EGRA, MESHULLAM BEN SAMSON:
Austrian rabbi; born in Galicia 1733; died at Presburg Sept. 21, 1785. Egra's father was of Buczacz, Galicia, but Meshullam Egra was at Brody as a boy of nine. At about that age he delivered a casuistic homily in the large synagogue of Brody, and had a discussion with its rabbi, Isaac Hurwitz, whose son-in-law he became. He was a contemporary of Sender Margoliouth, with whom he discussed ritual laws, and the master of Jacob Lissa, author of "Derek ha-Ḥayyim." Egra was at first rabbi of Tusmenetz, becoming rabbi of Presburg in 1775. He wrote "She'elot u-Teshubot RaMA" (the last word of the title being an abbreviation of "R. Meshullam Egra"), responsa, Czernowitz, 1862; and an unpublished work on Maimonides.
Bibliography:
- Walden, Shem ha-Gedolim he-Ḥadash, i. 105.
