Markets and Meetings

Once bein hazmanim came into vogue, a date was needed for the official end of the zeman as well. The earliest sources suggest that in German yeshivos of late Ashkenaz, as well as in Italy, the winter zeman concluded on Rosh Chodesh Nissan, while the summer zeman ended right before Rosh Hashanah.

The 16th–17th centuries were the golden age of the old Polish yeshivos in Krakow, Lublin, and several other cities. As this was also the golden age of Polish Jewry in general, most roshei yeshivah participated in the biannual meetings of the Vaad Arbah Aratzos (the Council of the Four Lands, the autonomous governing body of the Jewish community of the Polish Kingdom during this era), during the trade fairs in Yaroslav and Lublin. Many of their students accompanied them to these market season meetings, and as a result the dates of bein hazmanim began to spread.

The chief rabbi of Nikolsburg, Rav Menachem Mendel Krochmal, author of Tzemach Tzedek, maintained this schedule in his yeshivah due to his own attendance at the biannual rabbinical meeting. The commentary of the Maharsha, Rav Shmuel Eidels, on the seventh perek of Maseches Shabbos, concludes with his statement regarding his yeshivah in Ostroh, Poland (today Ukraine), “From here until the end of the perek, I didn’t write down any chiddushim for my Sefer Halachos, because I didn’t study in the yeshivah during this time as a result of my attending the market fair in Lublin.”

In Greater Poland, winter zeman ended on Tu B’Shevat, and summer zeman ended on Tu B’Av, with the zeman only reconvening on the Rosh Chodesh following Succos and Pesach. In Moravia, winter zeman ended on Rosh Chodesh Adar, and summer zeman concluded on Rosh Chodesh Elul.

(Rav Nosson Nota Hannover, in his landmark chronicle Yeven Metzulah, records a different schedule for Polish yeshivos of the 16th century. He states that the winter and summer zemanim were three and a half months each, with the balance of the year as bein hazmanim. Each zeman was divided in half, with the first session devoted to Gemara learning, and the second half focused on halachah.)

As early as the 17th century, the Litvaks weren’t happy with the entire Elul being bein hazmanim, so a special takanah of the Vaad Medinas Lita declared that the summer zeman in Lithuania would extend until the 15th of Elul.

One of the most important developments in the general history of yeshivos was the opening of Yeshiva Tomchei Temimim in Lubavitch in 1897. This pioneering venture was the brainchild of the fifth rebbe of Chabad, Rav Shalom Ber Schneerson, the Rebbe Rashab, and its administrative head was his son, Rav Yosef Yitzchak, the Rebbe Rayatz. The zeman in Tomchei Temimim continued throughout the year, without there ever being an official bein hazmanim. The only official time off from yeshivah was Motzaei Yom Kippur until after Simchas Torah, and during the days of Pesach itself. Even during those times, a significant number of talmidim  stayed in the yeshivah. This schedule continued during the days of Tomchei Temimim in Poland in between the wars, although it seems that there were a few weeks in the summer where the schedule was more relaxed despite it not being an official bein hazmanim session.

Opening Event

Even prior to the advent of bein hazmanim, there were official starts to new semesters within the yeshivah schedule. Each yeshivah semester was referred to as a “zeman” from at least the times of the great yeshivos of the Baalei HaTosafos in medieval France.

In the 15th century, Rav Yisrael Isserlin, author of the Terumas Hadeshen, references the division of the yeshivah year into “zemanim.” The winter zeman generally commenced with an opening ceremony on Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan, and the summer zeman on Rosh Chodesh Iyar. By Rosh Chodesh, even those who had traveled home for Yom Tov had returned to the yeshivah. The rosh yeshivah delivered a well-attended opening shiur launching the winter zeman, and in some yeshivos for the summer zeman as well. In addition to the talmidim of the yeshivah, local community leaders and laymen were also in attendance, and the shiur contained elements of both a traditional Gemara shiur and aggadah.

Always Time to Learn in Volozhin

A notable exception to the bein hazmanim format could be found in the “mother of the modern yeshivah,” Yeshivas Volozhin. Although officially the Roshei Chodesh following Pesach and Succos marked the onset of new zemanim, there was no bein hazmanim, and the yeshivah never ceased to function on its regular schedule.

If the learning never stopped, what did a “new zeman” effectively mean? It boiled down to three things — those who had traveled home or to nearby villages for Yom Tov returned to the yeshivah, new talmidim joined the yeshivah at this juncture, and everyone established a chazakah on their place on the bench where they’d sit for the coming zeman.

Those who stayed for Pesach in yeshivah established their chazakah at their place in the beis medrash on the afternoon of the last day of Pesach, while the returnees did so on Rosh Chodesh Iyar. Another testimony from Volozhin in 1874 regarding winter zeman has a rush for seats taking place on Motzaei Simchas Torah.

