MATTERSDORF, JEREMIAH BEN ISAAC

MATTERSDORF, JEREMIAH BEN ISAAC (d. 1805), Hungarian rabbi and author. Born in Oswiecim, Galicia, Mattersdorf originally had the family name of Rosenbaum, but took the name Mattersdorf after serving as rabbi of the community of that name in Burgenland. He was appointed rabbi of Mattersdorf (now Mattersburg) around 1770 and stayed there until about 1801, when he went to Abaujszanto, remaining there until his death. Mattersdorf was renowned for his extensive knowledge of halakhah. His spiritual authority extended beyond the borders of Hungary. In 1791 he gave his approbation to the edition of the Talmud published by Joseph Hraschanszky, who called him one of the most distinguished rabbis of the generation. In Mattersdorf he headed a yeshivah which had among its students Aaron *Chorin, the pioneer of religious reform in Hungary. Among Mattersdorf's works is a commentary to Ḥayyim Shabbetai's Moda'a ve-Ones (Lemberg, 1798) under the title Moda'ah Rabbah, published along with his son Joab Mattersdorf's commentary Moda'ah Zuta. He gave approbations to a number of works, and is mentioned in the responsa of Moses *Sofer. L. Loew states that he wrote the comments on the Sha'arei Shibbolet of Isaac b. Reuben, but this work has been attributed to other authors.

bibliography:

L. Loew, Gesammelte Schriften, 2 (1890), 257; M. Pollák, in: imit, (1900), 164–6; J.J.(L.) Greenwald (Grunwald), Ha-Yehudim be-Hungaryah (1913), 53f.; P.Z. Schwartz, Shem ha-Gedolim me-Ereẓ Hagar, 1 (1913), 51b no. 243.

[Yehouda Marton]