Pinkas HaPesakim [“Ledger of the Rabbinic Court of Ungvar.”]

(HUNGARY).

Ungvar (present-day Ukraine)

1850-1869

Manuscript in Hebrew, written on paper in a number of cursive Aschkenazic hands. Several additional leaves tipped in. The end of the ledger consists of an account of payments of members of the community as well as other financial records.

A ledger of the rabbinic court of Ungvar (Uzhorod), Hungary, consisting of detailed halachic rulings, as well as the processes of how settlements were reached between disputants. Among the leading judges recorded here are: R. Meir Eisenstadt (the Maharam Asch), his son R. Menachem Eisenstadt (who signs here ten times), R. Yisrael Freid, R. Shlomo Ganzfreid (who signs here nine times), R. Chaim Tzvi Manheimer and many others. All these important rabbinic leaders also played significant roles on a national level. Ungvar was home to an important Jewish community that served as a central address for dozens of smaller communities from the wider region. The town was celebrated for hosting an unusually high number of talented rabbinic minds. The present Pinkas displays this, and is overrun with fascinating historical material concerning Hungarian Jewry of the mid-19th century.