But many memoirs from Volozhin emphasize how the yeshivah really functioned the entire year, albeit with fewer talmidim in attendance during the Yom Tov seasons. A kol Torah always emanated from the beis medrash, no matter the time of year, and the roshei yeshivah — the Netziv and Rav Chaim Brisker in the later period of the yeshivah’s existence — continued delivering their shiurim (which were never a central component of the Volozhin curriculum in any event) no matter how many talmidim were present.

Volozhin alumnus Efraim Reuven Moshvitzki recorded in his memoirs: “In the Volozhin Yeshivah there was no end or beginning of a zeman as far as learning was concerned. Only in a yeshivah in which the Ra’m’s shiur was the central learning event, was it possible to frame an ‘end’ or ‘beginning’ of the zeman, depending on when the rav stopped delivering the shiur and when it started once again. But that wasn’t the case in Volozhin. The shiur wasn’t the dominant feature of the yeshivah. What made it the great Achsanya shel Torah was the gathering of the talmidim from all places and backgrounds to study Torah. The end or beginning of the zeman was only noticeable because the beis medrash would become more or less crowded, but the learning of Torah in the beis medrash never ceased aside from during the time of prayers.”

Yeshivah Time

In the prewar Mir Yeshivah, the clock in the beis medrash displayed a different time than the rest of the town. It was about 20 minutes off. This seemingly strange practice was instituted by the legendary mashgiach Rav Yerucham Levovitz. The message to the bnei hayeshivah was unequivocal: within the vortex of the yeshivah, one was literally on a different time zone than the rest of the town. The time spent outside of the yeshivah wasn’t really considered time at all, it was “bein hazmanim,” between two more authentic times or zemanim.

With its own clock, its own time zone, and its own universe, the yeshivah was not connected to the town or to the rest of the world in any way. It literally ran on its own time. That’s yeshivah zeman.

Timepieces

Testing Times in Hungary

The yeshivah calendar looked different in Hungary. Hungarian yeshivos of the 19th century were primarily products of the Chasam Sofer and his famous yeshivah in Pressburg, along with his talmidim and descendants. In addition to the regular bein hazmanim breaks for Yom Tov, Hungarian yeshivos didn’t hold regular shiurim or sedorim on Rosh Chodesh, fast days, the entire Chanukah, nittel nacht, and other minor holidays such as Lag B’omer. That doesn’t mean the students were on vacation; on Rosh Chodesh and fast days, these yeshivos often administered exams instead.

End with a Bang

 In many yeshivos, summer zeman ended with a festive siyum on the masechta studied in the yeshivah that year. This ceremonial ending to the zeman was prevalent in the old Ashkenaz yeshivos, in Sephardic communities, and Rav Yehuda Aryeh of Modena notes that in the 17th century Italian yeshivos much pomp and festivity were invested in the end of zeman siyum. The celebration wasn’t limited to the yeshivah itself; the local community was often invited to participate in the ceremonial siyum.

The grand celebrations were less prevalent in Lithuanian yeshivos, which during the 19th century minimized these festive siyumim as a result of two trends: the separation of the yeshivah from the surrounding community, and the de-emphasis on finishing an entire masechta over the course of the zeman.

Time for Teshuvah

With the advent of the mussar yeshivos toward the end of the 19th century, however, a new zeman was added to the yeshivah schedule: Elul. The mussar movement promoted the centrality of Elul for personal growth and preparation for the Days of Awe and Judgment, and therefore Slabodka in the 1880s, Novardok in the 1890s, and subsequently many other Lithuanian yeshivos incorporated mussar and its values into their educational philosophy and curriculum. As a result, Elul zeman was born at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries within the yeshivos of the mussar movement.

Select Studies

The Adoption of the “Yeshivish Masechtos”

In 1533, the legendary printer of Hebrew books Gershom Soncino released a statement from his printing house: “I have finished the printing of 23 masechtos which are customarily studied in the yeshivos.”

The publication of these masechtos had been initiated by his ancestors, pioneers in Hebrew printing, in 1484. The Soncino press printed individual masechtos, and they focused on the publication of those which were studied in the yeshivos at the time. This was understandable. Printing was an expensive enterprise, and the printer’s incentive was to maximize profit by focusing on the most popular titles.

This testimony and the Soncino output over a half-century provide strong clues as to which masechtos were customarily studied (and just as importantly, which ones were not) in yeshivos of the 16th century — at least in northern Italy, but likely in Germany and other countries as well.

The list includes Berachos, Shabbos, Eiruvin, Pesachim, Beitzah, Rosh Hashanah, Succah, Taanis, Megillah, Moed Katan, Chagigah, Yevamos, Kesubos, Gittin, Kiddushin, Bava Kamma, Bava Metzia, Bava Basra, Sanhedrin, Shevuos, Avodah Zarah, Chullin, Niddah.

Shifting the Repertoire

In the Maharam’s (1558–1615) prestigious yeshivah in Lublin, talmidim learned 17 masechtos, primarily culled from the above list. One generation prior to the Maharam, in the same city of Lublin, his predecessor as rav and rosh yeshivah Rav Shlomo Luria, the Maharshal, issued a complaint that sounds very familiar today: “We neglect the majority of the masechtos, and we instead study just a few half masechtos in depth, spending days and nights on just one page.”

