Rabbi Yehuda Assad

Rabbi Yehuda Assad (1794-1866), known by the acronym Mahari"a, was a Hungarian halakhic authority born in the town of Aszod. He received his early training in the yeshiva of Mordecai Banet at Nikolsburg in Moravia. Over his career he held rabbinic posts in several Hungarian communities, and from 1853 he led the community and yeshiva of Dunaszerdahely (Szerdahely), which drew hundreds of students, remaining there until his death. He carried on an extended halakhic correspondence with Moses Sofer, the Chasam Sofer, and after the latter's passing was counted among the leading decisors of Hungarian Jewry. In 1864 he joined an Orthodox delegation to Emperor Franz Joseph in Vienna that opposed a planned state-sponsored rabbinical seminary. His teachings survive in the responsa collection Shu"t Yehuda Ya'aleh and in the novellae gathered as Chiddushei Mahari"a and Divrei Mahari"a.