הרב נפתלי טראפ

Rav Naftali Tzvi Tropp (13 Nisan 5631/1871–3 Tishrei 5689/1928), known through the yeshiva world by his acronym as the Granat, was rosh yeshiva of Radin — the yeshiva of the Chofetz Chaim — and one of the builders of the analytic derech halimud on which yeshiva learning stands to this day. Born in Grodno to Rav Moshe Shmuel, he learned first from his father, and at fifteen was sent to Kelm, to the yeshiva of the Alter of Kelm, Rav Simcha Zissel Ziv. From there his path led to Telz, under Rav Eliezer Gordon, and on to Slabodka, where he learned from the Alter of Slabodka, Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel, and from Rav Itzele Rabinowitz of Ponovezh.

At about twenty-two he became engaged to the daughter of the Alter of Slabodka, but she fell ill and passed away months before the wedding. He later married Pesha Leah, daughter of Rav Eliezer Yaakov Chavas, and returned to Kelm, where he joined the chaburah of married scholars, toiled in Torah and avodat hamussar, and learned b’chavruta with Rav Yerucham Levovitz, the future mashgiach of Mir. After some four years he was appointed rosh yeshiva of the Ohr HaChaim yeshiva in Slabodka, and in 5664/1904, at thirty-three, came the call that shaped the rest of his life: the Chofetz Chaim invited him to head the yeshiva of Radin. There he stood until his petirah, and there he said the shiurim that carried his name across the Torah world. Among his talmidim in Radin were Rav Dovid Leibowitz, Rav Yechezkel Sarna, Rav Yitzchok Zev Soloveitchik, and Rav Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, the Ponovezher Rav, who learned under him for more than five years.

His derech sought to understand each sugya from within itself, a path running parallel to that of Rav Chaim of Brisk. For all his gifts he labored over every chiddush, checking it again and again until it stood exact; often, seized by fierce headaches from the strain of iyun, he would bind a wet cloth around his head and learn on. On leil Shabbat he would speak on Chumash and aggadah, where too he was full of chiddushim; and as a true son of the mussar yeshivot he stood out in midot tovot, deeds of chesed, yirat Shamayim and tefillah said with fire.

In the First World War he wandered with the exiled yeshiva to Snovsk, where he was wounded by shell fragments; the yeshiva returned to Radin in 5685/1925. His rebbetzin was niftera of typhus in 5680/1920, and his own health broke. He was niftar on 3 Tishrei 5689 and was buried in Radin. His shiurim on Nashim and Nezikin were printed as Chiddushei HaGranat, one of the foundation sefarim of the yeshiva world, and his son Rav Avraham Chaim Tropp headed the Radin yeshiva after him until the Second World War.