OSTROPOLER, SAMSON BEN PESACH. Mystery of “DeTZaCH, ADaSH, Be’ACHaV” [mnemonics of Rabbi Judah in the Passover Haggadah]

(HAGADAH)

Joseph Hraschanzki

Vienna

n.d. (19th century)

cf. Vinograd, Amsterdam 1782

“This writ, found in the notebooks of R. Samson of Ostropol, was published by R. Yochanan Reichmann, grandson of R. Israel Relines of Prague. “Whomsoever immerses himself in this awesome mystery, if but only once a year, especially on the eve of Passover, is assured delivery from harm that entire year; all his enemies will succumb to him, and wherever he turns he will succeed.” Samson of Ostropler, was reputed to be the greatest kabbalist in all of Poland. His writings are replete with gematri’oth or numerology. His kabbalah, which bears some resemblance to that of R. Nathan Nata Spira of Krakow, author of “Megaleh Amukoth,” represents a unique Polish school of Jewish mysticism. See Yehuda Liebes, Mysticism and Reality: Towards a Portrait of the Martyr and Kabbalist, R. Samson Ostropoler, in: Twersky and Septimus eds., Jewish Thought in the Seventeenth Century (Cambridge, MA, 1987), pp. 221-255