Samuel Strashun

Samuel ben Joseph Strashun (1794 – March 21, 1872) (Hebrew: שמואל שטראשון מוילנא), also known as Rashash (רש"ש), was a Russian Talmudist born in Zaskevich, government of Wilna.

He married at an early age, and settled with his wife's parents in the village of Streszyn, commonly called Strashun (near Wilna), and assumed the latter name.

His wife conducted the business, as was usual in Wilna, and he devoted the greater part of his time to studying the Talmud and to teaching, gratuitously, the disciples who gathered about him.

His piety did not prevent him from sympathizing with the progressive element in Russian Jewry, and he was one of the few Orthodox leaders who accepted in good faith the decree of the government that only graduates of the rabbinical schools of Wilna and Jitomir should be elected as rabbis.

He wrote Hebrew well, spoke Polish fluently, was conspicuously kind and benevolent, and was highly esteemed even among the Christian inhabitants of Wilna.