He was born in 1881 in Klimavichy, Belarus, then in the Russian Empire, and studied at the Slutzker Yeshiva under Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer.

He received rabbinical ordination (semichah) from Meltzer, and he was also ordained by Rabbis Yaakov Dovid Wilovsky, Boruch Ber Leibowitz and Yechiel Michel Epstein.

[citation needed] He was opposed to the practice in yeshivas and synagogues of pausing in the middle of the Rosh Hashanah services for kiddush and refreshments before shofar-blowing.

[citation needed] In 1936, Henkin said that Rabbi Yehoshua Seigel's 1905 Manhattan eruv could no longer be relied on because he had only acquired permission for ten years.

Henkin's main argument why the eruv could no longer be relied on was because of the construction of bridges that crossed Manhattan’s waterfront.