Name Mordecai Ghirondi | Died 1852 | |
Mordecai Samuel ben Benzion Aryeh Ghirondi (born in Padua October 1799; died there January 4, 1852) was an Italian Jewish author and chief rabbi of Padua.
Ghirondi studied at the rabbinical college of Padua, in which he was appointed professor of theology (1824). In 1829 he was appointed assistant rabbi of Padua; two years later he became chief rabbi. He was a recognized authority in rabbinics, and was consulted by rabbis of several communities.
Ghirondi was an avid bibliophile, and parts of his book collection are now in the Montefiore Library in Jews' College in London and the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.
He wrote:
He had in his possession Graziadio Nepi's biographical work entitled Zeker Ẓaddiḳim; to this he added 831 numbers of his own, two-thirds of which are not found in any earlier biographical dictionary. The combined work was published by Ephraim Raphael Ghirondi, the author's son: Nepi's and Ghirondi's were printed on opposite pages (Trieste, 1853). The latter also wrote Ḳebuẓat Kesef, responsa, in two parts, and Liḳḳuṭe Shoshannim, novellæ, in two volumes (both unpublished). Letters of Ghirondi's on different subjects were published in Kerem Ḥemed (ii. 52; iii. 88 et seq.; iv. 13).