אהרן הגדול מקרלין

Rebbe Aharon ben Yaakov Perlov of Karlin (5496/1736–19 Nisan 5532/1772), known to chassidim as Rebbe Aharon HaGadol, was among the earliest builders of the chassidic movement and the founder of Karlin chassidut — the first great chassidic center planted in the heart of Lita. Born in Yanova to Rav Yaakov, a hidden tzaddik and brother of Rebbe Nachman of Kosov, he learned Talmud and poskim in his youth, and through his uncle was drawn to the Maggid of Mezritch, becoming one of his foremost talmidim.

Still in his rebbe’s lifetime he established the chassidic center in Karlin, by Pinsk — a stronghold of the opposition — and with Rebbe Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk spread the young movement through Lita. So great was his influence that for a generation “Karliner” was the name by which all chassidim were known. His derech was fire: tefillah with ecstatic fervor, to the point of crying aloud — a practice that lives in the Karlin court to this day — and open rebuke joined to hidden love, as his matzeivah records: “he merited and brought merit to the many… to bring Yisrael close to their Father in Heaven.” The Baal HaTanya is quoted as saying that Rebbe Aharon’s yirat Shamayim was like that of a man watching the arrow leave the bow toward him.

He was a baal menagen, and his Kah Echsof — composed, by the chassidic mesorah, at the Maggid’s direction — entered the zemirot of Shabbat and is sung at chassidic tables of every court to this day. He was niftar at only thirty-six, a year before his rebbe. His talmid and friend Rebbe Shlomo of Karlin took up the leadership and raised his orphaned son, Rebbe Asher of Stolin, from whom the Karlin-Stolin dynasty descends; from Karlin branched Lechovitch, Kobrin and Slonim. His Torah is preserved in the sefer Beit Aharon of his grandson and namesake.