Moshe Shatzkes was a renowned rabbi

Rabbi

In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...

, Talmud

Talmud

The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....

ic scholar and noted genius, commonly known as the "Lomzshe/Łomża Rov". He was one of the pre-eminent Roshei Yeshiva (yeshiva heads) and one of the greatest rabbis in all of Poland. He was a leader in all aspects of communal life, well known as an outstanding orator, scholar, and halachic arbitrator.

Shatzkes was a close friend of Rabbi Yitzchak Halevi Herzog, chief rabbi of Israel, and had been a close friend and confidante of both the Chofetz Chaim

Yisrael Meir Kagan

Yisrael Meir Poupko , known popularly as The Chofetz Chaim, was an influential Eastern European rabbi, Halakhist, posek, and ethicist whose works continue to be widely influential in Jewish life...

 and Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski

Chaim Ozer Grodzinski

Chaim Ozer Grodzinski was a pre-eminent Av beis din , posek , and Talmudic scholar in Vilnius, Lithuania in the late 19th and early 20th centuries...

 before the Second World War. Indeed, he eulogised at both their funerals.

Early years

Shatzkes was born in Vilna

Vilnius

Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...

, Lithuania

Lithuania

Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

 in 1881, the scion of a distinguished Rabbinic dynasty. His father, Rabbi Avraham Aharon Shatzkes, was the spiritual leader of Vilna who was known as the "Illui miZhetel", one of the most famous Torah sages in Lithuania, and reputed to have been proficient in the entire Talmud at the age of only 17.

His mother, Chaya Resha, was the daughter of Rabbi Avraham Abba Edelson of Vilna, and granddaughter both of Rabbi Chaim Dworetzky, rabbi of Zelve and Rabbi Yitzchak Sherwinter, Av Beth Din of Vilna.

Shatzkes was only 3 years old when his father died. Soon after, at the suggestion of her uncle Rabbi Elya Eliezer Grodzinski (father-in-law of Rabbi Chaim Ozer) his mother remarried Rabbi Yitzchak Blaser (known as Reb Itzele Peterburger), one of the pupils of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter

Yisrael Salanter

Rabbi Yisroel Lipkin, better known as "Yisroel Salanter" or "Israel Salanter" , was the father of the Musar movement in Orthodox Judaism and a famed Rosh yeshiva and Talmudist...

.

Shatzkes was brought up and educated by Reb Itzele and was sent to study at the great Yeshiva

Yeshiva

Yeshiva is a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and Torah study. Study is usually done through daily shiurim and in study pairs called chavrutas...

s of Slabodka and Telz. In 1904, received Semicha

Semicha

, also , or is derived from a Hebrew word which means to "rely on" or "to be authorized". It generally refers to the ordination of a rabbi within Judaism. In this sense it is the "transmission" of rabbinic authority to give advice or judgment in Jewish law...

 (rabbinical ordination) from Rabbi Refael Shapiro

Refael Shapiro

Rabbi Refael Shapiro was the famed Rosh Yeshiva of the Volozhin yeshiva and a son-in-law of Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin . After the Volozhin yeshiva was closed down in 1892 by order of the Russian government, he reopened it, albeit on a smaller scale in 1899...

 of Volozhin, Rabbi Eliezer Gordon

Eliezer Gordon

Eliezer Gordon also known as Reb Laizer Telzer, served as the Rabbi and Rosh Yeshiva of Telz, Lithuania.-Early years:...

 of Telz

Telz

*Telz can refer to the town of Telšiai, in Lithuania.*Telz is also used as the abbreviated name for:**Telshe yeshiva originally in Lithuania that was transplanted to Cleveland, Ohio....

 and Rabbi Eliezer Rabinowitz of Minsk

Minsk

- Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened...

.

The Rabbinate

His first Rabbinical position was in Lipnishuk, near Vilna, in 1909. Within five years he was appointed rabbi of the nearby larger town of Iwye, in the district of Vilna, in 1914. There, he excelled as a communal fundraiser, innovator and well-liked leader.

He was also famed for his wit and wisdom and he was regularly invited by the Chafetz Chaim to important Rabbinic gatherings. His fame spread throughout Poland through his vice-presidency of the Agudath HaRabbanim in Poland, and many people turned him with their Halachic questions.

In 1931 he was asked to become Rabbi and Av Beth Din of Łomża. He had been proposed for the position by his mentor, Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski

Chaim Ozer Grodzinski

Chaim Ozer Grodzinski was a pre-eminent Av beis din , posek , and Talmudic scholar in Vilnius, Lithuania in the late 19th and early 20th centuries...

