Entrance Exam to Yeshiva Grodno

Rabbi Shimon Shkop

Occasionally, I publish Hebrew poetry here. This story will do as poetry. It is about Rabbi Shimon Shkop and the lost world. Beats toxic politics by a mile. Although Rabbi Shimon Shkop lived and died through the worst political storm.¹

I think that the book תורה יבקש מפיהו is a collection about Rabbi Shkop, so do not know without the book who is the particular author of this memory. The book calls Grodno “Poland”, what a chutzpah. Is Brisk “Poland” too? Even if Brisk and Grodno are border towns, it is Belarus.

• Chaim Ozer Grodzinski was born in Iwye, Belarus.

• His hevrusa Rabbi Shkop was born Torez, Belarus.

• Chaim Brisker, born in Volozhin, technically Belarus.

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Warsaw Ghetto.

I keep publishing things that relate to a club I am not a member of. They do not relate to me, and I don’t relate to them. I feel like that about the entire blog. Why do I write and for whom do I write?

Let me tell you a secret. Rabbi Shkop was that personal because Jews did not exactly compete for admission into Yeshiva Grodno. They were busy with Zionism, Communism, and assimilation.

Why do I have to be cynical? I read this story a few times now, and every time tears swell in my eyes. I think I am crying about something else…

1. הרב שקופ נותר בישיבת שער התורה בגרודנה, ביחד עם קומץ תלמידים, אף לאחר פרוץ מלחמת העולם השנייה, לאחר שרוב התלמידים ברחו לווילנה . ביום ט' בחשוון ת"ש (1939) הספיק הרב שקופ להשמיע דבריו בפני אספת רבני הסביבה שהתכנסו בביתו לבקש מפיו עצה בענייני חינוך, אך נפטר לאחר מכן, באמצע תפילת מנחה, בגיל 80