(LITURGY).

A pocket prayer-book, unusually printed without Nekudot. R. David Grünhut (d. 1723), a native of Frankfurt a/Main, was celebrated as a Talmudist, grammarian and Kabbalist. At different times, he served as Rabbi of several German communities, including Wiesbaden, Heimerdingen. In 1682, he was embroiled in controversy with the Frankfurt rabbinate due to his intention to publish the Sepher ha-Gilgulim (Book of Reincarnations) by Rabbi Chaim Vital, the amanuensis of Rabbi Isaac Luria. After the debacle of pseudo-Messiah Shabbetai Tzvi, the German rabbis were opposed to the publication of kabbalistic works. Grünhut was eventually forced to resort to publishing Sepher ha-Gilgulim at a non-Jewish press (Frankfurt a/Main, 1784). His works include: Tov Ro'i on laws of shechitah or ritual slaughter (Frankfurt a/Main, 1702); and Bachur be-Tuv Ta'am on Hebrew grammar (Frankfurt a/Main, 1710). (It seems that the latter work was lost in a fire. See Vinograd, Frankfurt A.M. 250.) See M. Horovitz, Frankfurter Rabbinen (1972), pp. 92-93; N.Z. Friedmann, Otzar Harabanim 4746: JE, Vol. VI, p. 100; EJ, Vol. VII, cols. 946-947.