Shlomo Ganzfried (or ''Salomon ben Joseph Ganzfried''; 1804 in Ungvár – 30 July 1886 in Ungvár) was an Orthodox

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as '' semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form o ...

and

posek In Jewish law, a ''Posek'' ( he, פוסק , pl. ''poskim'', ) is a legal scholar who determines the position of ''halakha'', the Jewish religious laws derived from the written and Oral Torah in cases of Jewish law where previous authorities a ...

best known as the author of the work of

Halakha ''Halakha'' (; he, הֲלָכָה, ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws which is derived from the written and Oral Torah. Halakha is based on biblical commandm ...

(Jewish law), the ''Kitzur Shulchan Aruch'' (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

: קיצור שולחן ערוך, "The Abbreviated

Shulchan Aruch The ''Shulchan Aruch'' ( he, שֻׁלְחָן עָרוּך , literally: "Set Table"), sometimes dubbed in English as the Code of Jewish Law, is the most widely consulted of the various legal codes in Judaism. It was authored in Safed (today in ...

"), by which title he is also known.

Biography

Ganzfried was born in 1804 in Ungvár, in the

Ung County Ung County (in Latin: ''comitatus Unghvariensis''; Hungarian: ''Ung (vár)megye''; also in Slovak: ''Užský komitát/ Užská župa / Užská stolica''; ro, Comitatul Ung) was an administrative county ( comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary. It ...

of the

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from the Middle Ages into the 20th century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coronation of the Hungarian monarch, c ...

(present-day

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...

). His father Joseph died when he was eight. Ganzfried was considered to be a child prodigy and Ungvár's chief rabbi and

Rosh yeshiva Rosh yeshiva ( he, ראש ישיבה, pl. he, ראשי ישיבה, '; Anglicized pl. ''rosh yeshivas'') is the title given to the dean of a yeshiva, a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primar ...

, Rabbi Zvi Hirsh Heller assumed legal guardianship; Heller was known as "''Hershele'' the Sharp-witted" for his piercing insights into the

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...

. Heller later moved to the city of Bonyhád, and Ganzfried, then fifteen, followed him. He remained in Heller's

yeshiva A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy a ...

for almost a decade until his

ordination Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform ...

and marriage. After his marriage he worked briefly as a wine merchant. In 1830, he abandoned commerce and accepted the position of Rabbi of Brezovica (Brezevitz). In 1849, he returned to Ungvár as a dayan, a judge in the religious court. At that time Ungvár's spiritual head, Rabbi Meir Ash, was active in the Orthodox camp, in opposition to the Neologs. Through serving with Ash, Ganzfried realised that in order to remain committed to Orthodoxy, "the average Jew required an underpinning of a knowledge of practical

halakha ''Halakha'' (; he, הֲלָכָה, ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws which is derived from the written and Oral Torah. Halakha is based on biblical commandm ...

(Jewish law)". It was to this end that Ganzfried composed the ''Kitzur Shulchan Aruch.'' This work became very popular, and was frequently reprinted in Hebrew and in

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ve ...

. This work often records more stringent positions. Rabbi Ganzfried remained in the office of Dayan until his death on July 30, 1886.

Works

''Kitzur Shulchan Aruch''

The '' Kitzur Shulchan Aruch'', first published in 1864, is a summary of the

Joseph Karo Joseph ben Ephraim Karo, also spelled Yosef Caro, or Qaro ( he, יוסף קארו; 1488 – March 24, 1575, 13 Nisan 5335 A.M.), was the author of the last great codification of Jewish law, the '' Beit Yosef'', and its popular analogue, the ''Shu ...

with reference to later commentaries. This work was explicitly written as a popular text, in simple Hebrew, and does not have the same level of detail as the ''Shulchan Aruch'' itself.

Other works

* ''Kesset HaSofer'' (קסת הסופר), a

halachic ''Halakha'' (; he, הֲלָכָה, ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws which is derived from the written and Oral Torah. Halakha is based on biblical comman ...

primer for

scribes A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of automatic printing. The profession of the scribe, previously widespread across cultures, lost most of its promin ...

published in 1835. Ganzfried composed this while he was still engaged in business. * ''Pnei Shlomo'' (פני שלמה), an elucidation of portions of the Talmud. * ''Torat Zevach'' (תורת זבח), a halakhic handbook for practitioners of

shechita In Judaism, ''shechita'' (anglicized: ; he, ; ; also transliterated ''shehitah, shechitah, shehita'') is slaughtering of certain mammals and birds for food according to ''kashrut''. Sources states that sheep and cattle should be slaughtere ...

, ritual slaughter. * ''Sefer Apiryon'' (ספר אפריון), a commentary on the Bible. It contains a piece on every

weekly Torah portion It is a custom among religious Jewish communities for a weekly Torah portion to be read during Jewish prayer services on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday. The full name, ''Parashat HaShavua'' ( he, פָּרָשַׁת הַשָּׁבוּעַ), is p ...

except for Parshat

Massei Masei, Mas'ei, or Masse ( — Hebrew for "journeys," the second word, and the first distinctive word, in the parashah) is the 43rd weekly Torah portion (, ''parashah'') in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the 10th and last in the Boo ...

, which is also the week in which his yahrzeit falls. * ''Lechem V'simlah'' (לחם ושמלה) on the laws of

Niddah Niddah (or nidah; he, נִדָּה), in traditional Judaism, describes a woman who has experienced a uterine discharge of blood (most commonly during menstruation), or a woman who has menstruated and not yet completed the associated requirem ...

. * ''Ohalei Sheim'' (אהלי שם) on the official spellings of Hebrew names, as pertaining to

gittin Gittin (Hebrew: ) is a tractate of the Mishnah and the Talmud, and is part of the order of Nashim. The content of the tractate primarily deals with the legal provisions related to halakhic divorce, in particular, the laws relating to the ''Get'' ...

. * ''Sheim Shlomo'' (שם שלמה) on various '' sugyos'' in

Shas Shas ( he, ש״ס) is a Haredi religious political party in Israel. Founded in 1984 under the leadership of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, a former Israeli Sephardi chief rabbi, who remained its spiritual leader until his death in October 2013, it primarily ...

. * ''Sefer Galuy'' A letter written at the time of the Congress of 1869.

References

Rabbi Ganzfried's two million Kitzurs
Jack E. Friedman
Ganzfried, Solomon
jewishencyclopedia.com

faqs.org

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ganzfried, Shlomo 1804 births 1886 deaths Clergy from Uzhhorod Ukrainian Orthodox rabbis 19th-century Hungarian rabbis Bible commentators Authors of books on Jewish law