Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin (20 November 1816 in Mir, Russia – 10 August 1893 in Warsaw, Poland), also known as Reb Hirsch Leib Berlin, and commonly known by the acronym Netziv, was an Orthodox rabbi, Rosh yeshiva (dean) of the Volozhin Yeshiva and author of several works of rabbinic literature in Lithuania. Family Berlin was born in Mir, today in Belarus, in 1816 into a family of Jewish scholars renowned for its Talmudic scholarship. His father Jacob, while not a rabbi, was a Talmudic scholar descendant of a German rabbinic family; his mother was directly descended from Rabbi Meir Eisenstadt. According to some sources such as his nephew, Rabbi Baruch HaLevi Epstein (the author of the Torah Temima), Berlin initially was a weak student. Legend has it that he applied himself to his studies after overhearing his parents debating whether he should pursue a trade. His first wife was the daughter of Rabbi Yitzchok of Volozhin, the son of Rabbi Chaim Volozhin. His second wife was his niece, a daughter of Rabbi Yechiel Michel Epstein, the author of the Aruch haShulchan. A son from his first marriage, Chaim Berlin, became the rabbi of Moscow, a daughter married Rabbi Refael Shapiro, and his son from his second marriage was Rabbi Meir Berlin (later Bar-Ilan). Although there was a falling out between Rabbi Berlin and Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, they ended up making peace and Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik married Rabbi Berlin's granddaughter. The Volozhin Yeshiva Rabbi Eliezer Yitzchak Fried, the Rosh yeshiva of the Volozhin yeshiva (in what is presently Belarus) would ask his brother in law, the Netziv, to assist him in operating the yeshiva due to being forced to deal with pressures from the Russian Empire. After his brother in laws death, Berlin and Yosef Dov Soloveitchik were both considered for the position of Rosh yeshiva, managing the school together until a new leader was selected. Ultimately Berlin would be chosen as Rosh yeshiva, but he would later request, Soloveitchik's son, who had married Berlin's granddaughter, Chaim Soloveitchik to act as assistant Rosh yeshiva for the school. Rabbi Berlin led the Volozhin yeshiva, then the largest institution of its kind, from 1854 to its closure in 1892. Despite the destruction (twice) of the town and the yeshiva building in large fires, its enrollment increased steadily under his leadership, and the yeshiva would produce a number of prominent rabbinic figures who