Rabbi Nachman Shlomo Greenspan was born in the village of Liakhovichi (Lachavitch), near Minsk, in 1878 and studied under the greatest rabbis, including the Sfas Emes – Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk and the Ridvaz, as well as learning under and with the Avnei Nezer; Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik; the Rogatchover Gaon; the Chofetz Chaim; and Rabbi Aharon Kotler – all world renown rabbinic leaders. He obtained semicha (his rabbinic diploma) at the young age of 18.
Rabbi Greenspan came to Britain with the outbreak of the First World War, via Belgium, with his children. He was first at the Etz Chaim Yeshiva in London, then Rosh Yeshiva in Liverpool, and then Leeds. He returned to London in 1938, when he was appointed “supervisor and organiser of the teaching arrangements” and was the Rosh Yeshiva (Head of the Rabbinical College) of Etz Chaim until his death in 1961. I have previously written about HaChayim, the magazine of the Etz Chaim Yeshiva, published in 1940.
Unfortunately, some of Rabbi Greenspan’s writing was lost or destroyed during the First World War. This book was published in 1935 by the London bookseller M. L. Cailingold (pronounced Tzailingold). However, it was actually printed in Poland. Rabbi Greenspan, at this date was the Rosh Yeshiva of Leeds.
If you would like your own copy of Pilpula shel Torah, you can download it here.