, with whom he was very close. His time in Łomża was not an easy one. It was marked by anti-Jewish demonstrations, the outlawing of Shechita

Shechita

Shechita is the ritual slaughter of mammals and birds according to Jewish dietary laws...

 and a boycott of Jewish shops. Łomża Jews fled in droves and the community gradually declined. With the Hitler-Stalin pact in August 1939 on the division of Poland, Łomża was transferred into Russian hands and Soviet tanks soon rolled in.

Shatzkes escaped the city under cover of darkness to Vilna, which was later handed over by the Soviets to Lithuania. Along with many others, Rabbi Shimon Shkop

Shimon Shkop

Shimon Yehuda Hakohen Shkop was a rosh yeshiva in the Yeshiva Shaar Hatorah and in the Telshe yeshiva 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 six years...

's Yeshiva, Sha'ar HaTorah of Grodno, had fled to Vilna. After the death of Rabbi Shkop, Shatzkes was appointed by Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski to succeed him as Rosh Yeshiva.

Shatzkes was active in refugee and Yeshiva affairs while in Vilna. After the city was re-captured by the Russians, he travelled via Russia to Japan, having received a Japanese permit from Chiune Sugihara

Chiune Sugihara

was a Japanese diplomat who served as Vice-Consul for the Japanese Empire in Lithuania. During World War II, he helped several thousand Jews leave the country by issuing transit visas to Jewish refugees so that they could travel to Japan. Most of the Jews who escaped were refugees from...

, the Japanese temporary consul in Kovno. Arriving in Kobe

Kobe

, pronounced , is the fifth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture on the southern side of the main island of Honshū, approximately west of Osaka...

 by boat in May 1941, Shatzkes immediately renewed his relief efforts for the almost five thousand Jewish refugees there. They included many Yeshiva heads and almost the entire Mir Yeshiva

Mir yeshiva

Mir Yeshiva or Mirrer Yeshiva may refer to:* Mir yeshiva * Mir yeshiva * Mir yeshiva...

, who had fled Poland and Lithuania.

He befriended the famous Japanese scholar, Professor Setzuso Kotsuji

Setzuso Kotsuji

Setsuzō Kotsuji was a Hebrew professor in Japan, and the son of a Shinto priest who descended from a long line of Shinto priests. During the Holocaust he helped Jewish refugees to escape the Nazis, arranging for them to stay first in Kobe and later in Japanese-occupied Shanghai...

, a friend of Japan's Foreign affairs minister, and with his help he aided the fleeing of thousands of refugees.

Owing to his reputation as a brilliant Talmudic scholar and his previous position as Rabbi of Łomża, Shatzkes was selected by the refugee community as one of their two representatives (the other being the Rebbe of Amshinov

Amshinov (Hasidic dynasty)

Amshinov is the name of a Hasidic dynasty founded by Rabbi Yaakov Dovid Kalish. It is an offshoot of Vurka dynasty. It takes its name from the Yiddish name of Mszczonów, a town in Poland.-History:...

) to the Japanese Gorvernment.

Shatzkes reached America in 1941. He was immediately appointed to become a senior Rosh Yeshiva at RIETS, remaining in this role for the last eighteen years of his life. He turned down an invitation by Rabbi Herzog to join the chief rabbinate in Palestine

Palestine

Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....

, preferring to learn and spread Torah. He also served as a council member of the Agudath HaRabbanim of the United States and Canada.

Along with Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik and Rabbi Samuel Belkin

Samuel Belkin

Rabbi Samuel Belkin is best known as the second University President of Yeshiva University. A distinguished Torah scholar, he is credited with leading Yeshiva University through a period of substantial expansion .-Biography:...

, Shatzkes served as a member of the Rabbinical Ordination Board at RIETS, granting Semicha to 425 of its graduates.

RIETS Anecdote

Shatzkes possessed a wonderful sense of humour. A famous story is told by Yeshiva University

Yeshiva University

Yeshiva University is a private university in New York City, with six campuses in New York and one in Israel. Founded in 1886, it is a research university ranked as 45th in the US among national universities by U.S. News & World Report in 2012...

 Chancellor Rabbi Dr Norman Lamm

Norman Lamm

Norman Lamm is a major American Modern Orthodox rabbi, scholar, author and Jewish communal leader. He is presently the Chancellor of Yeshiva University....

 who was in his RIETS class at the time. Shatzkes would usually look down the list of the names of his students and then at random would ask one student to read the day's page of Talmud. The students always assumed he didn't know the boys anyway. One day looking down the list he says "ok, Shapiro, zug the gemorah" (say the Gemara

Gemara

The Gemara is the component of the Talmud comprising rabbinical analysis of and commentary on the Mishnah. After the Mishnah was published by Rabbi Judah the Prince The Gemara (also transliterated Gemora or, less commonly, Gemorra; from Aramaic גמרא gamar; literally, "[to] study" or "learning by...

