GANZFRIED, SOLOMON:

Hungarian rabbi and author; born at Ungvar about 1800; died there July 30, 1886. He frequented the yeshibah of Hirsch Heller at Bonyhad (see Jew. Encyc. i. 472), and entered upon a business career first at Homona, then at Ungvar; but being unsuccessful in business, he accepted a call to the rabbinate of Brezovica (1830), which he held until 1849, when he became dayyan in his native city; he remained in that office until his death. In 1869 he was a delegate to the Jewish congress at Budapest.

Ganzfried was a very voluminous writer, chiefly in the domain of ritual law; his abridged Shulḥan 'Aruk became very popular, being frequently reprinted in Hebrew and in Yiddish. His works are: "Pene Shelomoh," novellæ on Baba Batra, Zolkiev, 1846; "Torat Zebaḥ," on the laws of sheḥitah, Lemberg, 1848; Ungvar, 1869; "Appiryon," homilies on the Pentateuch, Ungvar, 1864 and 1877; "Ḳeset ha-Sofer," on the laws of writing scrolls, tefillin, and mezuzot, Ungvar, 1871; "Ḳiẓẓur Shulḥan 'Aruk," Warsaw, 1870 (republished fourteen times); "Ohole Shem," on the orthography of Jewish names in bills of divorce, Ungvar, 1878; "Leḥem we-Simlah," on menstruation and the ritual bath; a prayer-book, also many times reprinted. He left in manuscript novellæ on various Talmudic treatises, notes on Abraham ben Jehiel Danzig's "Ḥayye Adam," and responsa. Heinrich Brody is a grandson of Ganzfried.

Bibliography:
  • Brody, Meḳor Hayyim, in Gräber's Oẓar ha-Sifrut, vol. iii., part 4, pp. 55 et seq., Cracow, 1889-90.
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