ḤARIF

ḤARIF, family, many of whose members were rabbis in Poland from the 16th to the 19th centuries. Some regard the family as descended from shalom shakhna b. joseph of Lublin. They included MOSES HA-ZAKEN ("the elder") BEN ISRAEL (16th–17th centuries) – the first to be given the epithet ḥarif ("sharp-witted") – who served as rabbi of Kremienec, Lvov, and Uleynov. He was the author of Seder Gittin (still in mss.) which was in the possession of Ephraim Zalman Margolioth. ISRAEL, his son, headed a yeshivah in Lvov and was av betdin of Uleynov. MOSES PHINEHAS (1625–1702), son of Israel, was chief rabbi of Lvov, and presided over the Council of Four Lands in 1685. He was an opponent of the Shabbateans, and added supplements to his grandfather's Seder Gittin. ISRAEL, second son of Israel b. Moses, was born on the day his father died, and was given his name. He was av bet din of Alik. Of the sons of Moses Phinehas, ẒEVI HIRSCH (d. 1737. was the av bet din of Jaworow, and Jacob was av bet din of Leszniow and the province of Podolia. One son of Jacob, JUDAH LEIB, was av bet din of Korow, and another, SAUL (first half of 18th century), av bet din of Olesko, and later of Brody where he founded a bet midrash called after him. MOSES ḤAYYIM BEN ELEAZAR (1690–1760), grandson of Moses Phinehas, was rabbi of Komarno, Zloczow (1719), and Lvov (1724). After a violent controversy between him and jacob joshua falk concerning the rabbinate of Lvov, which arose out of an allegation by a proselyte that Moses Ḥayyim had influenced him to become a Jew, he was compelled to flee to Khotin, which   was under Turkish rule, and he died there. JACOB ISAAC (?1710–1771), son of Moses Ḥayyim, changed his name to Hochgelerter, and in 1740 was appointed rabbi of Zamosc. His son JOSEPH (1740–1807) was rabbi of Jampol and Zamosc. His halakhic glosses, Ḥiddushei Mahari, were published in the Zera Aharon (Zolkiew, 1757). Mishnat Ḥakhamim (Lvov, 1792), the first part of his commentary to Maimonides' Mishneh Torah, was also published. His sons were ḤAYYIM BEN JOSEPH (1770–1809), rabbi of Ostrowiec, Hrubieszow, and Grabowiec, author of halakhic novellae entitled Ḥut ha-Meshullash, appended to his father's Mishnat Ḥakhamim, and ISAAC BEN JOSEPH (1771–1825), rabbi of Tarnograd, Chelm, and Zamosc, author of Zikhron Yiẓḥak (c. 1822), consisting of responsa and homilies. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: G. Sochestow, Maẓẓevat Kodesh, 4 (1869), 73b–74b; Ḥ.N. Dembitzer, Kelilat Yofi, 1 (1888), 86a–88a; S. Buber, Anshei Shem (1895), 130, 158–62, 195f.; J. Cohen-Ẓedek, Shem u-She'erit (1895), 58f.; idem, in: Ha-Goren, 1 (1898), 28–31; Ẓ.(H.) Horowitz, in: Ha-Ivri, 11 no. 13 (1921), 8–10; 11 no.14 (1921), 8f.; idem, Kitvei ha-Ge'onim (1928), 28–30, 59–61; idem, Toledot Mishpaḥat Horowitz (n.d.), 21 n.41; idem, in: MGWJ, 72 (1928), 494ff.; M. Bersohn, Słownik biograficzny uczonych żydów polskich XVI, XVII, i XVIII wieku (1905), 68f. (Yehoshua Horowitz)