Moshe Shatzkes
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Rabbi Moshe Shatzkes (1881-1958) was a renowned Rabbi, Talmudic scholar and noted genius, commonly known as the "Lomza 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.
Rabbi 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 and Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski before the Second World War. Indeed, he eulogised at both their funerals.
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[edit] Early years
Rabbi Shatzkes was born in Vilna, Lithuania 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.
Rabbi 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.
Rabbi Shatzkes was brought up and educated by Reb Itzele and was sent to study at the great Yeshivas of Slabodka and Telz. In 1904, received Semicha (rabbinical ordination) from Rabbi Refael Shapiro of Volozhin, Rabbi Eliezer Gordon of Telz and Rabbi Eliezer Rabinowitz of Minsk.
[edit] 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 Ivye, 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 Lomza. He had been proposed for the position by his mentor, Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski, with whom he was very close. His time in Lomza was not an easy one. It was marked by anti-Jewish demonstrations, the outlawing of Shechita and a boycott of Jewish shops. Lomza Jews fled in droves and the community gradually declined. With the Hitler-Stalin pact in August 1939 on the division of Poland, Lomza was transferred into Russian hands and Soviet tanks soon rolled in.
Rabbi Shatzkes escaped the city under cover of darkness across the Lithuanian border to still-neutral Vilna. Along with many others, Rabbi Shimon Shkop's Yeshiva, Sha'ar HaTorah of Grodno, had fled to Vilna. After the death of Rabbi Shkop, Rabbi Shatzkes was appointed by Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski to succeed him as Rosh Yeshiva.
Rabbi Shatzkes was active in refugee and Yeshiva affairs while in Vilna. After the city was captured by the Russians, he travelled via Russia to Japan, having received a Japanese permit from Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese temporary consul in Kovno. Arriving in Kobe by boat in May 1941, Rabbi 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, who had fled Poland and Lithuania.
He befriended the famous Japanese scholar, Professor Setzuso Kotsuji, 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 Lomza, Rabbi Shatzkes was selected by the refugee community as one of their two representatives (the other being the Rebbe of Amshinov) to the Japanese Gorvernment.
Rabbi 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, 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, Rabbi Shatzkes served as a member of the Rabbinical Ordination Board at RIETS, granting Semicha to 425 of its graduates.
[edit] RIETS Anecdote
Rabbi Shatzkes possessed a wonderful sense of humour. A famous story is told by Yeshiva University Chancellor Rabbi Dr Norman Lamm who was in his RIETS class at the time. Rabbi 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). Shapiro, who didn't have time to prepare properly, pipes up "Shapiro is nisht due" (Shapiro is not here). Rabbi 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.
[edit] 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 David Lifshitz representing the Agudath HaRabbanim. From Yeshiva University, he was taken to Yeshivat Tifereth Jerusalem where eulogies were delivered by Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, Rabbi Yosef Eliyahu Henkin and Rabbi Avraham Kalmanowitz, among others. A large crowd of mourners headed by Rabbi Aharon Kotler also gathered at the New Jersey airport from where Rabbi 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, founder of the Yeshiva of New Haven, Connecticut). A daughter Itel perished with her husband and young daughter at the hands of the Nazis.
Rabbi 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 Lomza for safekeeping before he left and has never been recovered.
A Kollel bearing his name was established as a lasting memorial at Kfar Chassidim in Israel. It was attached to Yeshivat Knesset Chizkiyahu, named after Rabbi Shatzkes's brother-in-law, Rabbi Chizkiyahu Yosef Mishkowsky, Av Beth Din of Krinki.
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