In pre-expulsion Spain, the yeshivos focused on halachic psak, and chose the masechtos studied in its yeshivah curriculum accordingly from Moed, Chullin, Berachos and the like. In 16th–18th centuries Ashkenaz yeshivos, on the other hand, the emphasis was on pilpul and intellectual depth. This led to a gradual shift away from masechtos in Seder Moed (along with maseches Berachos), wherein much of the practical halachah can be found, and a growing prioritizing of masechtos of Seder Nashim and Nezikin.

The early 18th-century rav of Frankfurt, Rav Shmuel Schotten, the Maharsheishach (ancestor of the Chasam Sofer), stated that in his yeshivah, “Over the course of the last twenty years since the establishment of the great yeshivah of Frankfurt, we studied twelve masechtos in depth. The entire Seder Nezikin comprising seven masechtos, three masechtos from Seder Nashim — Kesubos, Gittin, Kiddushin, and two from Seder Moed — Rosh Hashanah and Beitzah.”

Some roshei yeshivah expanded the repertoire a bit, with Rav Yechezkel Landau (1713–1793), the Noda B’Yehudah, including Eiruvin in the yeshivah cycle in the Klauz shul in Prague, and Rav Yosef Shaul Nathanson (1810–1875), the Shoel U’meishiv, who added a wide array of “non-yeshivish” masechtos in his yeshivah in Lvov. These included Bechoros, Chagigah, Chullin, Avodah Zarah, Succah, Megillah, Niddah, and Sanhedrin, among others.

From Start to Finish

There were exceptions to this rule, however. Some roshei yeshivos felt that students should cover the entire Shas during their yeshivah years, and that the yeshivah curriculum should refrain from expressing a preference of certain masechtos over others. Their philosophy was to teach the entire Shas in their yeshivos, starting from Berachos and ending with Niddah.

An early proponent of this curriculum was Rav Nesanel Weil (1687–1769), the Korban Nesanel. During his tenure as a rosh yeshivah in Prague he taught the entire Shas, including the Mishnayos of Seder Zera’im and Taharos, which don’t have Gemara of Talmud Bavli!

This approach was adopted by the pioneering yeshivos of the modern yeshivah movement in Lithuania. In the Volozhin Yeshiva of Rav Chaim Volozhin (1749–1821) and his successors, as well as in the nascent Mir Yeshivah through the entire Tiktinsky era, especially under the long leadership of Rav Chaim Leib Tiktinsky (1823–1899), the formal shiur delivered in the beis medrash went through the entire Shas. They started from Berachos and proceeded in order through Niddah, covering ground in a systematic fashion.

(Although this was the structure of the formal delivery of the shiur, the talmidim in the beis medrash in both Volozhin and Mir were free to engage in the study of any masechta of their choice, at their desired pace, throughout most hours of the day.)

Slabodka: The Yeshivish Masechtos

It seems that it was only in the Slabodka Yeshivah of Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel, the Alter of Slabodka, in the closing decades of the 19th century, that the yeshivah curriculum became limited to the familiar cluster of what are still called the “yeshivish masechtos.”

Rav Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg, the Seridei Aish, was an early talmid of Slabodka, and he recalled that in the late 1800s there were six masechtos in the cycle: Bava Kamma, Bava Metzia, Bava Basra, Kesubos, Gittin, and Kiddushin. Toward the end of his time there, Yevamos and Nedarim were added to the cycle.

Interestingly enough, during the tenure of Rav Yeruchem Levovitz (who was a talmid of Slabodka) in prewar Mir Yeshivah, he maintained the cycle of these same eight masechtos. Rav Asher Arieli related to this author that it was Rav Beinish Finkel who added Makkos, Pesachim, and Succah to the current Mir cycle in the 1970s, to make it a five-year, 11-masechta cycle.

Two Goals in Hungary

Hungarian and Romanian yeshivos had an entirely different tradition, which was set in place by the father of the Hungarian Torah world, Rav Moshe Sofer, the Chasam Sofer.

The masechtos in the cycle of the majority of Hungarian, Czechoslovakian, and Romanian yeshivos reflected the methodology as well as priorities of the Chasam Sofer in his own yeshivah in Pressburg, from which branched out the majority of the yeshivos of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The twin goals of these yeshivos were to focus the study in a pragmatic fashion of halachah l’maiseh — the practical application of the halachah — as well as the macro goal of covering entire sugyos. The sugyos chosen by each respective rosh yeshivah covered an entire topic of Talmudic law, where the sources were drawn from the gamut of the entire Shas.

As a result of these two goals, the list of masechtos studied in Hungarian yeshivos was quite different than in the litvish ones. Generally, the cycle included Bava Kamma, Bava Metzia, Bava Basra, Chullin, Shabbos, Eiruvin, Pesachim, Beitzah, Shevuos, Makkos, Nedarim, Gittin, Kesubos, and Kiddushin.

