Pinchas Hirschprung (; 13 July 1912,

Dukla Dukla is a town and an eponymous municipality in southeastern Poland, in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship. As of December 2021, the town has a population of 2,017. The total area of the commune is . Dukla belongs to Lesser Poland, and until the ...

, Galicia – 25 January 1998,

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

) was a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

, ''

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

'', and '' rosh yeshiva'', who served as Chief Rabbi of

from 1969 until his death.

Biography

Early life

Pinchas Hirschprung was born in 1912 to Leah (née Zehmin) and Rabbi Chaim Hirschprung in the Galician

shtetl A shtetl or shtetel (; yi, שטעטל, translit=shtetl (singular); שטעטלעך, romanized: ''shtetlekh'' (plural)) is a Yiddish term for the small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jewish populations which existed in Eastern Europe before ...

(now located in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

). His grandfather, Rabbi Dovid Tzvi (Tevli) Zehmin, a Chortkov Ḥasid best known for his work ''Sefer Minḥat Solet'', served as the town's '' av beit din''. Zehmin was the teacher of

Rebbe A Rebbe ( yi, רבי, translit=rebe) or Admor ( he, אדמו״ר) is the spiritual leader in the Hasidic movement, and the personalities of its dynasties.Heilman, Samuel"The Rebbe and the Resurgence of Orthodox Judaism."''Religion and Spiritua ...

Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam (January 10, 1905 – June 18, 1994) was an Orthodox rabbi and the founding rebbe of the Sanz-Klausenburg Hasidic dynasty. Halberstam was one of the youngest rebbes in Europe, leading thousands of followers in the ...

and of the Klausenburg and Pshevorsk Ḥasidic dynasties, respectively. Through his maternal great-grandfather, Yosef Moshe Teicher, Hirschprung was a direct descendant of

Solomon Luria Solomon Luria (1510 – November 7, 1573) ( he, שלמה לוריא) was one of the great Ashkenazic ''poskim'' (decisors of Jewish law) and teachers of his time. He is known for his work of Halakha, ''Yam Shel Shlomo'', and his Talmudic commen ...

and Saul Wahl Katzenellenbogen. Hirschprung received his early religious education from his grandfather, later becoming a student of Rabbi

Meir Shapiro Yehuda Meir Shapiro ( pl, Majer Jehuda Szapira; March 3, 1887 – October 27, 1933), was a prominent Polish Hasidic rabbi and rosh yeshiva, also known as the Lubliner Rav. He is noted for his promotion of the Daf Yomi study program in 1923, ...

at Yeshivat Ḥakhmei Lublin. He purportedly wrote his first '' sefer'', ''Pri Pinchas'', at the age of 13, and, according to Rabbi Shapiro, knew all 2,200 folio pages of the

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

by heart as a youth. He also became proficient in

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

, and

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

. Hirschprung began teaching at the Yeshiva after his

ordination Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform v ...

in 1932, and became its head of admissions upon Shapiro's death the following October. At the beginning of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Rabbi Hirschprung smuggled himself from Nazi-occupied Poland into Lithuania. From there, he escaped to Kobe, Japan, where he remained for nine months. He left for

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

in the fall of 1941, and from there for North America, finally arriving in

on 23 October 1941.

Career

Not long after his arrival in Canada, Rabbi Hirschprung accepted the positions of rabbi of the Adath Yeshurun Synagogue on

Saint Urbain Street Saint Urbain Street (french: rue Saint-Urbain) is a major one-way street located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The original, southernmost section of the street was built by Urbain Tessier (c. 1624–1689), a farmer and carpenter who settled in ...

, and of rosh yeshiva at the newly founded Yeshivas Merkaz HaTorah. He also became involved in the affairs of the Va'ad ha-Ir (Jewish Community Council) of Montreal. In 1944, he published an autobiographical

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobiog ...

of his escape from Europe, serialized from May to August in the Yiddish daily '' Der Keneder Adler'' and published in book form later that year. In 1953, Rabbi Hirschprung re-established Montreal's

Bais Yaakov Bais Yaakov ( he, בית יעקב also Beis Yaakov, Beit Yaakov, Beth Jacob or Beys Yankev; lit., House fJacob) is a genericized name for full-time Haredi Jewish elementary and secondary schools for Jewish girls throughout the world. Bais Yaa ...

school for girls, which was renamed Bais Yaakov d'Rav Hirschprung in his honour after his death. He was named rosh yeshiva of Tomchei Tmimim Lubavitch in 1965, and in 1969 succeeded

Sheea Herschorn Sheea Halevy Herschorn (; 1893, Murovani Kurylivtsi, Krilovitz – 15 May 1969, Montreal) was a Russian Empire, Russian-born Canadian Judaism, Jewish communal leader and ''posek'', who served as Chief Rabbi of Montreal from 1951 until 1961. Biogr ...

as Chief Rabbi of Montreal. Rabbi Hirschprung died on 25 January 1998. His wife, Alta Chaya Hirschprung, died on 4 March 2012. They are both buried in the Chesed Shel Emes Cemetery in Montreal.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hirschprung, Pinchas 1912 births 1998 deaths Polish emigrants to Canada Polish Hasidic rabbis Canadian Hasidic rabbis Canadian people of Polish-Jewish descent Clergy from Montreal Rosh yeshivas Jews from Quebec Canadian Haredi rabbis Canadian Orthodox rabbis