Portal:Kabbalah/Selected biography

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Naphtali Cohen (1649-1718) was a Russo-German rabbi and kabalist born in Ostrowo in the Ukraine. He belonged to a family of rabbis in Ostrowo, with his father, Isaac Cohen, they had fled during the Cossack war.

In 1663 Cohen fell into the hands of the Tatars, who kept him in servitude for several years. Escaping, he returned to Ostrowo, and was chosen to succeed his father as rabbi. In 1690 he was called to Posen, where he officiated as chief rabbi until 1704. There he devoted himself to the Kabbalah, and collected a large library of cabalistic literature.