SHAPIRO, ARYEH LÖB B. ISAAC:
Polish rabbi and grammarian; born 1701; died at Wilna April, 1761. He went to Wilna in his childhood, and married a daughter of Mordecai b. Azriel, one of its prominent citizens. His Talmudical knowledge was extensive, and he studied also mathematics, grammar, and logic. In his younger days he corresponded with the Karaite scholar Solomon of Troki, author of "Appiryon." In his later years Shapiro was a dayyan and scribe of the community of Wilna. He was the author of a double commentary on Masseket Soferim, the two parts of which he called respectively "Naḥalat Ariel" and "Me'on Arayot"; they were published together with the text at Dyhernfurth in 1732. He wrote also "Ḳebuẓat Kesef" (Zolkiev, 1741), on Hebrew grammar. One of his responsa, dated 1754, is found in "Teshubat Shemu'el" by R. Samuel of Indura (Wilna, 1859).
- Fuenn, Kiryah Ne'emanah, pp. 111-112, 269, Wilna, 1860;
- Fürst. Bibl. Jud. iii. 371;
- Benjacob, Oẓar ha-Sefarim, p. 516. For the genealogy of the Shapiro family see H. L. Steinschneider (Maggid), 'Ir Wilna, p. 299, note.
