Memory Lane: Rav Tzodok Sheingarten

A Poilishe ga’on who resided in Boro Park of yore, a graduate of the finest Lithuanian Yeshivos as well as Yeshiva Chachmei Lublin in his native Poland, was Rav Sheingarten—a ga’on and talmid chochom who was respected and revered by all those who knew him. 

Rav Tzodok was a true fusion of the worlds of Torah and chassidus in Boro Park of yore.  

Warsaw of Yore 

He was born in Warsaw in the year 1912 to his father, Reb Moshe Volf Sheingarten, an ardent chossid of the Sfas Emes of Ger. His father came from the town of Zhelichov, and he would return there every year to visit kivrei ovos. The Rebbe in Zhelichov was the Parisover Rebbe, and Reb Moshe Volf was a follower of his. When he was niftar, he journeyed to the Sfas Emes of Ger.

He was encouraged by the lomdim of “Grodzensky’s Kloiz” to enroll in Baranovitch, in the yeshiva of Rav Elchonon, Hy”d, as a fourteen-year-old bachur. During those years, he also merited to be in Radin by the holy Chofetz Chaim, and was the guest of the godol hador. He would later relate how he heard the Chofetz Chaim awakening his son in the morning to make zeman krias shemah. “Aron’ke, Aron’ke, zman krias shemah, zeman krias shemah…,” he intoned.

Also during his time in Baranovitch, he would frequent the court of the Beis Avrohom of Slonim, who drew him close, and gave him shirayim at his tisch. 

After two zmanim in Baranovitch, he chose to relocate to Kletzk, where the great ga’on Rav Aharon Kotler, served as Rosh Yeshiva. “During his shiurim,” he later recalled, “the Rosh Yeshiva would tear us to pieces with his sharpness in learning, and thus giving us a derech in learning.” 

For six years, the bachur from Warsaw toiled in learning from morning till night, under the direct influence of the mashgiach, Rav Yeruchom, zt”l, and he was present at Rav Yeruchom’s yetzias neshomoh. Upon his return from the Mir, he began his career of harbotzas Torah, saying a shiur in the Koznitzer Yeshiva in Warsaw, as well as in the Poilishe Chevra Shas. He also taught a group of yungeleit how to deliver shiurim. 

Boro Park 

Following his time in Vilna and Shanghai, Rav Tzodok came to America and eventually settled in Boro Park. Here, he opened a yeshiva where a number of talmidei chachomim learned. But, after four years, his health did not allow it. He then took a position in the Tosher yeshiva in Canada, and the family moved to Montreal for a few years. 

After a few years, the Shaingarten’s moved to Boro Park where he was a respected presence. He opened a Shul on 48th Street called Torah Ohr which evolved into a mokom Torah utefullah, and also a place of chessed. Aside from many she’eiris hapleitah Yidden who found their place in the shul, it was a place that fused chassidishe varemkeit together with the highest level of Torah learning that Rav Tzodok absorbed in the Litvishe yeshiva world. There are people who davened in the shul for over fifty years! 

Rav Shaingarten would spend his days and nights learning—from six in the morning until midnight, he would engage in the toil of Torah, and this hasmodoh impressed itself upon all those with whom he came in contact. He also learned the hidden Torah, and learned kabboloh together with select yungeleit from Boro Park. 

He would often repeat the brocho that he received from Rav Ahrele of Koznitz, Hy”d, who told him, “Hashem should shield you from gentile hands.” He would express eternal gratitude for being spared the fate of so many of his fellow Polish Yidden, and strove to live his life to the fullest in the spiritual sense. He would go often to the chassidic courts in the neighborhood, saying that he likes to reawaken the spirit of thriving Jewish life that he remembered from before the war. 

On an Erev Shabbos in the winter of 2006, Rav Tzodok took a nap in his seforim room, and returned his soul to its Maker following a lifetime of learning and teaching Torah.