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History of the Jews in Russia and Poland, Volume I (of 3)

Chapter 9 The Instruction of the Young

Word Count: 2171    |    Released on: 06/12/2017

n the part of the Kahals and the rabbis as well as the conventions and Councils. Elementary and secondary education was centered in the heders, while hi

vate initiative, every melammed, or Jewish elementary teacher, being allowed to open a heder for boys and to receive compensation for his labors from their parents. Only the heders for poor children or for orphans, the so-called Talmud Torahs, were maintained by the community from public funds. Yet the supervision of the Kahal extended not only to the public, but also to the privat

rmission to open a yeshibah, or "gymnazium" (gymnazium ad instituendos homines illorum religionis), with a synagogue attached to it, bestowing upon its president, a learned rabbi, not only the title of "rector," but also extensive powers over the affairs of the community (1567). Four years later the same King granted an even larger license to "the

ge president in one person was limited to those communities in which the duties of the spiritual guide of the community were not complex, and admitted of the simultaneous discharge of pedagogic functions. In the large centers, however, where the public responsibilities were regularly divided, the rosh-yeshibah was an

Zaslav, in Volhynia, portrays in vivid colors the Jewish school life

was made to instruct at least two boys, for the purpose of deepening his own studies and gaining some experience in Talmudic discussions. The [poor] boys obtained their food either from the charity fund or from the public kitchen. A community of fifty Jewish families would support no less than thirty of these young men and boys, one family supplying board for one college student and his two pupils, the former sitting at the family table like one of the sons.... There was scarcely a house in the whole Kingdom of Poland where the T

ril until July] in the summer and from the first of the month of Heshvan until the fifteenth of Shebat [October-June] in the winter. Outside of these terms the young men and the boys were free to choose their own place of study. From the beginnin

lusion of the lecture he arranged a scientific argumentation (hilluk), proceeding in the following way: Various contradictions in the Talmud and the commentaries were pointed out, and solutions were proposed. These solutions were, in turn, shown to be contradictory, and other solutions were offered, this process being continued until the subject of discussion was completely elucidated. These exercises continued in summer at least until midday. From the middle of the two scholastic terms until their conclusion the rosh-yeshibah paid less

thing or who did not answer adequately was by order of the trustee turned over to the inspector, who subjected him, in the presence of his fellow-pupils, to severe physical punishment and other painful degradations, that he might firmly resolve to improve in his studies during the following week. On Fridays the heder pupils presented themselves in a body before the rosh-yeshibah himself, to undergo a similar examination. T

t is only fair that we should quote another contemporary, who severely

ll that we sharpen our minds by fallacies and sophistries, spending our time in vain and teaching the listeners to do likewise? And all this for the mere ambition of passing for a great scholar!... I myself have more than once argued with the Talmudic celebrities of our time, showing the need for abolishing the method of pilpul and hilluk, without being able to convince them. This attitude can only be explained by the eagerness of these scholars for honors and rosh-yeshibah posts. These empty quibbles have

ocated in a sacred place, near the synagogue, where the mere presence of a secular book was regarded as a profanation. Yet it occasionally happened that young men strayed away from the path of the Talmud, and secretly indulged in the study of secular sciences and of Aristotelian philosophy. This fact is attested by the great rabbinical authority of the sixteenth century, Rabbi Solomon Luria. "I myself"-he writes indignantly-"have seen the prayer of Aristotle copied in the prayer-books of the

the heder, where they studied the Hebrew language and the Bible, while many devoted themselves to the Talmud. A different attitude is observable towards female education. Girls remained outside the school, their instruction not being considered obligatory according to the Jewish law. No heders for girls are mentioned in any of the documents of the time. Nor did a single woman attain to literary f

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1 Chapter 1 The Kingdom of the Khazars2 Chapter 2 The Jews in the Early Russian Principalities and in the Tataric Khanate of the Crimea[15]3 Chapter 3 The Charter of Prince Boleslav and the Canons of the Church4 Chapter 4 and His Sons5 Chapter 5 No.56 Chapter 6 Liberalism and Reaction in the Reigns of Sigismund Augustus and Stephen Batory7 Chapter 7 and Vladislav IV.8 Chapter 8 Kahal Autonomy and the Jewish Diets9 Chapter 9 The Instruction of the Young10 Chapter 10 Water Mark of Rabbinic Learning11 Chapter 11 Economic and National Antagonism in the Ukraina12 Chapter 12 164913 Chapter 13 1658)14 Chapter 14 1697)15 Chapter 15 Social and Political Dissolution16 Chapter 16 A Frenzy of Blood Accusations17 Chapter 17 Government18 Chapter 18 Rabbinical and Mystical Literature19 Chapter 19 The Sabbatian Movement20 Chapter 20 The Frankist Sect21 Chapter 21 Shem-Tob22 Chapter 22 The Hasidic Propaganda and the Growth of Tzaddikism23 Chapter 23 Jewish Attitude of Muscovy during the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries24 Chapter 24 and His Successors25 Chapter 25 The Jews of Poland after the First Partition26 Chapter 26 1791)27 Chapter 27 The Last Two Partitions and Berek Yoselovich28 Chapter 28 (1772-1796)29 Chapter 29 No.2930 Chapter 30 31 Chapter 31 The Jewish Constitution of 180432 Chapter 32 The Projected Expulsion from the Villages33 Chapter 33 The Patriotic Attitude of Russian Jewry during the War of 181234 Chapter 34 Kahal Autonomy and City Government35 Chapter 35 The Hasidic Schism and the Intervention of the Government36 Chapter 36 The Deputation of the Jewish People 37 Chapter 37 Christianizing Endeavors38 Chapter 38 Judaizing Sects in Russia39 Chapter 39 Jewish Legislation40 Chapter 40 The Russian Revolutionaries and the Jews