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Aharon of Karlin

Rabbi Aharon of Karlin (5496 / 1736 – 19 Nissan 5532 / April 22, 1772), known as Rabbi Aharon the Great, was among the foremost disciples of the Maggid of Mezeritch, a close colleague of the Alter Rebbe, and the founder of Karlin Chassidus.

His Father[edit | edit source]

Rabbi Aharon was born in 5496 (1736) to his father Rabbi Yaakov Shamash,[1] a hidden tzaddik and devoted Chassid of the Baal Shem Tov.

When Rabbi Aharon's mother came to the Baal Shem Tov seeking a blessing for a child, he blessed her, and a year later a son was born. When the child reached age two, his parents brought him to the Baal Shem Tov, who took him up and kissed him. On the journey home, the child passed away. When the parents returned to the Baal Shem Tov, he told them the following: there had once been a prince who, from the age of two, was raised in the home of a Jew and eventually converted. After his passing, it was declared in Heaven that his holy soul needed to descend once more to this world to rectify the years he had been raised in a non-Jewish environment — and this family had merited to raise that holy soul for two years. The Baal Shem Tov then gave them guidance on how to conduct themselves, and two years later their son Rabbi Aharon was born.[2]

In Mezeritch[edit | edit source]

Rabbi Aharon's first journey to Mezeritch came about because the Maggid of Mezeritch sent Rabbi Zusha of Anipoli to draw him close.[3]

Each of the Maggid's disciples received from him a specific spiritual quality — for the Maggid embodied the full stature of the soul in relation to his disciples. Rabbi Aharon received the quality of yirah — awe of G‑d.[4]

The Alter Rebbe described Rabbi Aharon's awe of Heaven through a vivid image: a man sentenced to death, bound to a post, with soldiers standing opposite him, their rifles raised — and he sees the arrow and the flame moving toward him. The Alter Rebbe added that even this description captures only Rabbi Aharon's awe in a state of katnus — a contracted level of spiritual consciousness. His awe in a state of gadlus — expanded consciousness — was beyond what any mind could picture.[5]

To his son-in-law Rabbi Shalom Shachna Altschuler, the Alter Rebbe said: Imagine a man who owns a thousand thousand thousand cities on land and a thousand thousand ships at sea laden with precious stones and pearls — and then in a single night it all vanishes. He would stand in stunned silence for perhaps an hour. Rabbi Aharon the Great experienced that quality of awe before the Holy One, Blessed be He, every single hour and moment of every day — except during the recitation of Shema and prayer, where his awe reached an entirely different dimension.[6]

He also said: if only we could attain, during the word of unity in the first verse of Shema, the level of awe that Rabbi Aharon had when he merely glanced out a window.[6]

The Machzor (High Holiday prayer book) records that on one occasion, when Rabbi Aharon began reciting the word HaMelech — "The King" — at the opening of the morning service, he fainted. When asked afterward what had overcome him, he replied that in that moment he had reflected on the Talmudic passage[7] where G‑d says: "If I am King — why did you not come to Me until now?"[8]

On one occasion in Mezeritch, Rabbi Aharon was reciting the Song of Songs in a whisper, when suddenly the Maggid's attendant entered and asked him to stop — because Rabbi Aharon's recitation of the Song of Songs was creating such an uproar in the upper worlds that the Maggid could not sleep.[9]

Rabbi Aharon traveled extensively throughout the region to preach. He was an intensely demanding orator who, as the Chassidim put it, "burned the world with his sermons," detailing the sins of his listeners. In one city, several couples filed for divorce in the wake of his preaching — and before opening a sermon, he would recite his own name, his mother's name, and the name of his town, fearing for his life. When the Maggid heard this, he said to Rabbi Aharon: "You and I together are not worth the heel of a Jewish man."[10]

His Bond with the Alter Rebbe[edit | edit source]

