R. Aharon (Arche) Levin of Liozna (c. 5570-5661) was a prominent chossid of the Tzemach Tzedek, and later of the Rebbes of Kopust. He was a Rosh Yeshivah in Dubravna and Vitebsk, before serving as the Rov of Liozna for many years. An exceedingly humble elder Chassid, he relayed traditions going back to the Alter Rebbe.

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R. Aharon once attended a chasunah in Vitebsk, where his father R. Baruch lived. The hall was a large room, filled with people, and R. Aharon was seated at the head of the table. On the opposite wall, there was a mirror, and when R. Aharon looked at the mirror, he suddenly asked, “Who is that distinguished-looking Yid sitting at the end of the table?” His entire life, he had never looked in a mirror and didn’t know what he looked like.

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In 5659, the Rebbe Rashab was invited to be mesader kidushin at the chassuna of R. Zalman Schneerson of Velizh in Liozna. While there, the Rebbe Rashab and his son, the Frierdiker Rebbe, visited the elderly R. Aharon, who, although not a chossid of the Rebbe Rashab, was an eminent chossid to whom the Tzemach Tzedek had sent young chassidim for hadracha.

Aharon was blind and was initially unaware of the greatness of the young Rebbe sitting before him. As he spoke, he tapped the Rebbe Rashab on his arm and immediately sensed the kedusha.

During that conversation, he described the Alter Rebbe’s home in Liozna – which had since been destroyed – and how chassidim would refer to the Rebbe’s downstairs waiting room as Gan Eden Hatachton, the upstairs waiting room as Gan Eden Haelyon, and the Rebbe’s private room as Heichal HaMoshiach. The Rebbe Rashab later remarked that R. Aharon shared this without getting emotional since he had seen ‘atzmi,’ the essence of the Rebbe.