[1][2] His father died when he was an infant, and Sheps was raised by his mother and his grandfather in the nearby town of Sheptakova.

With the outbreak of World War II, Sheps fled with the Mir Yeshiva to Vilna, and from there to Kobe, Japan via the Trans-Siberian Railway and a short boat ride.

[8] In 1942, he married Sora Weitzman, and Shlomo Heiman, the rosh yeshiva of Torah Vodaath at the time, walked him down to the chuppah (marriage canopy).

[11] Sheps died on November 5, 1998[12] (Hebrew date: 16 MarCheshvan 5759), and was buried in the Mount of Olives Jewish Cemetery in Jerusalem.

[13] Many of his drashos (lectures) and shmuessen (talks) were recorded by his students and published in a sefer titled Moreshes Simchas HaTorah.