Broda
BRODA
BRODA , family of rabbis in Lithuania and Slovakia (then in Hungary) from the 17th century on. Ḥayyim broda, a grandson of Abraham *Broda was rabbi of Janow; his son aaron was rabbi of Kalvanÿa, Lithuania; and his son BENJAMIN (d. 1818) was appointed rabbi of Grodno in 1792 and was the last av bet din of the city. A dispute between the supporters of Broda and the adherents of Tanḥum b. Eliezer led to the abolition of the office.
Benjamin's son Ḥayyim wrote Torah Or ve-Derekh Ḥayyim (Grodno, 1823), on the laws of ritual slaughter, and Zera Ḥayyim (published by his grandson Ḥayyim *Heller in 1907), the aim of which was to defend the rulings of the Shulḥan Arukh against the criticisms of *Shabbetai b. Meir ha-Kohen in his Gevurot Anashim. Ḥayyim engaged in halakhic correspondence with Abraham *Danzig and *Abraham Abele b. Abraham Solomon Poswoler of Vilna. One of his sons, dov ber (d. 1897), was the author of Divrei Binah (2 pts., 1888–90) on the tractate Makkot. Ḥayyim's son-in-law was Israel Issar b. Mordecai Isserlin (1827–1899), who served as rabbi in Vilna. The following among his works are known: Shem Yisrael (1859, published anonymously), a commentary to the Mishnah Seder Zera'im; Ishei Yisrael (1864), novellae to the tractate Shabbat; Tosefot Yerushalayim (1871), on the Tosefta; Pitḥei Teshuvah (1875), on the Shulḥan Arukh, Oraḥ Ḥayyim. Another son-in-law of Ḥayyim Broda was Eliezer b. Samuel Landau (1805–1883), who was born in Vilna and served as the head of the Brodno community. He was the author of Dammesek Eliezer (1868–70), a commentary in two parts on the expositions of *Elijah b. Solomon Zalman to the Shulḥan Arukh, Oraḥ Ḥayyim.
Other important members of the family were (1) aaron b. israel (second half of the 17th century), who compiled Otot le-Mo'adim (Grodno, 1798), a calendar for the years 5549–5624, appended to which is Nahara u-Fashta, a book on customs by Ḥayyim b. Israel Broda. He also wrote Tekumah, a digest in rhymed prose of the laws of the Shulḥan Arukh, of which only the section on Even ha-Ezer, Even Ẓiyyon be-Mishpat, was published (Shklov, 1784; complete edition by his son Nissim, Vilna, 1818). Other works have remained in manuscript; (2) Ẓevi hirsch b. david (d. 1820?), rabbi of Szenice, and after 1787 rabbi of Kittsee (Köpcsény), Hungary; was the author of Ereẓ Ẓevi and Te'omei Ẓeviyyah (pt. 1, Vienna, 1823; pt. 2, Presburg, 1846), a commentary on chapters 1–65 and 119–178 of the Shulḥan Arukh, Even ha-Ezer; and Shenei Ofarim (Prague, 1825), sermons, published by his son Aaron; (3) abraham b. solomon zalman (1825–1882) was born in Ungvár (Uzhgorod) and studied in the yeshivah of Moses *Sofer in Pressburg. He lived in Kleinwardein and was rabbi of Nagyberezna from 1876 until his death. He was the author of Peri he-Ḥag (2 pts., 1871–76), on the laws of Passover, and Halikhot Olam (1874–75, pt. 1 (19275), ed. by I. Gruenwald), in Judeo-German on laws of daily application; (4) abraham aaron b. shalom (d. after 1860) was born in Vilna. He was the author of Beit Va'ad (1832), a selection of laws from the four parts of the Shulḥan Arukh, to which was appended Beit Middot on weights and measures in the Talmud; and Bayit ha-Gadol (1838), a commentary on Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer; (5) mordecai b. nathan nata (1815–1882) was born in Nádas, Hungary, and from 1864 served as rabbi of Myjava. His Ḥiddushei She'elot u-Teshuvot Maharam Broda (1908) was published by his son-in-law Akiva Strasser. His son joseph, who succeeded him as chief rabbi of Myjava, perished at Auschwitz in the Holocaust.
bibliography:
S.J. Fuenn, Kiryah Ne'emanah (1860), 230; S.A. Freidenstein, Ir Gibborim (1880), 55–56; H.N. Maggid-Steinschneider, Ir Vilna (1900), 277, n. 12, 303; A. Frankl-Gruen, Geschichte der Juden in Ungarisch-Brod (1905), 47–48, 50ff.; J.J.(L.) Greenwald (Grunwald), Pe'erei Ḥakhmei Medinatenu (1910), 44 no. 59, 66 no. 9; idem, Ha-Yehudim be-Ungarya (1912), 76; P.Z. Schwartz, Shem ha-Gedolim me-Ereẓ Hagar (1913–15), see rabbis and their books; A.M. Broda, Mishpaḥat Broda (1938); N. Ben-Menahem, Mi-Sifrut Yisrael be-Ungaryah (1958), 109; Yahadut Lita, 3 (1967), 26, 65.
[Josef Horovitz]