Horav Shabsi ben Meir HaKohen was born in Lithuania, in 1621 למניינם, and died in Holešov, Moravia, on the 1st of Adar, 1662. He first studied with his father Meir HaKohen. In 1633 he entered yeshivah at Tykotzin. Later he moved to Kraków and Lublin, where he studied under R’ Naphtali Cohen. He also studied under R’ Ya'acov ben Ephraim Hersch, Av Beis Din of Lublin and Brisk, and the Rosh Yeshiva of the latter.

Returning to Wilno, he married the daughter of the wealthy R’ Shimon Wolf, a great-grandson of R’ Moshe Isserles, and shortly after was appointed to the Beis Din as one of the assistants of the Chelkat Mechokek. In 1655, during fighting between Polish forces and the invading Swedish army in the Northern War, the Shach fled Vilna with the entire Jewish community. After a short stay at Lublin he went to Prague and later to Strážnice in Moravia, from where he was called to the rabbinate of Holešov. He remained there until his petirah in 1662. While in Holešov, he gained the friendship of Magister Valentino Wiedreich of Leipzig. The Shach's grave in the Jewish cemetery of Holešov still exists and is visited by thousands people from all over the world. A portion of his descendants have taken the last name Hakohen Rubin. 

Today, his grave has been restored, and a hachnossas orchim hospitality center has been established near to the cemetery.