Person · 5496–5532 AM · 1736 CE — 1772 CE
Rabbi Aharon the Great of Karlin רבי אהרן הגדול מקרלין
founder of Karlin Chassidut; composer of the Sabbath hymn Yah Echsof
A disciple of the Maggid of Mezeritch. He founded his court in Karlin, a suburb of Pinsk—one of the first Chassidic courts in Lithuania, where Chassidut was not welcome. For a time on Lithuanian soil the word "Karliner" simply meant "Chassid."
He left no books: his teachings were recorded by his disciples, and the collection appeared later under his grandson's name—Beit Aharon.
Yah Echsof. The Sabbath hymn he composed is one of the few Chassidic compositions that entered the common body of Sabbath zemirot and is sung in the courts to this day.
He died in 5532, aged thirty-six—a year before his teacher.
On the timeline
5520 · 1760 CEThe Maggid of Mezeritch and the Hasidic–Mitnagdic Dispute5525 · 1765 CEThe courts of Lithuania, Polesia and Volhynia: Karlin, Lechovitch, Kobrin, Slonim
Related
Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- Yah Echsof, in the Sabbath zemirot — the hymn he composed, which entered common use
- Beit Aharon — the Karlin collection, where his sayings are recorded
Basis: documents and evidence.