אליעזר דוד גרינוואלד

Rabbi Eliezer David Greenwald (14 Shevat 5627/1867 – 1 Sivan 5688/1928) served as rav and rosh yeshivah in Bardejov, Tzehlim, Oberwischau and Satmar in Transylvania, and is known by the name of his sefer Keren L’David. His birthplace was Csorna in Hungary; his father was Rabbi Amram Greenwald, whose father Rabbi Yosef Greenwald was av beit din of Tchechowitz. As a young man he learned under his brother Rabbi Moshe Greenwald, author of Arugat HaBosem, and was counted his foremost talmid, and he learned for a short time under Rabbi Shmuel Ehrenfeld, author of the Chatan Sofer.

In 5649/1889 he took as his wife a daughter of Yaakov Rapaport of Bardejov and settled there some five years, founding a yeshivah and standing at its head. He afterwards served as dayan and moreh tzedek in Szerdahely, heading a yeshivah of about a hundred and thirty talmidim. At the beginning of 5667 the community of Tzehlim chose him as its rav, and there too he led a large yeshivah, and in 5672/1912 he moved to the rabbanut of Oberwischau, at the head of a yeshivah of some hundreds of talmidim.

In 5681/1921 he was chosen rav of the community of Satmar, and alongside the rabbanut headed the local yeshivah, which with four hundred talmidim was the largest in Transylvania and in which he saw the heart of his work; it ran in the spirit of chassidut. He raised many talmidim, among them rabbanim and well-known talmidei chachamim in Transylvania and Hungary. His writings are the teshuvot Keren L’David on Orach Chaim, holding a hundred and seventy-two teshuvot, printed at Satmar in 5689; Keren L’David, chiddushei aggadah on the Torah in two parts; a further volume of chiddushei aggadah and derashot for the moadim; and a Haggadah shel Pesach with his commentary Chasdei David. His adopted daughter married his brother’s grandson Rabbi Yosef Greenwald, his foremost talmid, who worked on the printing of his sefarim.

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