Zechariah Mendel ben Aryeh Leib
ZECHARIAH MENDEL BEN ARYEH LEIB
ZECHARIAH MENDEL BEN ARYEH LEIB (d. after 1707), rabbi and author. He was born in Cracow, where his father was rabbi of the community. On his father's death in 1671 Samuel *Koidonover was appointed to succeed him, while Zechariah Mendel was appointed rabbi of the main synagogue. Some time after 1674 he was appointed rabbi of Tvrobin and from 1691 to 1700, he was rabbi of Belz. Zechariah was an active member of the *Council of Four Lands; his signature appears on takkanot of the council issued during the years 1688–1700.
He was the author of Ba'er Heitev on the Shul?an Arukh, Yoreh De'ah (in Sh. Ar., Amsterdam, 1754) and ?oshen Mishpat (in Sh. Ar., ibid., 1762), a digest of the halakhic comments on the Shulhan Arukh, similar to the commentaries of the same name by Judah b. Simeon *Ashkenazi or Tiktin on Ora? ?ayyim, Yoreh De'ah, and Even ha-Ezer, by Isaiah b. Abraham on Ora? ?ayyim, and by Moses b. Simeon *Frankfurter on ?oshen Mishpat. Later editions of the Shul?an Arukh generally contain Zechariah Mendel's Ba'er Heitev to Yoreh De'ah and ?oshen Mishpat and that of Ashkenazi to Ora? ?ayyim and Even ha-Ezer. Zechariah's son joseph was av bet din in Bychawa, Jaslo, and Lublin.
bibliography:
?.N. Dembitzer, Kelilat Yofi, 1 (1888), 79b; S. Horowitz, Kitvei ha-Ge'onim (1928), 58f.; Ch. Tchernowitz, Toledot ha-Posekim, 3 (1947), 306ff.; Halpern, Pinkas, 210, 213f., 220, 251, 254.
[Abraham David]