Midrash Pinchasמדרש פנחס
Korets · 1780
פק
Pinchas of Koretz
Pinchas of Koretz
1726 CE–1791 CE · Hasidic · Korets
R. Pinchas Shapira of Koretz (1726-1791) was one of the closest and most senior companions of the Baal Shem Tov and a foundational figure of early Hasidic thought, though he never headed a succession-dynasty in the manner that became standard. Born in Shklov to an established rabbinic family, he met the Baal Shem Tov around 1755 and became part of his innermost circle.
His Midrash Pinchas — a posthumous collection of his sayings, compiled by his students — is one of the principal documents of the original Baal Shem Tov teaching tradition. He is celebrated in Hasidic literature for his commitment to truth (emet) as the highest virtue; the Pinchas-of-Koretz emphasis on radical truth-telling shaped subsequent Hasidic ethical thought, especially in the Ger and Izhbitz traditions.
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Stop 1 of 21750–1790Rebbe
KoretsVolhynia
What they did here
Established himself as a Hasidic rebbe and spiritual leader, attracting disciples throughout his four decades of residence.
Korets in this era
In mid-eighteenth-century Korets, under the rule of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (then entering its period of decline before the first Partition of 1772), Rabbi Pinchas presided over a Hasidic community awakening to the mystical revival sweeping Eastern European Jewry. The town's Jews, numbering in the hundreds, lived under the Commonwealth's system of kehillah autonomy, paying their taxes and maintaining their own courts and charitable institutions while the broader Polish state weakened amid internal conflicts and foreign pressure. It was an era when Hasidic teaching—emphasizing devotion, ecstasy, and the spiritual elevation of everyday acts—was beginning to reshape Jewish practice from within, even as the 1772 Partition brought Russian rule to Volhynia and reshaped the political ground beneath them. Pinchas became known as a leading figure of early Hasidim, drawing disciples from across the region to hear teachings that would later influence the movement's development through the nineteenth century.
About Korets
Seat of Pinchas of Korets (Midrash Pinchas) and a major early Hasidic center.
The world in their lifetime
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Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Pinchas of Koretz’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Christian world
Islamic world
Buddhist world
Works(1)
Related figuresDDov BerבשBaal Shem TovליLevi Yitzchak of BerditchevאמOr HaMeirSuggested by shared subject matter, not a documented teaching relationship.