BOSKOWITZ, BENJAMIN ZE'EV (Wolf) HA-LEVI

BOSKOWITZ, BENJAMIN ZE'EV (Wolf ) HA-LEVI (1740–1818), rabbi and author. Named after his birthplace, he was the son of Samuel *Kolin, the author of Maḥaẓit ha-Shekel. In 1785 he was rabbi in Aszod (Pest district), and Prossnitz (Moravia) from 1786 to 1790. From there he returned to Alt-Ofen (Buda, part of Budapest) where he had previously resided. In 1793 he was appointed rabbi of Pest. From 1797 to 1802 he served in Balassagyarmat; he then was invited to the rabbinate of *Kolin (Bohemia), but the government refused him permission to settle there because he was by then a Hungarian subject. From about 1810 he was rabbi in Bonyhad.

Boskowitz' glosses on the Babylonian Talmud were first printed in the Vienna edition of 1830 and frequently ever since. His annotations to Maimonides' Mishneh Torah were partly published (to Sefer ha-Madda (Prague, 1820), to Hilkhot Shabbat (Jerusalem, 1902), to Hilkhot Shevitat Asor (1940), and to Hilkhot Ḥameẓ u-Maẓẓah (1941)). He also wrote: Ma'amar Esther – sermons on the Bible and aggadah (Ofen, 1822); Shoshan Edut, to the tractate Eduyyot (1903–05); and Le-Binyamin Amar, a commentary on the sayings of *Rabbah b. Ḥana in Bava Batra 73 (ibid., 1905). Boskowitz corresponded with R. Ezekiel Landau of Prague on halakhic problems (cf. Noda bi-Yhudah, Mahadurah Tinyanah, oh 25:60, 61, and yd 14:45, 80, passim).

bibliography:

W. Boskowitz, Shoshan Edut (1903–05), introduction; J.J. Greenwald (Grunwald), Ha-Yehudim be-Ungarya, 1 (1912); Freimann, in: jjlg, 15 (1923), 39.

[Moshe Nahum Zobel]