students in Moltsh was Rabbi Yechezkel Sarna, who studied under Shkop for a year in 1906, before leaving to the Slabodka yeshiva 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. One of his students there was Rabbi Dovid Lifshitz, later to become the Suvalker Rav.

For many years, Rabbi Zelik Epstein, who was married to a granddaughter of Rabbi Shkop, has headed a successor institution in Queens, known as Yeshivath Shaar Hatorah - Grodno.

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 a 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. He also received a scathing letter from Rav Yeruchom Levovitz, the mashgiach of Mir, which, according to an eyewitness, he ignored. In 1929, for unknown reasons, Shkop returned to Europe.

Character and personality

Rabbi Shkop had a warm and open 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, Yisrael Zev Gustman, 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.

Rabbi Shkop formed close bonds with [the younger] Rabbi Yehuda Zev Segal, the future Manchester Rosh Yeshiva. He would sometimes come to England to raise funds 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

Rabbi Shkop's Talmudic insights are studied in yeshivos throughout the world.

Sha'arei Yosher is largely concerned with the intellectual principles by which the law is established, rather than with concrete laws, and is stylistically similar 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. He himself died two days later, on the 9th of Cheshvan 5700 (1939) in Grodno. Shkop is buried in the Jewish cemetery in the Zaniemanski Forshtat section of Grodno.

References

  1. ↑ "HARAV HAGAON R. SHIMON YEHUDAH HACOHEN SHKOP ZT"L". Yeshiva University. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
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