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Esh Kodesh (Hebrew: אש קודש, "Holy Fire") is a book of Hasidic philosophy and teaching, written by Rabbi (or Rebbe, as prefered by Hasidim) Kalonymus Kalman Shapira (20 may 1889 - 3 November 1943). "Esh Kodesh" was written in the warsaw Ghetto, during the first years of the holocaust. Rabbi Shapira was a witness and a victim of the Nazi opression and terror; Esh Kodesh is the collections of his sermons and talks with his followers during that period. The Theological and Philosophical teachings in the book try to find an understanding and a way of meaning of the suffering, from the viewpoint of a Jewish Orthodox Hassidic Leader.

After the [Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in april 1943 and the final liquadiation of the Ghetto, Rabbi Shapira hid his manuscript in a canister and buried it in the ghetto area. The canister was found after the war when the ruins of Warsaw were cleared. It was kept in the Jewish Historical Museum in Warsaw, until being identified 10 years later, and published.

Kalonymus Kalman Shapira
Kalonymus Kalman Shapira (Hebrew: קלונימוס קלמן שפירא) was born in Grodzisk Mazowiecki, Poland. He was a direct descendant to some of most important Hasidic Dynasties, and was married into another important one. In 1909 he was appointed rabbi of Piaseczno, near Warsaw, and subsequently attracted many hasidim. He was deeply focused on the education of children and young men, establishing the yeshiva Da'as Moshe (Hebrew: דעת משה) in 1923, which became one of the largest hasidic yeshivot in Warsaw between the wars. Rabbi Shapira attempted to reverse the trend toward secularization, which swept the Jewish community in Poland between the wars.

In the beggining of World War 2, Rabbi Shapira and his family were trapped in Warsaw as the German Army swept through Poland and encircled the Polish Capital. Rabbi Shapira's only son was mortaly wounded and his daughter-in-law and his sister-in-law were killed during the aerial and artilery bombing of Warsaw in September, 1939. (Rabbi Shapira's wife died before the war, in 1937 . A short time after the the Nazi occupation, Rebbe Shapiro's mother died . Rabbi Shapira was interned with his hasidim in the Warsaw Ghetto, where he ran a secret synagogue. He invested enormous efforts in maintaining Jewish life in the ghetto, including arranging for mikveh immersions and kosher marriages . "Esh Kodesh" was written in this period.

Rabbi Shapira was able to survive in the ghetto until its liquidation, avoiding the great deportations to Treblinka in the summer of 1942, because of the support of the Judenrat. Like other notables, he was given work at Schultz’s shoe factory—a path to ongoing survival. After the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was crushed in 1943, Rabbi Shapira was taken to the Trawniki work camp near Lublin. Although offered the opportunity to escape from the concentration camp, he apparently refused. Following the Jewish uprising in the Treblinka death camp (August 2, 1943) and in Sobibor extermination camp (October 14, 1943), there was increasing concern among the Nazi authorities that there would be further outbreaks of violence at other concentration camps. For this reason, Aktion Erntefest (Operation Harvest Festival) was launched. During this operation, carried out on November 3, 1943, all the remaining Jews in Trawniki, including Rabbi Shapira, were shot to death.

The Book
"Esh Kodes" was written while in the ghetto. As customary, the Hasidim would gather with the Rebbe on Friday evenings, after the Shabbat evening service and whatever meal there was, and hear a sermon from the Rebbe. The sermons were usualy based on the Weekly Torah portion, and the Midrashic interpertations. The Rebbe would summarize his sermon, probably after Shabbat (Since writing is prohibited on Shabbat itself). All told, "Esh Kodesh" contains 86 sermons; The first talk is from September 14, 1939, which was Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year day. That was during the Siege of Warsaw. The last sermon was given on July 18, 1942; four days later, on 22 July, the deportation of the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto began. 300,000 Jews, the majority of the ghetto, were murdered in little more than ten weeks.

Most of the sermons (41 of them) were delivered in the first year (the Jewish Year 5700. 1939 - 1940). The sermons are not continuous, and there are many gaps. The Rebbe does not explain the reasons for those gaps, and those might only be guessed at. For example, the absence of sermons in the first two months of the war may be attributed to the sequence of personal losses the Rebbe suffered in those days: the death of his son, his daughter in law and his aunt during the Nazi bombardment of Warsaw in Septenber 1939, and the death of Mother a few weeks later. The Rebbe hinted at his personal loss at subsquent talks, speaking about people who have seemingly survived but inwardly are devestated (sermon of November 4).

The book, which is a compilation of weekly sermons to his students, contends with complex questions of faith in the face of the mounting suffering of the Jews in the ghetto. When it became apparent to Rabbi Shapira that the end of the ghetto and all its inhabitants was near, he buried the book in a canister. This canister was found by a construction worker after the end of the war. The book was published in Israel in 1960 under the title Esh Kodesh