Rabbi Naftoli Trop (1871 – September 24, 1928) was a renowned Talmudist and Talmid Chacham. He served as "rosh yeshiva" of Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim in Radun, Poland.
Early years.
Naftoli Trop was born on April 4, 1871 in Grodno, to Rasha and Rabbi Moshe Trop. In his youth he studied with his father, who was "rosh yeshiva" of a local yeshiva, and at 14, he left to learn in Kelm, where his study partner for ten years was Yerucham Levovitz, who went on to become "mashgiach" of the Mir yeshiva. Rabbi Trop proceeded to briefly study in Slabodka and Telz, where he became close to Eliezer Gordon. He learned for a short time in the Novardok yeshiva in Slonim, where he formed a close relationship with Yosef Yozel Horwitz (known as "the "Alter" of Novardok"). In 1889, when Yaakov Yitzchak (Itzele) Rabinowitz was appointed "rosh yeshiva" at Slabodka, Trop returned to Slabodka to study under Rabinowitz.
At the age of twenty-one, Trop became engaged to the daughter of Nosson Tzvi Finkel. However, she died a few months before the wedding. In 1895, Trop married Pesya Leah, the daughter of Eliezer Yaakov Chavas of Yanishok. Shortly after the wedding, he returned to Kelm where he joined a large group of young married scholars. He was greatly influenced by the mussar movement approach he chiefly absorbed in Kelm, but also in Slobodka and by means of his contact with Horowitz in Slonim. After four years of studying in Kelm, Trop was appointed "rosh yeshiva" of the "Or HaChaim" yeshiva in Slabodka, by its founder, Tzvi (Hirshel) Levitan.
Raduń.
In 1903, by invitation of Yisrael Meir Kagan, Trop replaced Rabbi Moshe Landinski as "rosh yeshiva" in Raduń, where he remained for the rest of his life. Among his students in Radin were Dovid Leibowitz, Yechezkel Sarna, Yitzchok Zev Soloveitchik and Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman. Kahaneman studied for over five years in Raduń under Trop.
Family.
Trop's wife, Pesya Leah, contracted typhus and died in 1920. His oldest son, Avraham, also served as "rosh yeshiva" in Raduń until the outbreak of World War II. He immigrated to the United States, where he became later "rosh yeshiva" of the Yeshiva of Karlin-Stolin. He settled in Israel a year before he died in 1978.
Trop's second son, Reuven, immigrated to Israel with the group of Slabodka students who founded the "Knesses Yisroel" yeshiva in Chevron and later headed the "yishuv" yeshiva. Trop's oldest daughter, Toiba, married Rabbi Yehoshua Eizek Kaminetsky, also known as "Eizekel Kobriner", a student of Raduń. He and his family were murdered by the Nazis.
His second daughter, Feige, married Boruch Yosef Feivelson, who succeeded Trop as "rosh yeshiva" of Raduń, but died only four years after his appointment.
References.
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