Grünhut, David

German rabbi of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; born at Frankfort-on-the-Main, where his father was secretary of the congregation, and his maternal grandfather, Simon Günzburg, was a member of the rabbinate. In 1682 he edited Ḥayyim Vital's book on transmigration, "Gilgulim." This brought upon him the censure of the rabbinate, which was opposed to Shabbethai Ẓebi and, therefore, to the Cabala. He nevertheless reprinted this work in 1684. He also published "Ṭob Ro'i," rules on sheḥiṭah in the form of a catechism, together with "Migdal Dawid," homilies on the Pentateuch, and notes on some Talmudic treatises (Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1712), and a commentary on Abraham ibn Ezra's grammatical puzzle in the 1712 (Frankfort) edition of the "Sefer Ḥasidim," which commentary was reprinted in the 1713 (ib.) edition of Samuel Uceda's commentary on Abot entitled "Midrash Shemuel." He was rabbi in Aue, Hesse-Nassau, and perhaps also in Heimerdingen. He was on good terms with the anti-Jewish writers J. J. Schudt and Johann A. Eisenmenger, and wrote a preface to the latter's edition of the Bible.

Bibliography:

  * Horowitz, Frankfurter Rabbiner, ii. 54 et seq.;
  * Maggid, Zur Gesch. und Genealogie der Günzburge, p. 15 and Index, St. Petersburg, 1899.



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