ROSENBAUM, MOSES ḤAYYIM LITS

ROSENBAUM, MOSES ḤAYYIM LITS (1864–1943), Hungarian rabbi. Rosenbaum was born in Pressburg, and was ordained by Simḥah Bunim Sofer (see *Sofer family). He served as rabbi of two large communities, in Szilágysomlyó (Simleul Silvaniei), Transylvania, from 1888 to 1897, and from 1898 until his death in Kleinwardein. On the death of R. Koppel Reich in 1929, he was asked to represent Orthodox Jewry in the upper house of the Hungarian parliament but refused, preferring to devote himself to his large community. He was an excellent preacher in Yiddish, German and Hungarian.

He published Meshiv Devarim (2 parts, 1900–02), responsa on Oraḥ Ḥayyim and Yoreh De'ah by his father Gershon, rabbi of Tallya, adding his own notes. He was also the author of Leḥem Rav (1921), on the prayer book. The bulk of his writings, however, which fill 15 large volumes, remained in manuscript; among them is a diary, one chapter of which was published by N. Ben-Menahem in Aresheth, 1 (1958), that is of considerable interest. Although an extremist in religious matters, Rosenbaum did not ignore the *Haskalah literature, and sent a message of congratulation to Leopold *Zunz, founder of *Wissenschaft, on his 90^th birthday. Of his two sons, Samuel, who succeeded him in Kleinwardein, perished in the Holocaust in 1944, and his grandson, Pinḥas Rosenbaum, published his responsa Elleh Divrei Shemu'el (1961).

bibliography:

N. Ben-Menahem, in: Aresheth, 1 (1958), 486–8; idem, Be-Sha'arei Sefer (1967), 126–8.

[Naphtali Ben-Menahem]