"Astonishing knowledge and unrestrained command of all walks of Torah.  Unusual sharpness and intelligence; and most of all, his ability to generate Torah thoughts and reasoning..."

So wrote Rabbi Neriah Gutel, the head of the Orot College for Women in Elkana, in eulogizing his teacher Rabbi Avraham Elkana Shapira, who passed away on the Sukkot holiday at the age of 96.  The traditional shiva seven-day mourning period began only on Friday, postponed because of the holiday.

Rabbi Gutel described how Rabbi Shapira would prepare for his weekly Shiur Clali (high-level Talmud class) in Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav: "He would prepare the class before he left his home. Then he would develop a totally different approach during the drive from his home in the Geulah neighborhood to the yeshiva in Kiryat Moshe, and a third altogether different way when he actually delivered the class to the students."

Passionately against Ariel Sharon's expulsion of Jews from Gush Katif and northern Shomron in 2005, he urged IDF soldiers not to take part - and even to disobey orders if necessary.

Possibly for the first time, some of his leading students publicly disagreed with him on this issue, leading to a split in the religious-Zionist camp as to whether or not to disobey Disengagement orders.

Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, who served as Israel's Sephardic Chief Rabbi with Rabbi Shapira as his Ashkenazi counterpart (1983-92), said, "He continued the path of Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook and his father Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook in his love for the Nation and the Land... Yeshivot that exist around the country and their Deans are because of him and his teachings."

Rabbi Shmuel Shapira, a son of the late Rabbi Avraham, related, "On Sukkot, Abba [my father] was wont to quote the early Sage Rabbi Yehuda Ben HaRosh, that one who engages in joy is actually engaging in bringing Jews back to their faith - because people sometimes think that happiness is the opposite of repentance, which is perceived as something sad and solemn; but with Abba, everything was connected."

The Unique Combination

"I believe that our great teacher was uniquely blessed with a rare combination of four abilities," Gutel wrote, enumerating them, including examples, as follows: Phenomenal knowledge, sharpness, creativity, and a smiling, pleasant manner.  "It was rare to see him without a smile shining from his face.  It was also rare to talk with him without him spicing the conversation with stories of rabbis, Hassidim and old Jerusalem.  He had a common language with all kinds - Torah scholars, politicians, young, old, men, women... I recall that I once brought a group of female G-d-fearing doctoral candidates, for questions and answers with him.  At first, he allowed himself to slide into a story or anecdote, but when he saw that these were women who were truly knowledgeable in Torah while at the same time their 'fear of G-d preceded their wisdom,' he began to get down to real Halakhic detail."

Rabbi Feinstein and the Chazon Ish

Rabbi Gutel noted that the late Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, recognized as the preeminent Halakhic authority in the United States in the previous generation, recognized Rabbi Shapira as the top rabbinical judge in Israel.  Rabbi Avraham Yeshayahu Karelitz, the leading hareidi-religious sage known as the Chazon Ish of Bnei Brak, also treated the much-younger Rabbi Shapira with great respect. 

Yeshivat Ateret Cohanim dean Rabbi Shlomo Aviner eulogized Rabbi Shapira in the HaTzofeh newspaper as follows: "Whoever saw his smiling, shining face, saw a face of Torah and absorbed Torah... I never merited to be among his students - but his stature was such that we were all his students, to varying degrees."

The Torah Was an Open Book for Him

"This great Torah giant spent his whole life studying and teaching, to the extent that one could not distinguish between the man and his Torah.  He filled the most important positions in national Torah life: A judge on the Rabbinical Court, the Chief Rabbi of Israel, the Dean of Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav, and the spiritual leader of the religious-Zionist camp.  The entire Torah was like an open book for him, and he was therefore able to rule on the entire range of Halakhic issues.  The entire nation was beloved to him, as befitting a High Priest, but he also loved every individual as well... He stood at the helm of the struggle for the integrity of the Land of Israel - a struggle that was not only in his mind, but in his heart as well.  He was once asked a deep question in Torah law; holding his head, he said he could not answer, as the treacherous plans to give up parts of the Land of Israel do not allow him to sleep..."

"He once heard of a Jewish refugee from the Holocaust with no relatives or friends, and he used to visit him over the course of years in his house in the Bucharim quarter, talking with him at length..."

"With all his gentleness, this great man was a man of war - not on small things, but on matters that are the essence of our lives - the preservation of the Torah, the Nation and the Land.  These were not three separate things for him, but were rather one, for his thinking was integral and complete..."