Rav Yechezkel Sarna, born in Horodok, near Minsk (1891-1969). At the age of 11, he went to Slobodka, near Kovno. In 1903, he started learning at Yeshivas Knesses Yisrael, under the rosh yeshiva, Rav Chaim Rabinowitz. A year later, Rav Yechezkel went with Rav Rabinowitz to Telze, only to return in 1907, now under Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel, the Alter of Slobodka. At that time, Slobodka's beis midrash was filled with some of the great Torah scholars of Lithuania, including Rav Aharon Kotler, Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky, and Rav Eliezer Man Shach. In 1924, the Lithuanian government had decided to revoke the right of yeshiva students to an exemption from army service. After consulting with the Alter, it was decided that part of the yeshiva should be transferred to Eretz Yisrael. It was decided to transfer the yeshiva to Chevron. In 1926, a new mashpia ruchani was appointed: Rav Leib Chasman. After the petirah of the Alter in the winter of 1917, Rav Yechezkel gained recognition as the mussar leader in the citadel of the Alter, along with Rav Leib Chasman.
In Av of 1929, blood baths inundated the country; one of the worst hit was the Jewish settlement in Hevron. During the infamous savage massacre by Hevron's Arabs, twenty-four of the yeshiva's students lost their lives. He himself had gone to Yerushalayim on the Thursday prior to the Shabbos of the massacre, but due to the tense situation he was unable to return to Hevron in time for Shabbos. Rebuilding slowly in Yerushalayim, by Rosh Hashanah the yeshiva had already assumed once more the form of a yeshiva in the
