1710 CE–1784 CE · Acharonim · Sharhorod
Rabbi Yaakov Yosef HaKohen Katz of Polnoye (c. 1710–1784) was the closest disciple of the Baal Shem Tov and the first Hasidic master to publish a book — an event that, more than any other, transformed Hasidism from a movement of oral charismatic teaching into an enduring literary tradition. Born in Sharigrad and originally a fierce mitnaged, he met the Besht in Mohyliv around 1741 and underwent a transformative spiritual reorientation. He served as rabbi in Sharigrad, Rashkov, Nemirov, and (from 1770) in Polnoye. His *Toldot Yaakov Yosef* (1780), printed at his own expense in Korzec, ignited the polemical controversy with the Vilna Gaon by openly attributing teachings to 'I have heard from my teacher' (the Besht). It remains the single most important literary source for the Besht's own teachings, along with his later *Ben Porat Yosef*, *Tzofnat Pa'aneach*, and *Ketonet Passim*.
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Served as rabbi of Sharhorod until 1748, when the community dismissed him after he embraced the path of the Baal Shem Tov.
Sharhorod (Shargorod), a town in Podolia (today in Vinnytsia Oblast, western Ukraine), had a long-established Jewish community. Rabbi Yaakov Yosef HaKohen, later the famous chasidic master of Polnoye, served as rav of Sharhorod for several years before becoming a disciple of the Baal Shem Tov around 1748.
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Yaakov Yosef of Polnoye’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Yaakov Yosef of Polnoye’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Polonne (Polnoye, Volhynia) · 1912
Multivolume novellae on the Torah and Talmud, presenting innovative Vilna-school pilpul methodology; his major published work combining halakhic analysis with conceptual depth.
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Dvinsk (Daugavpils) · 1912
Multivolume novellae on the Torah and Talmud, presenting innovative Vilna-school pilpul methodology; his major published work combining halakhic analysis with conceptual depth.
Full text not yet available in our corpus.
Polonne (Polnoye, Volhynia) · 1781
1781 — second of his four published works. Contains additional teachings of the Besht plus original material on Genesis and Bereshit themes.
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Polonne (Polnoye, Volhynia) · 1780
1780 — the first Hasidic book ever printed. A homiletic Torah commentary that preserves the bulk of the Baal Shem Tov's original teachings as transmitted by his closest disciple.
Full text not yet available in our corpus.
Polonne (Polnoye, Volhynia) · 1760
Polonne (Polnoye, Volhynia) · 1780
Polonne (Polnoye, Volhynia) · 1777
Polonne (Polnoye, Volhynia) · 1782