Kittsee, Ḥayyim ben Isaac
KITTSEE, ḤAYYIM BEN ISAAC
KITTSEE, ḤAYYIM BEN ISAAC (c. 1772–1850), Hungarian rabbi whose family name was originally Schlesinger. He was born in Alt-Ofen (Óbuda) where his father, his main teacher, was head of the bet din. He also studied under Moses *Mintz, the local rabbi. He served as a dayyan in Veszprém, and from about 1824 as rabbi of Albertirsa, near Budapest. He vigorously opposed the religious reforms which were advocated in his time. He took part in the rabbinical conference at Paks (see *Hungary) in 1844 and was among the signatories to the protest against the Brunswick Conference held in that year. Kittsee was regarded as one of the greatest contemporary Hungarian talmudists and left 60 works in manuscript on all branches of talmudic lore. Of these, Oẓar Ḥayyim (pt. 1, 1913; pt. 2, 1962), responsa on Shulḥan Arukh, Oraḥ Ḥayyim and Yoreh De'ah, and talmudic novellae and expositions have been published.
bibliography:
N. Ben-Menahem, Mi-Sifrut Yisrael be-Ungaryah (1958), 195f.; Schwartz, in: Ḥ. Kittsee, Oẓar Ḥayyim, 1 (1913), introd.; 2 (1962), introd.; Ha-Ohel, 2 (1956), 48.
[Nathaniel Katzburg]