Part 2

I hope you found Part 1 as fascinating as I did upon first reading.

I had been thinking of adding a few pictures of the yeshivas from some of the cities mentioned in the article or maybe a picture of Rabbi Hanover. But then I realized photography was only invented in the middle of the 19th century. Therefore, any photo I could find would be far removed from reality. So, no photos.

This quote from Rabbi Hanover first appeared in Yeven Mezulah, published in Venice in 1653, and reissued in Jerusalem in 1965. The translation, with minor modifications, is taken from Abraham J. Mesch’s “Abyss of Despair,” published in New York in 1950.

I think back to my school years in Frankfurt from 1936 to 1941, at the Israelitische Volkschule and the Samson Raphael Hirsch Realschule, and I can find no similarity whatsoever between the experiences of the Polish students and my own recollection. Yes, we had some very strict teachers, who would not hesitate to punish you, but nothing like what is described here. But, that was the 17th century, and my recollections are from the 20th century. Times have changed, people have changed—both teachers and students—and cultures were different then.

(Continued from last week)

“They were all silent, as the head of the yeshiva delivered his lecture and presented the new results of his study. After discussing his new interpretations, the head of the yeshiva would discuss a hitittk (a distinction that explains away an apparent contradiction), which proceeded in the following manner: He would cite a contradiction that emerged from the Gemara, Rashi or Tosafot; he would question deletions or superfluous words and pose contradictory statements and provide solutions which would also prove perplexing; and then he would propose solutions until the halakhah was completely clarified.

“In the summer they would not leave the yeshiva before noon. From the Feast of Weeks until the New Year, and from Hanukkah until Passover, the head of the yeshiva would not engage in so many discussions. He would study with the scholars the Codes such as the Arbdah Turim (the Four Rows) and their commentaries. With young men he would study Rav Alfas and other works. In any case, they also studied Gemara, Rashi, and Tosafot, until the first day of Ab or the fifteenth day of Shevat. From then on until Passover or the New Year they studied the Codes and similar works only. Some weeks prior to the fifteenth day of Ab or the fifteenth day of Shevat, the head of the yeshiva would honor each student to lead in the discussions in his stead. The honor was given both to the scholars and the students. They would present the discussion, and the head of the yeshiva would listen and then join in the disputation. This was done to exercise their intellect. The same tractate was studied throughout the land of Poland in the proper sequence of the Six Orders.

“Each head of a yeshiva had a truant officer who daily went from primary school to primary school to look after the boys, both rich and poor, that they should study. He would warn them every day of the week that they should study and not loiter in the streets. On Thursdays all the boys had to be examined by the principal of the primary schools on what they had learned during the week, and he who knew nothing of what he had studied or erred in one thing was flogged by the truant officer at the command of the principal and was otherwise also chastised before the boys so that he should remember to study more diligently the following week. Likewise, on Sabbath Eve all the boys went in a group to the head of the yeshiva to be questioned on what they had learned during the week, as in the aforementioned procedure. In this manner there was fear upon the boys and they studied with regularity.”

(To be continued next week)

By Norbert Strauss

Norbert Strauss is a Teaneck resident and Englewood Hospital volunteer. He frequently speaks to groups to relay his family’s escape from Nazi Germany in 1941.