). Shapiro, who didn't have time to prepare properly, pipes up "Shapiro is nisht due" (Shapiro is not here). Shatzkes looks up from his gemara and with a twinkle in his eyes says to the trembling Shapiro "ok due zog" (ok you read)... the entire class fell to the floor in laughter.

Death

He died on December the 29th, 1958 in Brooklyn, New York, at the age of 77. A crowd of more than two thousand people gathered in the Lamport Auditorium of Yeshiva University as a final mark of respect to, what the Yeshiva press release referred to as, one of the greatest Rabbi and Roshei Yeshiva of the generation.

The eulogisers included Rabbi Samuel Belkin and Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik representing Yeshiva University, and Rabbi Dovid Lifshitz

Dovid Lifshitz

Rabbi Dovid Lifshitz was a distinguished Rosh yeshiva in the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary for almost fifty years. He was appointed upon the invitation of Rabbi Samuel Belkin in 1944. He was also known as the "Suvalker Rav", due to his previous position as the Rabbi of the European...

 representing the Agudath HaRabbanim. From Yeshiva University, he was taken to Yeshivat Tifereth Jerusalem where eulogies were delivered by Rabbi Moshe Feinstein

Moshe Feinstein

Moshe Feinstein was a Lithuanian Orthodox rabbi, scholar and posek , who was world-renowned for his expertise in Halakha and was regarded by many as the de facto supreme halakhic authority for Orthodox Jewry of North America during his lifetime...

, Rabbi Yosef Eliyahu Henkin

Yosef Eliyahu Henkin

Rabbi Yosef Eliyahu Henkin was a prominent Orthodox rabbi in the United States.He was born in 1881 in Klimavichy, Belarus, then in the Russian Empire, and studied at the Slutzker Yeshiva under Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer...

 and Rabbi Avraham Kalmanowitz, among others. A large crowd of mourners headed by Rabbi Aharon Kotler

Aharon Kotler

Aharon Kotler was an Orthodox Jewish rabbi and a prominent leader of Orthodox Judaism in Lithuania, and later the United States, where he built Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood Township, New Jersey.- Early life :...

 also gathered at the New Jersey airport from where Shatzkes was taken to his final resting place on Har HaMenuchot in Jerusalem. His funeral was attended by chief rabbis, Israeli roshei yeshiva and Members of the Israeli Knesset.

He was survived by his sons Rabbi Avraham Aharon (a Rosh Yeshiva at RIETS from 1944 until his death in 1983; Rabbi Aryeh Leib, a Rosh Yeshiva at Mesivta Torah Vodaas; and a daughter Chana, who married Rabbi Zvi Levenberg, a Rosh Yeshiva in Yeshiva Chaim Berlin, (son of Rabbi Yehuda Levenberg

Yehuda Levenberg

Rabbi Yehuda Heschel Levenberg was a well-known pioneer in the implanting of the Europen Jewish community on the shores of America....

, founder of the Yeshiva of New Haven, Connecticut

New Haven, Connecticut

New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...

). A daughter Itel perished with her husband and young daughter at the hands of the Nazis.

Shatzkes wrote many Responsa and Novellae on a plethora of subjects. The vast majority were destroyed when he left Poland in 1940 - indeed he often said that his greatest loss, above all that had happened to him during a lifetime of tragic misadventure, was the loss of his writings, a loss from which he never truly recovered. His vast library of Seforim was buried in the forests of Łomża for safekeeping before he left and has never been recovered.

A Kollel

Kollel

A kollel is an institute for full-time, advanced study of the Talmud and rabbinic literature. Like a yeshiva, a kollel features shiurim and learning sedarim ; unlike a yeshiva, the student body of a kollel are all married men...

 bearing his name was established as a lasting memorial at Kfar Hasidim

Kfar Hasidim

Kfar Hasidim , also known as Kfar Hasidim Alef to distinguish it from Kfar Hasidim Bet, is a moshav in northern Israel. Located near Kiryat Ata, it falls under the jurisdiction of Zevulun Regional Council. In 2006 it had a population of 572....

 in Israel. It was attached to the Knesses Chizkiyahu

Knesses Chizkiyahu

Knesses Chizkiyahu was one of the first Lithuanian yeshivas founded after the establishment of the State of Israel and one of the first Torah institutions in the northern part of the country...

 yeshiva, named after Shatzkes's brother-in-law, Rabbi Chizkiyahu Yosef Mishkovsky, Rav of Krinik, Poland.