Isaiah Meïr Kahana Shapira (; 28 July 1828 – 9 January 1887) was a Polish-German rabbi and author.

Biography

Shapira was born in Memel,

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

, in 1828. He is said to have been familiar at the age of thirteen with all the ''sedarim'' of both

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

im and with a part of the ''

poskim In Jewish law, a ''posek'' ( , pl. ''poskim'', ) is a legal scholar who determines the application of ''halakha'', the Jewish religious laws derived from the written and Oral Torah, in cases of Jewish law where previous authorities are inconc ...

''. About 1845 he studied philosophy, mathematics, and astronomy, and as early as 1848 he wrote on ethics for different journals. Shapira engaged in business as a merchant; but a fire destroyed all his belongings, and he was compelled to accept the rabbinate of Czortkow. Before assuming office, however, he went to

Lemberg Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

to train himself in the necessary secular studies. He studied philosophy, ethics, and theology in the academy there for nine months. He was installed as rabbi in 1860. After two years a quarrel broke out between the two Ḥasidic sects in the town. Shapira interposing to make peace, the brunt of the dissension was turned against him and his inclination to secular education; and he was for a time even deprived of his livelihood. Peace was, however, soon restored. The last ten years of his life Shapira spent in retirement.

Publications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shapira, Isaiah Meir Kahana 1828 births 1887 deaths People from Klaipėda People from East Prussia 19th-century German rabbis