Polish Additions

In the Polish chassidic yeshivos of interwar Poland, at least two unique masechta choices stand out. In the flagship yeshivah in Sosnowiec of the Radomsk Keser Torah network, established by the Radomsk Rebbe Rav Shlomo Chanoch Rabinowicz across Poland, his son-in-law the rosh yeshivah Rav Moshe David Rabinowitz included Berachos and Zevachim in the yeshivah cycle.

Even more unique was Rav Meir Shapiro combining his two life goals — Daf Yomi and Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin — into one, by including the daily study of Daf Yomi in the yeshivah curriculum in his legendary yeshivah.

The memoir literature provides conflicting reports regarding the Daf Yomi’s place in the yeshivah schedule. Some state that it was an optional study during a pre-Shacharis seder, while others claim that it was a more central component of the schedule as part of the afternoon seder.

A Brisk Walk through Kodshim

Unique among all yeshivos worldwide today is Brisk with its many branches, derivatives, and spinoffs, which exclusively engage in the study of masechtos of Seder Kodshim (or related ones such as Nazir or Yoma), and not in the standard yeshiva masechtos of Nashim and Nezikin. This was largely due to the influence of the Chofetz Chaim.

The Chofetz Chaim opened a Kodshim Kollel in his own yeshivah in Radin [see sidebar], and devoted much effort in encouraging others to engage in it as well. He did so for a variety of reasons, including the imperative to study neglected areas of Torah, preparation for the building of the Beis Hamikdash, and what he deemed the beginning of the Messianic era.

When Rav Yitzchak Zev Soloveitchik, the Brisker Rav, hosted a kibbutz of talmidim in prewar Brisk as an informal yeshivah (largely comprised of talmidim from Mir who came for stints of a few years at a time), he focused on the masechtos of Kodshim. This seems to be the pioneering attempt of Brisk’s longtime engagement with Kodshim. The Brisker Rav continued in this fashion with a small group of talmidim in postwar Yerushalayim, and by the time of his passing in 1959 it was already tradition.

Once Kodshim was established as the teaching preference of the Brisker Rav, his heirs didn’t so much as entertain the thought of teaching anything else. Subsequent generations of Brisk continue the path forged by their illustrious forebear until this very day, enlightening the Torah world with the study of Kodshim.

Skills for Life

The yeshivah years are meant to develop skills that will stand talmidim in good stead as they continue to gain mastery of the rest of Shas. By limiting the yeshivah cycle to a select few masechtos, yeshivos are able to convey specific learning methodologies and analytical approaches.

One wonders, however, how the maggidei shiurim manage with repeating the same cycle continuously, never veering toward new horizons. Rav Asher Arieli once wistfully told me that he’d love to explore other masechtos together with his talmidim. I asked him for an example. “Ich hub a taavah tzu zoggen shiurim oif Maseches Shabbos — I have a desire to deliver shiurim on maseches Shabbos,” he said with a smile. May we all merit to have such taavos!

Radin’s Changing Roster

An interesting anomaly among the standard litvish yeshivah model was the Radin Yeshivah of the Chofetz Chaim. In the early years of the yeshivah in the late 1800s, it was more of an informal kibbutz, where each talmid engaged in his own choice of study material. So at least during this informal stage, all masechtos of Shas were studied in the Radin Yeshivah.

In 1905 the Chofetz Chaim established the famed Kollel Kodshim in the Radin Yeshivah, so that a portion of the yeshivah’s talmidim were engaged in the study of masechtos in Kodshim, which were not normally studied in yeshivos. There have been other yeshivos throughout Jewish history that specifically chose to study Kodshim for a variety of reasons, among them as a ritualistic study to prepare for the Geulah and rebuilding of the Beis Hamikdash.

Once the Chofetz Chaim’s son-in-law Rav Hirsch Levinson took charge of the yeshivah, and subsequently hired first Rav Moshe Londinski and later Rav Naftoli Trop as roshei yeshivah, the yeshivah adopted the masechta cycle selected from Nashim and Nezikin, which was then standard of litvish yeshivos.

While in exile during World War I, the Chofetz Chaim encouraged the talmidim to engage in the study of maseches Chullin. Due to the spartan war conditions, they were likely to find themselves in situations without proper shechitah and all sorts of kashrus related questions, and he wanted them to be prepared for any eventuality.

No Better Place to Daven

Davening in Yeshivah

During the 1920s, a potential new student traveled to Mir in Poland, hoping to be accepted in the yeshivah. The mashgiach, Rav Yeruchem Levovitz, asked the young fellow if he planned on attending the daily Shacharis in the yeshivah beis medrash.

Unaccustomed to the concept of davening being viewed a component of the yeshivah curriculum, the bochur nonchalantly said, “I can easily daven at any local shul, so long as I arrive at the yeshivah in time for the first learning seder of the morning.”

