אברהם בן גדליה טיקטין

Rav Avraham Tiktin (30 Kislev 5525/1764–22 Tevet 5581/1820) served as chief rav of Breslau, the city known today as Wroclaw, and stood among the leading rabbanim of German Ashkenaz in his generation. He was a son of Rav Gedaliah Tiktin, rav of Poznan and afterward of the nearby town of Swarzedz, and of his wife Freidel. Orphaned at nine, in 5534/1774, he was taken into the home of his brother-in-law Rav Yitzchak Mordechai of Greiditz and learned with him. He later came to Leszno, where he learned under Rav Akiva Eiger, Rav Yaakov Lorberbaum of Lissa and Rav Chaim Auerbach, and there he married Esther, a daughter of Aharon Kutner.

He first held his father’s kehillah in Swarzedz, and afterward those of Leczyca and of Glogau, where he served thirteen years. In 5576/1816 he was named regional chief rabbi — Oberlandrabbiner — of Breslau by Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, and he carried the post until he was niftar four years later. Rav Akiva Eiger, his colleague, wrote of him that his own opinion was as nothing before the mind of this gaon. At his levayah, hespedim were said by Rav Yaakov Lorberbaum, Rav Salomon Plessner and Rav Moshe Kronik.

He authored twenty-seven sefarim, of which only one appeared in his lifetime: Petach HaBayit on Shulchan Aruch, which was published by his son Rav Moshe. The rest came out over the next century. Pinot HaBayit, his responsa, and further volumes of Petach HaBayit on Pesachim and on the festivals, one of them carrying in its introduction a list of everything he had written. His eldest son, Rav Shlomo Zalman Tiktin, followed him in the rabbanut of Breslau; among his talmidim were Rav Salomon Plessner and Rav Baruch Bendit Glikman.