When the Alter Rebbe first came to the Maggid of Mezeritch, he observed and came to understand the inner service of each disciple — except for Rabbi Aharon's. During prayer, Rabbi Aharon would sit and sigh. Only later did the Alter Rebbe understand: at every moment, a different one of the twelve letter-combinations of the Divine Name comes to the fore, and Rabbi Aharon was perpetually attuned to this, standing at all times in a state of ratzo vashov — the soul's constant oscillation between yearning ascent and return.[11]

The Alter Rebbe once related that in the Maggid's household, every Friday a pot of meatballs was prepared in honor of Shabbos. Each Friday, Rabbi Aharon of Karlin would slip into the kitchen alone and place one meatball into the pot. At the Shabbos meal, the Maggid would distribute meatballs from the pot to his disciples — and, miraculously, the meatball that reached Rabbi Aharon was always the one he himself had placed in the pot on Friday. The Alter Rebbe concluded: "I did what I did, and one Shabbos eve I succeeded in receiving that meatball — and thank G‑d, it sustained my avodah for many years."[12]

The Alter Rebbe wrote that he never personally visited Rabbi Aharon.[13]

Together with R' Shlomo of Karlin, Rabbi Chaim Wolper, R' Yissachar Ber of Lubavitch, and the Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Aharon helped establish the center of Chassidus in Lithuania. The Chassidim of that circle came to be called Karliners, after him.

Following a dispute, the Wolper separated from Rabbi Aharon — at first becoming a Misnaged (opponent of Chassidus), and later wandering the roads.

His Passing[edit | edit source]

Rabbi Aharon passed away during the lifetime of the Maggid of Mezeritch, on the fifth day of Passover, 5532 (April 22, 1772).

He had declared that he would not enter Gan Eden (Paradise) until Moshiach came. But from Above they outmaneuvered him — they extended the walls of Gan Eden, and so he found himself inside it without having walked through the gate.[14]

Shortly after his passing, the Alter Rebbe remarked that the Megaleh Amukos and the Bach (Rabbi Yoel Sirkis) were envious of his Gan Eden.[15]

Rabbi Aharon had once said: if after his death a harsh decree were issued and people came to pray at his grave, he would intercede Above to have it annulled. On one such occasion, people came — but nothing improved. Afterward, he appeared in a dream to one of those who had prayed there and said: it was not that he did not know of the decree. He had known, and could have acted to change it — but once he saw the true goodness concealed within the harsh decree, as it comes from the hidden world alma d'iskasya, he could no longer bring himself to request its removal.[16]

Teachings[edit | edit source]

The Rebbe once cited his famous saying during a private audience: "Sadness is not a sin — but the greatest troubles can come from it."[17]

The well-known parable in Torah Ohr about hagbahas hatachton — lifting what is below — is also attributed to Rabbi Aharon: when one wishes to raise an object from the ground, one must begin by lifting from the lowest beam, after which all the higher ones rise as well. He applied this to the verse in Psalms (30:2), "I will exalt You, O Lord, for You have lifted me up" — the word dalisani (lifted me) shares a root with dal (poor, lowly). King David was saying: I am able to lift the entire structure precisely because I begin from the lowest point. And so too, through teshuvah — return to G‑d — one elevates the entire world.[18]

He also taught: every Jew must believe three things about the Baal Shem Tov — (1) that Elijah the Prophet never left his four cubits; (2) that Elijah stood before him as a servant before his master; (3) that had he lived in the era of the Patriarchs, he would have been recognized as a figure of consequence even then.[19]

The niggun V'Hi She'amdah, which the Rebbe taught in 5715 (1954–55), is attributed to Rabbi Aharon in Karlin Chassidic tradition. Similarly, the niggun Al Achas is attributed to his disciples.

Family[edit | edit source]

Rabbi Aharon had two sons and two daughters: Rabbi Yaakov (son-in-law of Rabbi Avraham of Karlin), Rabbi Asher of Stolin, Chaya Sarah, and Rivka.

