HOROWITZ, ẓEVI HIRSCH BEN PHINEHAS HAL-EVI

HOROWITZ, ẓEVI HIRSCH BEN PHINEHAS HAL-EVI (d. 1817), German rabbi and author. Horowitz was born in Poland and was called to Frankfurt by his father Phinehas ha-Levi *Horowitz to help him in the conduct of his yeshivah. On the death of his father in 1805 he succeeded him as rabbi of Frankfurt, serving there until his own death. Among his works are Maḥhaneh Levi (Offenbach, 1801), consisting of halakhic novellae on various tractates, published together with the Sefer ha-Makneh of his father – at the end of the book there are novellae by his brother, Meir Jacob; Laḥmei Todah (part 2 of Maḥaneh Levi, 1816), containing halakhic and aggadic novellae to the Talmud as well as the sermons he preached between 1806 and 1815 on Shabbat Shuvah and Shabbat ha-Gadol (the Sabbaths before the Day of Atonement and before Passover). In these sermons contemporary problems are reflected. His censure and criticism touch upon the life of the Jews of Frankfurt which, though once a "paragon of beauty, a Jewish metropolis, full of scholars and scribes," has faded and declined. The young people have grown accustomed to desecrating the Sabbath publicly (19c–d), the community makes light of the prohibition against drinking wine and milk of gentiles (35d), fixed times for study are neglected (11d), and theaters and concerts are frequented (ibid.) Two sermons (149aff. and 159b) deal with the peace treaty of 1815. In the introduction to this book, Horowitz mentions his other works which have remained in manuscript. His Ḥomer ba-Kodesh, written between 1810 and 1815, was published in 1876. Horowitz prepared for publication his father's Panim Yafot (Ostrog, 1824). Some novellae by him are found at the end of his father's Hafla'ah (Offenbach, 1787) and in the Likkutei Ẓevi (Zolkiew, 1862) of Ẓevi Hirsch ha-Levi Horowitz.

bibliography:

Phinehas Horowitz, Panim Yafot, 1 (1824), introd. by E.Z. Margaliot; M. Horovitz, Avnei Zikkaron (1901), 582 no. 4847; I.T. Eisenstadt and S. Wiener, Da'at Kedoshim (1897–98), 71–72 (first pagination); Ḥ.D. Friedberg, Toledot Mishpaḥat Horowitz (1928), 16–18; M. Eliav, Ha-Ḥinnukh ha-Yehudi be-Germanyah (1960), 149–50.

[Yehoshua Horowitz]