Rav Yeruchem looked at him sternly and stated, “By unz in Mir Yeshivah, Shacharis iz der ershter seder fun der tag, un mir nemt nisht arayn a bochur auf a halbeh tag — here in the Mir Yeshivah, Shacharis is the first seder of the day, and we don’t accept a bochur for  half a day.”

Throughout history, in every land and every era, yeshivos almost always included davening within the yeshivah beis medrash as a component of the yeshivah schedule. Sometimes local balabatim would join the yeshivah minyan.

But while yeshivah students customarily davened within the walls of the yeshivah, for many centuries tefillah wasn’t viewed as an important element of the curriculum; it was considered subordinate to the primary activity of the yeshivah — engaging in intense Talmudic study.

Subordinate or Primary?

It should come as no surprise that in the prototype of the modern litvish yeshivah, Yeshivas Volozhin, davening in yeshivah — or davening altogether for that matter — wasn’t accorded top priority.

A student of Volozhin in the late 1880s named Moshe Elazar Eisenstadt related: “Every morning I’d hurry to the yeshivah for Shacharis. It would take only about fifteen to twenty minutes. In general, from my first day there, it became apparent that a relatively brief period of time is devoted to davening. The central focus of the day was that spent on the intensive study of Gemara. The bochurim viewed this as a point of superiority of Volozhin over other yeshivos, where more time was devoted to davening.”

One can assume that the number of minutes devoted to Shacharis in the above description is exaggerated, but the overall impression is corroborated by others that the Netziv and his predecessors as roshei yeshivah didn’t ascribe excessive importance to a “yeshivish davening,” prioritizing his education of the young charges with a sharp focus on their learning. It was common to see Volozhin talmidim perusing a sefer during davening or Krias HaTorah, and even speaking in learning with their nearby comrades in full view of the rosh yeshivah, who apparently didn’t look askance at such behavior.

Rav Baruch Epstein wrote in Mekor Baruch: “My uncle [the Netziv] wouldn’t tolerate if one of the talmidim would devote excessive time from his learning to davening. His opinion was that during the limited time in one’s life that one is completely dedicated towards the ultimate tachlis of excellence in Torah study and achievement, such as the bnei hayeshivah who come to Volozhin for a limited number of years, it is incumbent on all to be completely focused on Torah study to the exclusion of all other pursuits for the duration of his stay. Each hour devoted to this end of Torah study is more valuable than silver and gold, and this even includes excessive time devoted to prayer.”

Tefillah as Priority

This laissez-faire approach to yeshivah davening was unheard of in chassidic yeshivos, or alternatively in yeshivos engaged in the study of Kabbalah, such as the Beit El Yeshivah in Yerushalayim. Much time and educational priority was invested in davening, and it was viewed as a consequential aspect of the daily schedule. The premier prewar chassidic yeshivah was undoubtedly Rav Meir Shapiro’s Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin, and davening was taken quite seriously there, with all in attendance and in an unhurried atmosphere.

The litvish yeshivah approach to davening underwent a paradigm shift with the increasing influence of the mussar movement. Mussar yeshivos did continue to emphasize the primacy of Torah study, and therefore permitted leniencies regarding davening in order to minimize bittul Torah — such as adhering to a shorter version of Minchah on a daily basis, omitting the majority of piyutim recited on special occasions, and holding a Kiddush prior to blowing the shofar on Rosh Hashanah. (It should be noted that the Rosh Hashanah Kiddush was probably held because of the very lengthy davening, which necessitated a break.) The famed Talmud Torah in Kelm skipped the Kabbalas Shabbos service entirely, utilizing the time instead to engage in the study of mussar.

On the other hand, mussar yeshivos were the first litvish yeshivos to position davening as an essential element of the educational philosophy of the yeshivah itself. The Novardok Yeshivah network placed great emphasis on the avodah of davening, and those talmidim who excelled in this endeavor were considered an elite group within the yeshivah.

The mashgiach and mussar personality Rav Leib Chasman would fine talmidim of the Telz Yeshivah for absence from, or even tardiness to davening in yeshivah. This approach to orderliness in davening fits in well with the general educational philosophy of Telz. The Telz Rosh Yeshivah Rav Leizer Gordon, and much more so his son-in-law and successor Rav Yosef Leib Bloch, incorporated many elements of modern educational structure into Telz Yeshiva. Many of these pioneering endeavors have become standard practice, including official acceptance procedures with applications and periodic tests on the material studied in the yeshivah. They were even the first yeshivah to have a gradual hierarchical shiur system, in which the talmidim commenced their studies in Telz in the lowest shiur and gradually advanced to the higher shiurim. This structural organizational model has been generally adopted by all yeshivos until today.

Like the Learning Itself

Nowhere was the yeshivah davening more emphasized than in the Mir Yeshivah during its golden age, under the tutelage of Rav Yeruchem Levovitz. To Rav Yeruchem, tefillah in yeshivah was as much part of the yeshivah education and experience as the learning itself, and it was a theme he returned to often in his mussar discourses before the student body.

