מנחם מנדל אוירבך

Rav Menachem Mendel Auerbach (5380/1620–20 Tammuz 5449/1689) was a rav and posek whose Ateret Zekeinim on Orach Chayim has stood printed in the margins of the Shulchan Aruch for three centuries. Born in Vienna to the distinguished Auerbach-Fischhof family, he learned in Krakow under the Bach, Rav Yoel Sirkes, and under Rav Yehoshua Heshel of Krakow, the Maginei Shlomo, and also received from Rav Menachem Mendel Krochmal of Nikolsburg, the Tzemach Tzedek of that generation.

For years he joined Torah with commerce, engaged in banking with his brother in Krakow and Vienna — until the expulsion of the Jews of Vienna by the emperor in 5430/1670 uprooted him with his community. He served as rav of Rausnitz in Moravia, and from 5433/1673 as rav of Krotoszyn and parnas of the district of Posen, a double crown he carried for sixteen years until his passing. In Krotoszyn he established a yeshiva whose name went out through all Poland, and to which he gave his strength.

His Ateret Zekeinim gathers dinim and hagahot from the rishonim and acharonim onto the Shulchan Aruch; the printed work — the Orach Chayim portion — is but a portion of what he wrote, and his commentary on Choshen Mishpat, Akeret HaBayit, remained in manuscript. He was niftar in Krotoszyn on 20 Tammuz 5449.