Shmuel Alexandrov

Who was Shmuel Alexandrov?

Rabbi Shmuel Alexandrov of Bobruisk was a prominent student of the Volozhin Yeshiva, who became close to the tradition of Chabad Hasidism. Alexandrov was a Jewish Orthodox mystical thinker, philosopher and individualist anarchist, whose religious thought, an original blending of Kabbalah, Orthodox Judaism, contemporary philosophy and secular literature, are marked by universalism and some degree of antinomianism. His works include פך השמן, a commentary on Pirkey Avot, and a large collection of essays, מכתבי מחקר וביקורת. Alexandrov was influenced by the anarchistic implications of the work of Rav Kook, from which he sought to derive practical instruction. Another influence on Alexandrov was Russian philosopher Vladimir Solovyov. Alexandrov lived all his life in Bobruisk and perished in the Holocaust.