הרב שמעון שקופ

Rav Shimon Yehuda HaKohen Shkop (Tishrei 5620/1860–9 Cheshvan 5700/1939), rosh yeshiva of Telz and afterward of Yeshivat Shaar HaTorah in Grodno, forged one of the great paths of lomdus in the Lithuanian yeshiva world. Born to Yitzchak Shmuel in the townlet of Turets, then in the Russian Empire, he went at twelve to learn in the Mir and at fourteen to Volozhin, where he learned under the Netziv and was taken into the small chosen chaburah that learned with Rav Chaim Soloveitchik of Brisk — among the first talmidim to absorb the new Brisker analysis; Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzinski was among his learning companions there. At about twenty he married Leah, daughter of R’ Moshe Mordechai Yudelevitz and niece of Rav Eliezer Gordon.

Four years later Rav Gordon appointed him rosh mesivta in Yeshivat Telz, where he taught for eighteen years and worked out the approach that spread through the yeshiva world as the Telzer derech — the sharp logical analysis of Brisk joined to the plainness and clarity of the Netziv, seeking not only what the halachah is but why it is so. In 5662/1901 he left Telz to serve as rav and rosh yeshiva in Maltsch, where Rav Yechezkel Sarna learned under him, and after four years moved to Brainsk, founding a yeshiva he led for thirteen years through the First World War. In 5680/1920 Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzinski called him to head Yeshivat Shaar HaTorah in Grodno, which he led for some twenty years, until his last day; from 5686/1926 he also carried the rabbanut of the Fershtat suburb.

His Shaarei Yosher, printed in 5688/1928 after eight years of labor with his grandson Rav Kalman Shkop and Rav Aharon Yeshaya Shapira, works through the foundations of dinei sefeikot, rov, chazakah and edut — the principles by which halachah is established more than its particulars. In 5689/1928 he sailed to America to raise funds for his yeshiva, and after giving a shiur at Yeshivat Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan in New York was placed at its head; he served there some months and returned to Grodno at the request of the Chofetz Chaim and Rav Chaim Ozer. In 5696/1936, while he yet lived, a Sefer HaYovel was printed in Vilna in his honor, carrying his kuntres Maarechet HaKinyanim.

When the Second World War broke out and most of the talmidim fled to Vilna, he remained in Grodno with the handful who stayed. On 9 Cheshvan 5700 he spoke before rabbanim of the region who had gathered at his home to seek his counsel in matters of chinuch, and later that day, in the middle of Mincha, he was niftar at eighty. He was buried in the Jewish cemetery of the Zaniemanski Forshtat of Grodno. His chiddushim on Bava Kamma, Bava Metzia and Bava Batra, carried out of Soviet borders at personal risk by his talmid Rav Yitzchak Dov Koppelman, were printed in New York in 5707/1947 by his son Rav Moshe Mordechai; among his talmidim were Rav Elchonon Wasserman, Rav Shmuel Rozovsky, Rav Chaim Shmulevitz, Rav Yisrael Zev Gustman, Rav Yechezkel Sarna, Rav Isser Yehuda Unterman and Rav Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman.