הרב שלמה גאנצפריד

Rav Shlomo Ganzfried (5564/1804–28 Tammuz 5646/1886) was the author of the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, the halacha sefer that entered more Jewish homes than almost any other, and served most of his life as av beit din of his native Ungvar in Hungary (today Uzhhorod). He was named for his grandfather Rav Shlomo, who had been a dayan of the city.

The Kitzur gathers, in 221 simanim of plain and flowing Hebrew, the practical halachot every Jew needs — tefillah, Shabbat, the moadim, the conduct of daily life — drawn mainly from Orach Chaim and salted with divrei mussar and derech eretz. Where the poskim differed, he followed the majority among three pillars of Ashkenazic psak: the Shulchan Aruch HaRav of the Baal HaTanya, the Chayei Adam of Rav Avraham Danzig, and Rav Yaakov of Lissa, author of the Nesivot HaMishpat. First printed in 5624/1864, it went through fourteen editions in his lifetime with his own corrections, and dozens more since; it became the most widespread halacha sefer of Ashkenazic communities, was translated into many languages, and gathered additions over the generations — the halachot of Eretz Yisrael compiled by the Chazon Ish, and the notes of Rav Mordechai Eliyahu for Sephardim and Ashkenazim alike. A daily learning cycle, the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch yomi, completes the sefer each year.

His first sefer was Keset HaSofer (Inkstand of the Scribe) on the halachot of writing Stam, which the Chatam Sofer urged as required learning for every sofer. Beside it stand Torat Zevach on shechitah, Lechem VeSimlah on niddah and mikvaot, Oholei Shem on names in gittin, Pnei Shlomo, chiddushim on the Shas, and Apiryon on the Torah. He was niftar on 28 Tammuz 5646/1886 and was buried in Ungvar, where Jews come to daven at his kever to this day.