OSTROPOLI, SAMSON BEN PESAH:
Polish rabbi; martyred at Polonnoye, government of Podolia, in the Cossacks' Uprising July 15, 1648. When the Cossacks laid siege to Polonnoye, Samson, with 300 of his followers, arrayed in their shrouds and praying-shawls, went to the synagogue, and stood there praying until the enemy came and butchered them all.
Ostropoli was a noted cabalist. He was the author of a commentary (published by his nephew Pesaḥ at Zolkiev in 1709) on the cabalistic work "Ḳarnayim." According to the author of "Yewen Meẓulah," he wrote also a commentary on the Zohar in conformity with the cabalistic system of Luria; but this work has not been preserved. Other works of his are: "Dine we-Hanhagot ha-Adam" (Ostrog, 1793), a collection of cabalistic liturgical regulations from the works of Ostropoli and other cabalists; "Sefer Liḳḳuṭim" (Grodno, 1794), cabalistic exegetics and elucidations of many passages in the Zohar and other works; and "Nifla'ot Ḥadashot" (ib. 1797), elucidations of the Pentateuch and the Five Megillot, and homiletics.
- Grätz, Gesch. x. 57, 65, Leipsic, 1897;
- Yewen Meẓulah, section Gezerah Deḳaḳ, Polonah;
- Azulai, Shem ha-Gedolim, i. 181, Wilna, 1852;
- Gurland, Le-Korot ha-Gezerot, ii. 25, vi. 60 et seq.;
- Fürst, Bibl. Jud. iii. 357.
