Harav Yehudah Meir Shapiro

Rav Yehudah Meir Shapiro zt”l (1887–1933) was one of the most visionary Torah leaders of pre-war Europe. After years of immersion in Torah study, he became a dynamic rav and educator, serving in important rabbinic positions in Galina and later in Lublin, Poland. His passion was not only for personal scholarship but for elevating the entire generation, bridging the gap between the world of the yeshiva and the broader Jewish public. His charisma, eloquence, and unshakable sense of mission made him a figure beloved across the Torah world.

In 1923 at the first Knessia Gedolah of Agudas Yisrael in Vienna Rabbi Meir Schapiro founder of the great Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin, proposed a revolutionary idea that would transform Torah learning: The Daf Yomi Program.

He proposed that Jews everywhere, no matter their background or location, learn the same page of Gemara each day. In this way, a Jew in Warsaw could share a common learning experience with one in New York, Vilna, or Jerusalem. This bold plan not only created unprecedented unity in Klal Yisroel but also gave structure and purpose to the daily study of Gemara. His speech electrified the delegates, and the motion was adopted on the spot. He proposed that the first daf would be started a few weeks later, on the first night of Rosh Hashana.

Though he passed away at the young age of 46, his legacy endures through Daf Yomi, which has become one of the most unifying and transformative movements in Jewish life. To this day, hundreds of thousands of Jews across the globe open the very same daf each morning, continuing the vision of the man who dreamed of a Torah that would bind Klal Yisroel together.

There was a fascinating incident that few people are aware of. During the Asseres Yemei Teshuvah (Ten Days of Repentance from Rosh Hashanah until Yom Kippur) of that year, Rabbi Meir Shapiro received a letter from his sister that described a poignant dream that she had the first night of Rosh Hashanah: Her mother was walking in Gan Eden, adorned by a majestic crown. She wrote that she wondered why she had that dream, why was she shown her mother with the crown?

R’ Meir wrote back that as a little boy, his mother hired a special melamed to learn with him every day. She was so proud of his accomplishments that when he started learning Gemara she made a seudah for the local rabbis to commemorate the event. One day, the Shapiros moved to another area that was too far for the melamed to travel. Meir’s mother arranged for a new melamed to learn with Meir starting from the first day when they moved in.

On moving day, the truckers brought the Shapiros’ belongings to their new residence and the family settled in, but the melamed was nowhere to be found. There had been some confusion and the melamed did not know that he had to start on that day. As nightfall came and Mrs. Shapiro realized that the melamed would not be coming, she went into her room, and the young Me’erle heard her crying through the door and repeating: “A day of learning that is lost can never be made up,” over and over again.

He would never forget that. It penetrated his essence and was a credo he would live with the rest of his life. That implanted the importance of daily learning in the fertile mind of this young genius.

It was Rabbi Meir Shapiro’s mother’s tears that were the first penetrating impression in his mind that every single day of learning is critical. It was from that seed that Daf Yomi blossomed. His mother deserved to be adorned with the royal crown of Torah. And that’s perhaps why Rabbi Meir Shapiro’s sister had the dream on that first night of Rosh Hashanah. The day that the first Daf was learnt.

Today thousands, upon thousands learn a Daf a day, day in and day out. Every single day of the year. Revolutionizing learning. All ages, Yeshivishe, Chasidishe, Ashkenazim, Sefardim, Talmidi Chachamim, Rosh Yeshivos, Talmidim, Ba’alai Batim. Shiurim all over the world – all languages!