Aharon HaGadol of Karlin
1736 CE–1772 CE · Hasidic · Karlin (Pinsk)
R. Aharon ben Yaakov of Karlin — Aharon HaGadol, the Great (1736–1772) — was the founder of the Karlin Hasidic dynasty and the first Hasidic master to lead a court in Lithuania, in the heart of what would become Mitnagdic territory. A senior disciple of the Maggid of Mezeritch, he settled in Karlin (a suburb of Pinsk) in 1764 and built one of the largest Hasidic followings of the early generations — so influential that 'Karliner' became a common name for Hasidim across the region.
He composed the Sabbath hymn Yah Ekhsof ('O God, I Long for You'), one of the few canonical Hasidic compositions still sung in Hasidic courts today, and his fiery, passionate prayer with the thunderous calling-out of words ('Karlin shouting') established the distinctive Karlin liturgical style that survives in contemporary Karlin-Stolin communities. He died at only 36; leadership passed first to his disciple R. Shlomo of Karlin, while the dynastic line continued through his son R. Asher of Stolin. His teachings were published posthumously as Beit Aharon.
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Karlin (Pinsk)קרליןBelarus
What they did here
Settled in Karlin (suburb of Pinsk) in 1764 after studying with the Maggid of Mezeritch. Established the first Hasidic court in Lithuanian territory; led for only eight years before his death at age 36 in 1772 — the year of the first Mitnagdic ban on Hasidism.
About Karlin (Pinsk)
Seat of the Karliner-Stoliner Hasidic dynasty; Aaron the Great of Karlin and Aaron II (Beit Aharon).
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Aharon HaGadol of Karlin’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
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Works
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