קלונימוס קלמן אפשטיין

Rav Kalonymus Kalman HaLevi Epstein (5511/1751–1 Tammuz 5583/1823), known as the Maor VaShemesh after his sefer, was a rav and mekubal and one of the great Admorim of the Chassidic movement. He was born in Nowy Korczyn to a family of scant means, one of ten children, and when he was five the family moved to Krakow, where he became known from a young age as an illui.

Soon after his marriage at thirteen he came to know Rav Elimelech of Lizhensk when the latter visited Krakow, and Rav Elimelech drew him close. He moved to Lizhensk and, despite his youth, became one of Rav Elimelech’s foremost talmidim; after some years his rebbi directed him, in 5545/1785, to return to Krakow and spread the teachings of Chassidut there. He met with fierce opposition from the local kehillah and its beit din, which held back the growth of a great Chassidic court around him; but as Chassidut spread through western Galicia the opposition subsided, and his name went before him as a tzaddik and mekubal. He also traveled to Rav Yechiel Michel of Zlotchov and to Rav Mordechai of Neshchiz.

His Maor VaShemesh gathers his own teachings and those of his rebbeim on the Torah and the moadim; its writing was begun in his last years by his son Rav Aharon under his supervision, and it first appeared in 5602/1842. It is counted among the most important and most-learned sefarim of Chassidut — some of the movement’s leaders called it the “Shulchan Aruch of Chassidut” — and since it was printed as a commentary within several editions of the Chumash it spread widely among Chassidim and beyond. By his request no ohel was raised over his kever.