Avraham Duber Kahana Shapiro

Avraham Dov-Ber Kahana Shapiro (1873 or 1874 – February 27, 1943) was the last Chief Rabbi of Kovno (Kaunas, Lithuania) and the author of Devar Avraham, a three-volume collection of responsa (answers to questions of religious practice).[1]

Biography

He was born in 1870[2] to Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Sender, a Kohen (hereditary Jewish priest) and author of Sefer Chidushei HaGarzas on Kodshim,[3] on October 5 on the night immediately following Yom Kippur, in the city of Kobryn.[4] He was a descendant of Rabbi Chaim Volozhin.

He studied in the Volozhin Yeshiva. The first volume of his magnum opus, the Devar Avraham, was published in 1906 when he was thirty-five years old.[2]

Army service

At 18 years old he was drafted into the Russian army and sent to Minsk, where he used his limited spare time to "clandestinely enter the local Beis Midrash (study house)... The Rav [rabbi] of Minsk, R[abbi] Yerucham Yitzchak Perlman" worked to obtain his release, and subsequently "took him as a son-in-law."[3]

Rabbi

He received his first rabbinical position at the age of 25, upon the passing of his father-in-law,[3][5] and was named Chief Rabbi of the city of Kovno in 1923.[2] His students included Ephraim Oshry, author of Sheilos U'Teshuvos M'Mamakim.[6][7]

He was the last Chief Rabbi of Lithuania.

Death

Shapiro was in Switzerland for health reasons before the war broke out. His son, who was living in the United States, sent him a telegram to join him in the U.S. until the war was over[2] His father, upon receiving the telegram, showed it to one of his close friends, saying, "The captain is the last to abandon his sinking ship, not the first. At this time of danger, my place is with the people of my city. I am going to Kovno."[8] He died of an illness in the Kovno Ghetto on February 27, 1943.[2] He is buried in the same cemetery as Yitchok Elchonon Spector.

References
  1. https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/2015-02-27/ty-article/.premium/prodigy-goes-to-die-with-his-flock/0000017f-f5d5-ddde-abff-fdf5ac040000
  2. Farbstein, Esther (2007). Hidden in thunder. [S.l.]: Feldheim Pub. pp. 58–61. ISBN 978-965-7265-05-5.
  3. Zoren, Moshe (March 2011). Aleinu L'Shabeiach/Bamidbar. Artscroll. ISBN 978-1-4226-1088-6.: 167–169 
  4. The "Dov-Ber" part of his Hebrew name is the source for the "Duber" part of the name by which he was later known.
  5. (1896)
  6. Moshe Sherman. "Ephraim Oshry (1914-2003)" (PDF). Because of poor health... Shapiro requested that the Jews of Kovno address their religious questions to his student, R. Ephraim Oshry.
  7. Shapiro was an older fellow student in Oshry's early years in Slobodka.
  8. "Introduction". דבר אברהם חלק א - אברהם דוב בן שלמה זלמן סנדר הכהן כהנא-שפירא. p. 3. Archived from the original on 29 June 2011. Retrieved 4 February 2011.
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