MOSES ZE'EV (Wolf) BEN ELIEZER OF GRODNO

MOSES ZE'EV (Wolf) BEN ELIEZER OF GRODNO (d. 1830), Lithuanian rabbi. Moses was born and grew up in Grodno. He was appointed rosh yeshivah there but left in 1813 to become the av bet din in Tiktin, where he stayed until 1824. He was then appointed av bet din in Bialystok, remaining there until his death. When Moses was first given this appointment, the people in Bialystok were concerned that he was so young, but he wittily replied that this was a fault which would improve with age. His best-known work, Marot ha-Ẓove'ot (Grodno, 1810) on the laws concerning agunah, is based upon the relevant chapter (17) of Shulḥan Arukh Even ha-Ezer. He also wrote Ḥiddushei Moharmaz (1858), on the commentary of R. Jonathan b. David Ha-Cohen of Lunel to Alfasi on tractate Eruvin, and three works all with the same title, Aguddat Ezov: (1) a collection of sermons (Bialystok, 1824) concluding with Alon Bakhut, nine funeral orations on great rabbis; (2) responsa (2 vols.; 1885–86); (3) novellae on the Shulḥan Arukh (1904). On the title page of the Marot ha-Ẓove'ot he gives his family tree in detail back to judah loew b. bezalel of Prague, stating where each of his forebears served as rabbi. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Fuenn, Keneset, 301f. (Anthony Lincoln Lavine)