  • Rabbi Asher of Stolin was a disciple of Rabbi Shlomo of Karlin and was on close terms with the Alter Rebbe — though he followed a different path in Chassidus from that of Chabad. When informers denounced the Alter Rebbe to the Russian authorities, they also denounced R' Asher — but he was not arrested.[20] Some say he was raised in the home of the Alter Rebbe in his youth following his father's early passing.[21]

From this marriage, part of the Chabad dynasty descends: (1) Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael and his wife Rebbetzin Devorah Leah, daughter of the Mitteler Rebbe; (2) their daughter Chana, who married Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak of Ovruch (son of the Tzemach Tzedek); (3) their daughter, who became the wife of the Rebbe Rashab and the mother of the Frierdiker Rebbe.[22]

  • Rivka (known as Rivele) married Rabbi Shalom Shachna (father of the Tzemach Tzedek) as his second wife, after the passing of his first wife Rebbetzin Devorah Leah, daughter of the Alter Rebbe.

Further Reading[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ The teaching in Torah Ohr (Tetzaveh 82b) — "Aharon, the letters of which spell nir'eh (is seen)" — is a statement made by the Baal Shem Tov to Rabbi Yaakov Shamash. The Baal Shem Tov said of him that he perceived G‑dliness in a concrete, tangible way — "from such a one, Aharon grows." This was long before Rabbi Aharon of Karlin was born (Sefer HaSichos 5701, p. 152).
  2. ↑ Sichos LeNoar, Tammuz 5703, p. 6. Sefer HaToldos HaBaal Shem Tov, vol. 1, pp. 419ff. Otzar Sipurei Chabad, vol. 1, p. 93. Reshimos Devarim, p. 199.
  3. ↑ Heichal HaBaal Shem Tov, issue 12, p. 140.
  4. ↑ Otzar Sipurei Chabad, vol. 14, p. 287.
  5. ↑ Beis Rebbi, ch. 25.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Birkas Aharon (Hoisman), p. 3.
  7. ↑ Gittin 56a.
  8. ↑ Machzor for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, before the prayer of HaMelech.
  9. ↑ Beis Rebbi, ch. 25. Otzar Sipurei Chabad, vol. 14, p. 293.
  10. ↑ Otzar Sipurei Chabad, vol. 14, p. 302.
  11. ↑ Otzar Sipurei Chabad, vol. 14, p. 289.
  12. ↑ Birkas Aharon (Hoisman), pp. 3–4.
  13. ↑ Igros Kodesh, letter 58, section 23.
  14. ↑ Remazei Osios, section 143. Lemaan Yeid'u, p. 300, section 189. See also Toras Menachem, vol. 1, p. 12.
  15. ↑ Shmuos VeSipurim, vol. 2, p. 41. In Otzar Sipurei Chabad, vol. 16, p. 9, a version is cited in which the Maggid of Mezeritch said this about his son, Rabbi Asher of Stolin.
  16. ↑ Remazei Osios, section 144. Lemaan Yeid'u, p. 222, section 35.
  17. ↑ Private audience with Rabbi Dovber Junik, Erev Shabbos Parshas Vayechi 5714. See also the references to this teaching in Reshimos Devarim, p. 58.
  18. ↑ Avodas Yisrael (the Maggid of Koznitz), Devarim, Tu B'Av; Likkutim on Psalms, ibid.
  19. ↑ Remazei Osios, section 6. Lemaan Yeid'u, p. 220, section 31. Likkutei Sipurim, Baal Shem Tov section, section 23; Alter Rebbe section, section 1. Reshimos Devarim, p. 60 and references there.
  20. ↑ See Kispina Mitalteles — Karlin Chassidus Between Ascents and Crises by Prof. Binyamin Brown, p. 61, and note 96 there — where, despite the Karlin tradition that R' Asher was also arrested, the author finds no evidence or documentation to support it and concludes he was not arrested at all.
  21. ↑ Shmuos VeSipurim, vol. 2, p. 41.
  22. ↑ Igros Kodesh, vol. 2, p. 26.
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