Rabbi Naftoli Trop (April 1871 - September 24, 1928) was a renowned and Talmid Chacham. He served as rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim in Radun, Poland.
Early years
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
Telshe yeshiva, 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 Hebron 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 .
His second daughter, Feige, married Boruch Yosef Feivelson, who succeeded Trop as rosh yeshiva of Raduń, but died only four years after his appointment.
Works
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Chiddushei ha-Granat, a series of talmudic lectures, published in 1989.
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Trop's lectures on Nedarim were prepared by Binyomin Luban.
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Additional methodical editions of Trop's discourses were published by Moshe Drayen of Jerusalem in 1985.