This was apparent in the postwar yeshivah established by a kernel of his talmidim, Yeshivas Bais Hatalmud in Brooklyn. An alumnus of Bais Hatalmud used to daven Shacharis in his alma mater every morning, before heading to Manhattan for work. One day he posed a query to Rav Chaim Wysokier, the longtime rosh yeshivah of Bais Hatalmud, and a great baal mussar.

He had an early morning meeting the next day, and wished to know which scenario was preferable: to shave before coming to the lengthy davening in Bais Hatalmud, or to daven in a local shtibel that finished Shacharis earlier, and therefore have time to shave after davening (shaving after davening is considered halachically more ideal).

Rav Chaim Wysokier didn’t hesitate and unequivocally responded, “Ich farshtei nisht der sh’eilah, sai vi sai ihr veht strushkeh far der davenen! — I don’t understand the question, either way you’ll be shaving before davening.” The yeshivah minyan was so essential to him that he felt davening outside the yeshivah couldn’t be called davening altogether!

The Minyan Where I Don’t Daven

Oftentimes, roshei yeshivah served as communal rabbanim, too, and there arose a dilemma whether to daven with their yeshivah students or their congregations.

The Maharil davened in the kahal shul, but requested that his yeshivah follow the communal davening schedule.

In contrast, the Chasam Sofer in Pressburg and Rav Leizer Gordon in Telz are two examples of communal rabbanim who preferred davening with their yeshivah students in the yeshivah building.

A dispute arose in 18th century Tripoli, Libya, when the rav left his community shul for Rosh Hashanah in order to daven in his yeshivah. On the second day of Rosh Hashanah, the community forced him to transfer to the general shul.

LODGE AND LEARN

Housing the Bnei Hayeshivah

“In our home I think there are close to 24 mezuzos. I made a mezuzah for the beis medrash, for my winter home, and for the room of every yeshivah bochur.” 

— Rav Meir of Rothenburg,

the Maharam Mi’Rotenburg (1215–1293)

The current yeshivah setup — a beis medrash, rooms for shiurim, a dining room, and dormitory — is actually a fairly recent innovation. For centuries, lodgings and meals for talmidim who sought to learn in a yeshivah were far from assured. How did the current system develop?

Hosted by the Rosh Yeshivah

In medieval Ashkenaz, the yeshivah was the private institution of the rabbi/rosh yeshivah, not a communal institution. As a result, the talmidim were the personal guests of their rebbi for the duration of their stay in the yeshivah, living in his home and having their meals prepared by the rebbetzin.

In the yeshivos of the Baalei HaTosafos in medieval Germany and France, the talmidim slept in the roshei yeshivos’ personal residences. So it was at the yeshivah of Rashi himself in Troyes, France in the 11th century, similarly in the yeshivah of Rav Elazar the author of the Rokeach in 13th century Worms, Germany, and the Raavad in 12th century Provence.

In Rav Yisrael Isserlin’s (author of the Terumas Hadeshen 1390-1460) yeshivah in Neustadt, Austria, the talmidim were considered part of his family — sleeping in his private residence, eating their meals together with his family, and celebrating Shabbos and Yom Tov together as extended family members.

This yeshivah model wasn’t limited to the lands of Ashkenaz. It was rather common in the Italian yeshivos of that era, as well as the Cairo yeshivah of Rav David ibn Zimra, the Radbaz, in the 16th century. Private dormitories in the rosh yeshivah’s home appear even in more recent times such as the yeshivos of Yemen, and even in 19th century Galicia, where the wealthy Rav Ephraim Zalman Margolis, the Beis Efraim, supported a yeshivah at his own expense, and hosted the talmidim in his own spacious home. By nature of the physical limitations of private homes, these yeshivos were generally quite small.

The Tehg System

Yeshivah students’ lodging underwent a significant transition with the onset of the golden age of Polish Jewry in the 15th–17th centuries. Yeshivos during this era were owned, funded, and managed by the kahal, and as such, were the responsibility of the public. Based on this premise, the housing was public as well.

This was facilitated in one of two ways, neither of which was ideal: Either the kahal provided some sort of public housing, or the talmidei yeshivah were quartered among the members of the community.

This was a precursor to the famous — or infamous — tehg system. For centuries yeshivah students obtained lodging at homes of local community members, who were either funded to host talmidim by the kahal, were paid privately by the yeshivah student himself, or simply opened their home out of the goodness of their heart to host a yeshivah student. (In 17th century Frankfurt, the poorer bochurim in the local yeshivah were provided with accommodations in a shabby guest house at the end of the Judengasse.) In all these scenarios, the underlying assumption was that it was the community’s responsibility and role to support the yeshivah in its environs.

This system, which generally included meals as well, came to be known as “eating tehg (days).” In theory, the tehg system was an ideal Yissachar-Zevulun sort of arrangement, with local balabatim literally supporting the yeshivah student with a room and board.

When the Chasam Sofer was appointed rav of Pressburg, and he established his famous yeshivah, the wealthy members of the community chose the best and brightest talmidim of the yeshivah to be “their” house guest.

