Rabbi Pinchas of Koretz רבי פנחס מקוריץ
a sage of the Baal Shem Tov's circle who stood apart from the Mezritch school
Born in Shklov into a family of Lithuanian scholars, he came to Koretz as an adult. He travelled to the Baal Shem Tov in Medzhybizh, and the Baal Shem Tov, tradition says, spoke of him with rare respect; but the encyclopedias are exact: "not a disciple in the full sense." He had a cast of his own: he valued simplicity, truth and silence above ecstasy.
When after the Baal Shem Tov's death Chassidism followed the Maggid of Mezritch, Rabbi Pinchas did not. Around 1770 he left Koretz, lived in Ostrog, then in Shepetovka. He kept no court and wrote no books: his words were set down by students—Rabbi Raphael of Bershad before all—and came out as Midrash Pinchas and Imrei Pinchas.
He died on 10 Elul 1791 in Shepetovka, having set out for the Land of Israel and not arrived. His descendants kept the Slavita press—the one that printed the Talmud.
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Places
Related
Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- Midrash Pinchas and Imrei Pinchas—his words as recorded by students — his teaching
Scholarship
- Encyclopaedia Judaica, “Korets, Phinehas ben Abraham Abba Shapiro” — the years 1726–1791, Shklov, “not a disciple in the full sense”, leaving Koretz c. 1770
Basis: documents and evidence.