LANDAU, ISRAEL JONAH BEN JOSEPH HA-LEVI

LANDAU, ISRAEL JONAH BEN JOSEPH HA-LEVI (d. 1824), rabbi and author. Landau belonged to a well-known rabbinical family. In his youth he was av bet din of Lubomil and from 1786 served in Kempen, Posen region. Among his published works are Me'on ha-Berakhot (Dyhrenfurth, 1816), novellae on tractate Berakhot, which is the first part of his work Keneset Yisrael (the other parts remained unpublished); Shirat Yisrael (1897), expositions of the Bible, aggadot in the Talmud, and Midrashim; Ein ha-Bedolaḥ (1901), novellae to tractates of the Talmud (Pesaḥim, Megillah, Yoma, Sukkah, and Rosh ha-Shanah); and Aleh de-Yonah (1934), expositions of aggadot in the Jerusalem Talmud of Zevaḥim and Mo'ed. He was also a well-known kabbalist, and a request to him from Akiva Eger for an amulet for the sick of Posen has been preserved. His son joseph samuel (1800–1836) was appointed to succeed his father as rabbi of Kempen on the recommendation of Akiva Eger. Joseph Samuel was the author of Mishkan Shiloh, of which only one part, Kur ha-Beḥinah (Breslau, 1837), was published, comprising 25 responsa and seven sermons – the last in honor of Emperor Frederick William iii. In the introduction the author refers to many works of his still in manuscript. His Goren Atad (Warsaw, 1837), a memorial sermon on Jehiel Michael Ettinger, has also been published. He corresponded on halakhah with the leading rabbis of his time, including Akiva Eger, Ephraim Zalman Margulies, and Solomon Zalman Posner.

bibliography:

Fuenn, Keneset, 696; I.T. Eisenstein and S. Wiener, Da'at Kedoshim (1897–98), 127, 133; Z.J. Michelsohn, in: I.J. Landau, Shirat Yisrael (1897), 2–4; idem, in: Ein ha-Bedolaḥ (1901), introd.; Ḥ.D. Friedberg, Luḥot Zikkaron (1904), 11n.; idem, Benei Landau le-Mishpeḥotam (1905), 21f.; A. Heppner and J. Herzberg, Aus Vergangenheit und Gegenwart der Juden und der juedischen Gemeinden in den Posener Landen (1909), 518f.; S. Sofer (Schreiber), Iggerot Soferim (1929), pt. 1, 17f.

[Itzhak Alfassi]