טTelz Family ArchiveFamilies, schools and yeshivas

Family collection

Walkin Family

Rav Aharon Walkin, the Beis Aharon of Pinsk, his marriage into the Sorotzkin family - and the Walkin shechita kabbalah that reached Bridgeport, Connecticut.

What is established

Rav Aharon Walkin (1865-1942), born in Shumyatz to R’ Yaakov Zvi and Chaya Leah, learned in Volozhin and served the Netziv personally. He became rav of Pinsk and is known by his sefer, the Beis Aharon. In 1883 (תרמג) he married Rochel, daughter of Rav Bentzion Sorotzkin of Zakharina - a marriage documented independently in Rav Zalman Sorotzkin’s own hakdama to Maaznim Lemishpat and in Yeshurun vol. 11.

Their sons: Rav Chaim Walkin of Volozhin; Rav Yitzchak Elchanan Walkin of Antopol, murdered in the Shoah; and Rav Shmuel Dovid Walkin, the Lukatcher Rav, who survived via Shanghai and stayed close to the Cleveland family and to “his uncle Rav Zalman” - the word that independently confirms Rochel’s place in the Sorotzkin family. Rav Shmuel Dovid’s son was mashgiach at Ateres Yisrael in Jerusalem.

The line touches the Greenberg family directly: Chaim Dov Greenberg earned his shechita kabbalah from “Rav Walkin from Pinsk,” and the kabbalah documents survive on the Beis Aharon’s letterhead.

In preparation

More Walkin content to come

The full Walkin line - the Beis Aharon’s family, his yeshiva and his sons - gets its own researched write-up here as the material lands. The family’s instruction: the Walkins get the same treatment as the other lines.

From the archive

Pictures

Walkin material in the archive so far. See also the Greenberg and Sharin pages.

Shechita kabbalah from Rav Walkin of Pinsk

Shechita kabbalah from Rav Walkin of Pinsk

Chaim Dov Greenberg’s kabbalah documents, on the Beis Aharon’s letterhead - the Walkin connection in the Greenberg archive.