Very often the relationship went even further than basic housing and meals. Talmidei yeshivah were sometimes asked to tutor the younger children of their hosts, and if they stayed for Shabbos, they were expected to share a devar Torah at the Shabbos table.

But this arrangement was seldom idyllic. The contemporary literature of that period is inundated with references to the ill treatment yeshivah students were victim to under the tehg system.

Some never found hosts altogether and subsisted on dry bread and water from handouts. Many yeshivah students across Europe were forced to lodge in local shuls, sleeping on benches in the ezras nashim or one of the side rooms. Others found themselves confronting abusive individuals, who demanded they assist with demeaning house chores and physical labor to guarantee their stay. Sometimes the landlord would tattle on his bochur if he saw him waking up late and missing one of the yeshivah sedorim.

Many testimonies mention verbal abuse, degradation, and humiliation sustained by talmidim during their attempts to obtain their tehg lodging and meals for the duration of their stay in the yeshivah. It certainly doesn’t seem to have been an ideal method, but with lots of mesirus nefesh for Torah, it somehow worked for quite a few centuries.

The Stantzia Stipends

The pioneering vision of Rav Chaim of Volozhin in the first modern yeshivah in Volozhin flipped the tehg concept on its head. When yeshivos had been local kahal institutions, financing the yeshivah and ensuring the physical wellbeing of its talmidim was a financial liability for the kahal. This greatly stunted the growth of many yeshivos, and even led to resentment toward the yeshivah students during challenging economic times. Rav Chaim of Volozhin’s trailblazing endeavor established the yeshivah as a completely independent institution from the kahal.

Under his system, the student body — and more crucially, the funding — arrived from across the Russian Pale of Settlement and beyond. Far from being a liability, the yeshivah was now a financial asset to the town, as talmidim received a stipend from the yeshivah to cover their lodging and meals at the local’s homes. This was known as the stantzia arrangement, which became widespread and remained in use in most non-chassidic European yeshivos until the Holocaust.

The great litvish and Hungarian yeshivos of the 19th century flourished under the stantzia system; the custom was for small groups of talmidim — generally three to five each — to rent a “stantzia,” which was a room in the homes of the locals.

Tomchei Temimim’s Twist

During the early years of Tomchei Temimim, while it was still in pre-World War I Lubavitch, the yeshivah followed the generally accepted stantzia system for the bochurim’s lodging arrangement with a slight twist. The yeshivah funded the stantzia only for the older talmidim in the yeshivah. The younger or newer bochurim’s parents had to pay for their stantzia for the early duration of their yeshivah stay. The yeshivah arranged their accommodations, but the talmid had to fund it. Following the Bolshevik Revolution, the Tomchei Temimim yeshivah network went underground, and continued to function for several years with great mesirus nefesh, despite significant risk from the anti-religious communists. During this time, the talmidim usually found accommodations in the ezras nashim of local shuls, and only under limited circumstances did the yeshivah arrange for them to sleep at local families. This was due to the danger hosting a yeshivah student posed on a family in the Soviet Union, and the need to find a family which could be trusted not to report the illegal existence of the yeshivah to the KGB.

Dawn of the Dorm

Unlike their Lithuanian and Hungarian counterparts, the chassidic yeshivos of central Poland and Galicia still didn’t maintain an organized system for the bochurim’s sleeping quarters. It was common for yeshivah students to sleep on benches in local shtiblach well into the 20th century.

In yeshivos in major urban centers such as Warsaw, talmidim made sleeping arrangements for themselves in local stores, doubling as night watchmen. Rav Meir Shapiro famously made the cynical observation that, “We must be grateful for the thieves of Warsaw, for if not for them the Torah would be forgotten from the Jewish People.” If not for the nocturnal burglars, there would be no need for night watchmen, and then the yeshivah students would have nowhere to sleep.

The millennia-old challenge for housing yeshivah students was finally solved with the advent of the dormitory. The first yeshivah which seemed to implement this dramatic change was no less than the Talmud Torah of Kelm under the leadership of its founder Rav Simcha Zissel Ziv, the Alter of Kelm in the second half of the 19th century.

The Alter of Kelm wasn’t just trying to solve a practical challenge in a more ideal fashion; he had an educational goal as well. The mussar philosophy of Kelm mandated a complete organization of one’s daily life, thoughts, words, and deeds, and as such there was no facet of daily existence that was outside the purview of the chinuch of Kelm.

It took quite some time for the dormitory idea to garner attention and gain traction in the yeshivah world. Kelm was a relatively small yeshivah, and an outlier in many other ways as well. But by the early decades of the 20th century, especially following World War I, additional yeshivos added dormitories to their existing buildings, and at least part of the student body was able to reside within the yeshivah and at the institution’s expense.

The small yeshivah in Kishinev was an early adopter of the dormitory, the famed Pressburg yeshivah added one after World War I, and the Lomza yeshivah in interwar Poland provided housing in the yeshivah building and neighboring structures for 50 masmidim, while the rest had to make do with the traditional stantzia.

