LANDAU, ELEAZAR BEN ISRAEL

LANDAU, ELEAZAR BEN ISRAEL (1778–1831), rabbi, talmudic scholar, and author. Eleazar Landau, a grandson of Ezekiel *Landau of Prague, was educated in the home of his stepfather Moses Ḥasid of Ropshitz. He took up residence in Lemberg and then in Brody, where he first engaged in business. In 1829, however, he was appointed rabbi of Brody while Aryeh Leib *Teomim, the incumbent rabbi of the town, was still alive but sick and bedridden. Teomim was not told of the appointment so as not to aggravate his illness. Landau died before Teomim, however, during an outbreak of cholera in Brody.

He was the author of Yad ha-Melekh, novellae on the Mishneh Torah of Maimonides (parts 1, 2, and 4, Lemberg 1826; part 3 remained unpublished). His novellae on the Babylonian Talmud were published in the Vilna Talmud. Of his many unpublished manuscripts the following may be noted: Kunteres Kelalim, on the methodology of the Talmud, and Kedushah ve-Tohorah, on the orders Kodoshim and Tohorot. His responsa to Samuel Landau, the son of Ezekiel Landau, were published in the Noda bi-Yhudah Second Series, Even ha-Ezer, nos. 120–2; other responsa are found in the Mei Be'er (Vienna, 1829) of Beer Oppenheimer (45b–47a) and in the Zekher Yeshayahu (Vilna, 1881) of Zechariah Isaiah Jolles (nos. 17–18). Landau was also in halakhic correspondence with Moses *Sofer.

His grandson, eleazar ben judah landau (1842–1905), was the author of Zikhron Eleazar (Brody, 1906), novellae to the Mishnah and Jerusalem Talmud of the tractate Shekalim.

[Itzhak Alfassi]