Joshua Isaac Shapira

Rabbi Joshua Isaac Shapira was a prominent 19th-century Lithuanian rabbi. Having demonstrated remarkable learning skills at a young age, Shapira enrolled at the yeshiva in Minsk and is reported to have learned both the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds in their entirety 69 times. He was known as “eizel charif” (“sharp”) for his outstanding intellect. Shapira served as community rabbi in several communities, including in Slonim, Belarus, where he also served as the av beit din (head of the rabbinical court).