TIKTINSKI, ḤAYYIM JUDAH LÖB B. SAMUEL:

By: Executive Committee of the Editorial Board., A. Peiginsky

Lithuanian Talmudist; born in Mir Oct. 13, 1823; died in Warsaw March 30, 1899. He was the second son of Samuel Tiktinski, founder of the yeshibah in Mir, who died in 1835, leaving his eleven-year-old son without any material means. Despite his very unfavorable circumstances, young Tiktinski succeeded by diligent application in passing a rabbinical examination before he was twenty, at which age he officiated as substitute for Rabbi Elihu Shik in Deretschin when the latter went on a long journey. In 1850 he was invited by RabbiMoses Abraham ben David of Mir to deliver lectures before the local yeshibah. By his brilliant delivery and his rejection of the pilpul he attracted many scholars; and when, in 1867, Moses Abraham died, Tiktinski was entrusted with the entire control of the yeshibah. Among his many pupils were Meïr, rabbi of Draderkewin, and Mordecai Elihu, author of "Ner le-Ma'or."

In 1876 Tiktinski's son Samuel delivered some of the lectures at the yeshibah; and in 1883, when Samuel died, his younger brother, Abraham, took his place. When, in the summer of 1898, the yeshibah was destroyed by fire for the second time, Tiktinski, in spite of illness, procured the necessary funds to rebuild it. He left no works, his contributions to the explanation of the Talmud having been destroyed in the above-mentioned fire.

E. C. A. Pe.