Examples of the subject of the responsa are, (12) Reuben betrothed a woman and his father says he is a minor, under thirteen years of age, but when examined is found to have brought two hairs; (16) an elder whose voice is frail and is not acceptable as hazzan; (24) a witness said that he heard from another witness that an individual had died or was killed but does not say that he buried him; (25) a Jew acquired a yoreh (kettle) from a gentile thief who, when apprehended, admitted to selling three kettles; (33) a man betrothed a woman with less than the value of a peruta (minimum value) and had relations with the intent of betrothal; (44) Shimon, father-in-law of Reuben, notes that the latter had resided with him for fifteen years, become wealthy in his house, and argues that he is entitled to half the increase. There are responsa that are novellae and others, such (20) as to why the Minhah services are called Minhah. Several rabbinic authorities express high regard for Emunat Shemu’el in their responsa. For example, R. Meir Eisenstadt (c. 1670–1744) writes in Panim Me’irot 2:52 (Amsterdam, 1715), concerning Emunat Shemu’el, that on the issue of Koidonover’s criticism of R. Samuel ben David Moses ha-Levi’s Nahalat Shivah (see above 1667), that Koidonover was like a rishon (early sage) and that the latter’s refutations were ineffective.

R. Aaron Samuel ben Israel Koidonover was a talmudic scholar and preacher. He took his name from Koidanovo near Minsk, where he was born. In his youth he studied in Brest-Litovsk under R. Jacob and his son R. Joshua Heschel of Lublin. Following the Chmielnicki pogroms of 1648 he fled to Vilna where he became a member of the bet din of R. Moses Lima, author of the Helkat Mehokek, the other members being R. Shabbetai b. Meir ha-Kohen (the Shakh), and R. Ephraim Katz, author of the Sha’ar Efrayim. In 1656 during the war between Russia and Sweden in Poland he took refuge in Kurow near Lublin, where he served as rabbi, and there his two daughters were killed by Cossacks. He went to Austria, where he became a rabbi in a small town, and from there to Moravia where he became rabbi of Nikolsburg. Subsequently R. Koidonover was rabbi and av bet din of important communities, including Fuerth, Reischer, Brest-Litovsk, and Frankfort. He stayed some six months in the sister communities of Altona, Hamburg, and Wandsbeck in 1669 where he enacted many takkanot which were included in the regulations of Altona. Toward the end of his life he returned to Poland and was appointed av bet din of Cracow. He died in Chmielnik.

R. Koidonover wrote many important halakhic and homiletical works. In his learning he sought to return to the primary sources of the halakhah and refrained from relying upon the aharonim. In addition to Emunat Shemu'el R. Koidonover sermons containing, in popular form, the ideas of the kabbalists of Safed and Poland. His main work is the Birkat ha-Zevah (Amsterdam, 1669), novellae and glosses to most of the order of Kodashim, with an autobiographical introduction. Three more of his works were published by his son Zevi Hirsch: Birkat Shemu'el (Frankfort, 1682), sermons partially kabbalistic in content; (ibid., 1683), responsa; and Tiferet Shemu'el (Frank. A. M., 1696), novellae on the Talmud, glosses and novellae to the Piskei ha-Rosh of Asher b. Jehiel, to the Turim and Beit Yosef, and hassagot on the novellae of Samuel Edels. Koidonover also compiled a book on the procedure to be followed in executing divorces and halizah, which is in manuscript in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

דף ב: דברי בן המחבר. הסכמות: ר' יצחק ב"ר זאב וואלף מקראקא, פה וועד וואיידסלב, כג שבט תל"ט (שנדפסה גם בספרו ברכת שמואל); ר' אהרן ב"ר משה תאומים, וירמיזא, ראש-חודש כסליו תמ"ג.