Chaim Leib Tiktinsky

Chaim Yehudah Leib Tiktinsky (also spelled Tikutinsky) Therefore, Yosef David Eisenstadt, the town's rabbi, became the rosh yeshiva, and after his death in 1846, his son Moshe Avraham Eisenstadt, succeeded him. Chaim Leib Tiktinsky was installed as a co-rosh yeshiva.

Rabbinic career

Many felt that Tiktinsky, as the son of the yeshiva's founder, should lead as the sole rosh yeshiva. Twenty rabbis from Europe therefore gathered to listen to shiurim given by both Tiktinsky and Eisenstadt, and decide afterwards which one was more suited to serve as rosh yeshiva. Eisenstadt gave a complex shiur that left the rabbis impressed while Tiktinsky's was fairly simple, as he focused on the basic explanation of the Gemara and the commentaries of Rashi and Tosafot. After the presentations, it was decided that Tiktinsky's approach was better for the students, and he was appointed as rosh yeshiva. Rabbi Israel Salanter commented on this approach, saying that "anyone who wants to understand the daf (a folio of the Babylonian Talmud) properly should listen to Reb Chaim Leib teach it."

For fifty years, Tiktinsky led the yeshiva. Under his leadership, it became one of the largest yeshivas in Europe, second only to the Volozhin Yeshiva. During the years he served as rosh yeshiva, the yeshiva experienced several unprecedented challenges, as their building was engulfed twice by fires; many manuscripts of chiddushei Torah were destroyed as well in the blaze. Another challenge the yeshiva faced was from the Haskalah movement which tried attracting yeshiva students.

Death

Tiktinsky died on March 30, 1899, at the age of 75, in Warsaw. He was succeeded as rosh yeshiva by his son, Avraham Tiktinsky.