Betzalel Ronsburg

Betzalel ben Yoel Ronsburg (1760–1820) was a Talmudist and rabbinic judge in Prague. His surname derives from Ronsperg (Poběžovice), the Bohemian town of his birth. He studied under Leib Fischels and Yechezkel Landau, and later served in Prague as a dayan and headed a yeshiva there; Zacharias Frankel was among his students. His work centered on close analysis of the Talmud. He published Horeh Gaver (Prague, 1802), a commentary on tractate Horayot, and his Talmudic glosses, gathered as Ma'aseh Rav, appeared in 1823 and were carried into several later printings of the Talmud. His notes on the halakhic rulings of Asher ben Yechiel were printed under the title Sdei Tzofim. He upheld traditional observance as movements for religious reform were beginning to take shape.