Kohen, Naphthali

Kohen, Naphthali, a great Cabalistic rabbi, " a man whose life was full of incidents which would give a biography of him the air of a romance," was born at Ostrow, in the Ukraine, Poland, about 1660. While yet a youth he was carried off by some Cossacks into the wilds of Poland, and for several years there followed the employments of a hunter and a shepherd. He learned to excel in horsemanship and archery, in which he took great delight all his after life. At length he succeeded in making his escape from the Tartars, and travelled in Poland. Here new impulses stirred within him, and his naturally vigorous mental powers were roused to earnest efforts after learning. He made rapid progress in the study of the Talmud and Cabala, was ordained rabbi, and subsequently elected chief rabbi at Posen. He studied the Cabala profoundly, and was at once admired and feared for his supposed ability to command the intervention of the supernatural powers. But in 1711, while he was in charge of the Hebrew congregations at Frankfort-on-the- Maine, where, as in Poland, he enjoyed for a time a high reputation as an expound Ratzeburg, where he died, August 13, 1750. Kohlreif ' wrote largely in the different departments of theological a science, but he has earned special credit by his contributions to Biblical chronology. His most important . works are, Chronologia Sacra (Hamburg, 1724, 8vo) :Chronologia Liphratkon (Liib. and Lpzg. 1732, 8vo):Gesch. d. Philister u. Moambiter (Ratzeb. 1738, 8vo). A complete list of his writings is given by Doring, Gelehrte Theol. Deutschlands, ii, 163 sq.