Early Years
Shatzkes was born in Vilna, Lithuania in 1881, the scion of a distinguished Rabbinic dynasty. His father, Rabbi Avraham Aharon Shatzkes, was the spiritual leader of Vilna who was known as the "Illui miZhetel", one of the most famous Torah sages in Lithuania, and reputed to have been proficient in the entire Talmud at the age of only 17.
His mother, Chaya Resha, was the daughter of Rabbi Avraham Abba Edelson of Vilna, and granddaughter both of Rabbi Chaim Dworetzky, rabbi of Zelve and Rabbi Yitzchak Sherwinter, Av Beth Din of Vilna.
Shatzkes was only 3 years old when his father died. Soon after, at the suggestion of her uncle, Rabbi Elya Eliezer Grodzinski (father-in-law of Rabbi Chaim Ozer), his mother remarried Rabbi Yitzchak Blazer (known as Reb Itzele Peterburger), one of the pupils of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter.
Shatzkes was brought up and educated by Reb Itzele and was sent to study at the great yeshivas of Slabodka and Telz. In 1904, he received Semicha (rabbinical ordination) from Rabbis Refael Shapiro of Volozhin, Eliezer Gordon of Telz and Eliezer Rabinowitz of Minsk.
Read more about this topic: Moshe Shatzkes
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