Background
Rabbi Pinhas was born to Rabbi Chaim Hirschprung in the city of Dukla, in Poland (Galicia) in 1912.
Rabbi Pinhas was born to Rabbi Chaim Hirschprung in the city of Dukla, in Poland (Galicia) in 1912.
Rabbi Shapiro once said about him that already as a youth, he knew all 2,200 folio pages (4,400 column pages) of the Talmud by heart. After he reached the age of bar-mitzvah, he wrote his first book of Torah novellae, "Pri Pinchas", and then went on to write another book, "Ohel Torah", soon after. After Rabbi Shapiro died in 1933, Rabbi Hirschprung would test prospective students for admittance to the Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva, where entry required the memorization 200 Talmudic folio pages (400 column pages).
He was endowed with an eidetic memory which enabled him to memorize the hundreds of volumes of rabbinic literature verbatim.
Rabbi Hirschprung shared a very close relationship with the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Rabbi Hirschprung"s name and legacy are associated with an Orthodox Jewish girls" school, Beth Jacob d"Rav Hirschprung, located in Montreal, and with an enrolment of nearly 600 students.
They are both buried in the Chesed Shel Emes Cemetery near Ste. Sophie, outside of Montreal.
During World World War II, he escaped to Kobe, Japan via Lithuania and then traveled on to Shanghai.
In 1941, he reached Canada on the last boat to leave before the attack on Pearl Harbor. He served as the chief Rabbi of Montreal from 1969 until his death January 25, 1998 as well as dean (rosh yeshiva) of the Rabbinical College of Canada yeshiva Tomchei Tmimim Montreal.