Shapiro Rabbinic Lineage
✡️
1585 CE
Shared Ancestor
3700 BCE
You and Shapiro Rabbinic Lineage share a common paternal line ancestor who lived around this time.
Rare Connection
1 in 1,600
Only 339 customers are this closely related to Shapiro Rabbinic Lineage.
abbi Pinchas Shapira of Korets is the founder of the Shapiro rabbinical lineage, notable among European Ashkenazi Jewry’s most venerable and esteemed rabbinical families.
The Shapiro lineage traces its descent from Rabbi Shlomo ben Yitzhak Tzarfati, better known by the acronym Rashi (1040–1105).
This Treves rabbinical lineage has produced a long line of distinguished rabbis and other notables over the centuries, including the Lurie rabbinical lineage, which claims one of the oldest family trees in the world.
Most Ashkenazi family names were adopted in the nineteenth century, but the Shapiro surname and its variations (e.g., Spira, Spiro, Shpira, Shapira) have been in use by this venerable rabbinical dynasty since the mid-1300s. The origin of the surname is the city of Speyer in the Rhineland.
The most famous of the rabbinical scholars from Speyer was Rabbi Shmuel of Speyer, son-in-law of Rabbi Matityahu Treves (d. 1385). Rabbi Shmuel’s son Rabbi Shlomo Spira, Av Beit Din (head of the rabbinical court) of Heilbronn and Landau in Bavaria, is traditionally considered the first to use Spira as a family name, and he is taken to be the progenitor of the Shapiro rabbinical lineage.
According to traditional genealogy, the yichus continues: Rabbi Shlomo’s son was Rabbi Peretz Spira, Av Beit Din of Konstanz, father of Rabbi Natan Neta Spira I of Posen, father of Rabbi Shimshon Spira of Posen, father of Rabbi Natan Neta Spira II of Grodno (d. 1577).
All traditional Shapiro lineages in Eastern Europe are said to descend from Rabbi Natan Neta Spira II of Grodno who had three sons, Rabbi Yitzchok, Rabbi Shlomo, and Rabbi Yissachar. The famed Kabbalist Rabbi Natan Neta Spiro III of Krakow (1585–1633), known as the Megaleh Amukot (Revealed Depths), was the son of Rabbi Shlomo. Many prominent rabbinical families trace their lineage to the Megaleh Amukot.
Rabbi Pinchas Shapira of Korets (c. 1726–1791) was born in Shklov, White Russia (now Belarus). A descendant of the venerable and esteemed Shapiro rabbinical lineage, Rabbi Pinchas Shapira’s distinguished ancestry is well-documented. He was the 4th-great-grandson of the Megaleh Amukot according to the following genealogy: Rabbi Natan Neta Spira of Krakow’s son was Rabbi Shlomo Spira, father of Rabbi Yitzhak Yechiel Michel Spira, father of Rabbi Moshe Spira, father of Rabbi Pinchas Spira, father of Rabbi Avraham Abba Shapira, father of Rabbi Pinchas Shapira of Korets.
Hence, according to the traditional genealogy, Rabbi Pinchas Shapira of Korets is a son-after-son descendant of Rabbi Shmuel of Speyer and his son, Rabbi Shlomo Spira, the progenitor of the Shapiro rabbinical lineage.
Rabbi Pinchas Shapira was a venerated rabbinical scholar, great kabbalist, and revered tzaddik (saintly or holy man). He was closely allied with the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Chassidic Jewry. He was one of the pillars of the early Chassidic movement and one of the two most pre-eminent members of the Baal Shem Tov’s Chevraya Kadisha (Holy Brotherhood). Upon the Baal Shem Tov’s death, Rabbi Pinchas Shapira was entrusted with the education and care of his grandson, Rabbi Baruch of Medzhybizh.
Rabbi Pinchas established himself in Korets in Volhynia where he gained a reputation as a rabbinical and mystical scholar and was surrounded by his own group of disciples, foremost among whom were Rabbi Raphael of Bershad and Rabbi Yehuda Leib of Shpola (the Shpoler Zeida). Recognizing the purity of his soul, many people from all walks of life, among them outstanding rabbis, joined the circle of his disciples.
Rabbi Pinchas Shapira’s teachings are mentioned in the writings of many other rabbis. The comments and insights of Rabbi Pinchas have been anthologized by his students under various titles: Pe’er LaYesharim (Glory of the Righteous), Nofet Tzufim (Honey from the Honeycomb), and others. A comprehensive compendium was published, entitled Imrei Pinchas HaShalem (Sayings of Pinchas of Blessed Memory), from a manuscript that survived the Holocaust and was discovered in Poland.
Sourced from a Y-DNA research study conducted by Dr. Jeffrey Mark Paull, Dr. Jeffrey Briskman, and Susan K. Steeble entitled: “The Y-DNA Genetic Signature and Ethnic Origin of the Shapiro Rabbinical Lineage.”
