Aharon Shmuel of Ostroha

Rabbi Aharon Shmuel HaKohen of Ostroha was one of the disciples of the Maggid of Mezeritch.

The Rebbe — Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson of Chabad-Lubavitch — added a marginal reference in his own handwriting to Rabbi Aharon Shmuel's work Vetzivah HaKohen in the margin of Likkutei Sichos, vol. 1, Parshas Terumah.

Life

Rabbi Aharon Shmuel was born to Rabbi Naftali Hirtz HaKohen, who served as rabbinical judge of the Kloyz and the community of Ostroha. He was a great-grandson of the author of the *Semikhas Chachamim*, and a descendant of the Maharal of Prague.

When he came of age, he married the daughter of the gaon Rabbi Yosef Yoel Heilprin, rabbi of Stepan and one of the leading disciples of the Baal Shem Tov — and it was through his father-in-law that he first drew close to Chassidus, the movement of spiritual renewal founded by the Baal Shem Tov.

On one occasion, when the Baal Shem Tov was a guest at his father-in-law's home in Stepan, they traveled together to escort him on his way. In the middle of a forest, the Baal Shem Tov stopped his wagon for a few moments and announced that the trees and the birds were telling him through their rustling and song that something important had been forgotten back in the city. And so it turned out to be.

Rabbi Aharon Shmuel became one of the foremost disciples of the Maggid of Mezeritch, traveling to him for extended periods each year during the years he lived in Tulchin and Rivne.

Even during the Maggid's lifetime, Rabbi Aharon Shmuel served as rabbi of Stepan, filling the position his father-in-law had held. After some time he was called to the distinguished post of rabbi of Ostroha, succeeding the Chacham Tzvi, and it was there that he also came under the influence of Rabbi Pinchas of Koritz.

In his final years he returned to live in the town where his father had served as rabbinical judge, and there he passed away on the 4th of Nissan, 5572 (1812).