Shlomo Ganzfried

Shlomo Ganzfried (or Salomon ben Joseph Ganzfried, Hungarian: Ganzfried Salamon, Hebrew: רַבִּי שְׁלֹמֹה בֶּן יוֹסֵף גאנצפריד‎, Yiddish: רבּי שְׁלֹמה בֶּן יוֹסף גאַנצפֿריד‎; 1804, in Ungvár, Com.Ung, Royal Hungary – 30 July 1886, in Ungvár, Ung, Royal Hungary) was an Orthodox rabbi and posek best known as the author of the work of Halakha (Jewish law), the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (Hebrew: קיצור שולחן ערוך, "The Abbreviated Shulchan Aruch"), by which title he is also known.

Ganzfried was considered to be a child prodigy and Ungvár's chief rabbi and Rosh yeshiva, Rabbi Zvi Hirsh Heller assumed legal guardianship; Heller was known as "Hershele the Sharp-witted" for his piercing insights into the Talmud.

At that time Ungvár's spiritual head, Rabbi Meir Ash, was active in the Orthodox camp, in opposition to the Neologs.

Through serving with Ash, Ganzfried realised that in order to remain committed to Orthodoxy, "the average Jew required an underpinning of a knowledge of practical halakha (Jewish law)".

This work was explicitly written as a popular text, in simple Hebrew, and does not have the same level of detail as the Shulchan Aruch itself.