Rabbi Shlomo Ganzfried

This is the first full-length study of the author of the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, one of the most widely distributed books of religious interest ever published. Drawn from all four sections of Rabbi Yosef Caro's Shulchan Aruch, the bedrock compilation of religious law, the Kitzur set forth the 'laws required to be known by every Jew, written in simple language and appropriately arranged,' as he stated in a notice announcing its publication. While achieving these objectives, he presented the material in a format that was brief and to-the-point. The Kitzur was an immediate and extraordinary success. In the two decades before his death, more than twenty editions appeared, a number issued without his authorization. In the century since, it has been reprinted more than any other Jewish work, with the exception of the Talmud, siddur, and the Passover hagaddah.