Beyond Bread and Salt

The real pioneer for yeshivah dormitories was Rav Meir Shapiro in Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to state that the postwar acceptance of dormitories in yeshivos — which became de rigueur in the second half of the 20th century — is due in no small way to his ambitious vision.

In the magnificent edifice constructed on Lubartowska Street in the center of Lublin, he included several floors of beautiful dormitory rooms, which were able to house hundreds of talmidim. A yeshivah dormitory on such a grand scale was completely unheard of until that time, and was a major component of the educational philosophy of Rav Meir Shapiro to restore the honor of Torah and its students, by providing them with all their physical needs within the yeshivah itself. No longer would students have to rely on the largesse of local families with their subjective idiosyncrasies. They would be in their own home, a full campus with comfortable accommodations.

Upon soliciting a reluctant donor for his grandiose plans in Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin, the fellow justified his hesitation to contribute toward a dormitory which maintained relatively luxurious accommodations for the yeshivah students, including a wide staircase leading to each dormitory floor, rivaling the grand staircase on the Titanic. He cited the Mishnah in Pirkei Avos, “Such is the way of Torah: you shall eat bread with salt, and rationed water shall you drink, and you shall sleep on the ground….”

Rav Meir Shapiro, who was known for his sharp and phenomenal sense of humor, retorted, “It’s true that these are the words of the Mishnah, but they can also be read as a series of rhetorical questions: ‘Is this the way of Torah? You shall eat bread with salt? Rationed water you shall drink? Shall you sleep on the ground?’ ”

Surely, he explained, we cannot expect yeshivah bochurim to excel in their learning and focus on spiritual pursuits when they are scrambling to find regular, filling meals or a place to sleep. By building a proper dormitory and removing the burden of worldly needs from their shoulders, we can empower them to focus on their true purpose — and as a result, we will all gain from their learning. It may have seemed bold and revolutionary at the time, but today it’s the standard policy in most yeshivos.

In retrospect, the benefit of the dormitory isn’t limited to caring for the physical needs of the yeshivah talmidim in order to facilitate their progress in learning. It also generated an atmosphere. For the bochurim living within its walls, the yeshivah was truly their home. And that sense of “yeshivah is home” can last an entire lifetime.

Pay to Learn

Before the advent of yeshivah dormitories, many yeshivos dispensed modest stipends to enable their talmidim to rent lodgings from local families. This led to two distinct challenges.

The first was financial. Most yeshivos were running on a deficit, and there were never enough funds available for the talmidim’s lodgings. In order to supplement their income, yeshivah bochurim engaged in a wide array of side jobs to cover their costs.

The most common side job was tutoring local children. In interwar Mir, the tutoring took place within the yeshivah, with the Polish bochurim tutoring their German and American counterparts for pay. Similarly, in a memorandum submitted to the government in 1826, the Chasam Sofer mentioned that many students in the Pressburg Yeshivah subsisted by tutoring children of local laymen. Sometimes Jewish parents who lived in far-flung villages lacking formal chadorim sent their sons to a nearby town with a yeshivah, and hired a yeshivah student to teach them Torah.

Although tutoring was the most common employment, yeshivah students engaged in all sorts of klei kodesh. In the pre-printing press Middle Ages, talmidim often found work copying manuscripts of seforim. Yeshivah bochurim were also hired out as chazzanim for small communities for Yamim Noraim, worked in matzah bakeries, and took positions as mashgichei kashrus. Sometimes they engaged in general jobs as well, such as serving as a barber in their spare time, and sources from the 15th–16th centuries in Germany indicate that there were some students who engaged in moneylending, too.

The other challenge that ensued from the yeshivah dispensing a stipend to the talmidim was halachic in nature. According to many poskim, it is forbidden to pay a yeshivah student to study Torah. Yeshivos grappled with the issue, and came up with various solutions.

Some declared that they were training future rabbanim, and these “rabbis in training” were eligible for a stipend. There were Lithuanian yeshivos that linked the size of the student’s allocation to his excellence in learning, so it was an educational incentive to encourage Torah excellence.

Others felt that supporting the impoverished yeshivah students fell under the general rubric of supporting the destitute, as a form or tzedakah or chesed. That was the general policy of the Sephardic yeshivos of the Ottoman Empire (including Eretz Yisrael). Rav Yaakov Chagiz of Yerushalayim, for example, dispensed a stipend to all his students.

Yet others strived for a purist method, and when Rav Chezkiah da Silva, the Pri Chadash, served as rosh yeshivah in Yerushalayim at the end of the 17th century, he didn’t allow the talmidim to be paid anything for studying Torah. This was the custom in other yeshivos as well, including the ancient and prestigious yeshivah in Sanaa, Yemen, which had a policy of Torah lishmah, and therefore did not provide the students with any stipend.

Much of the material for this article was culled from Ohalei Torah, Professor Mordechai Breuer’s excellent book chronicling the history of yeshivos. Additional information was gleaned from the writings and research of Professor Shaul Stampfer.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1027)