Page 63 - The Legacy of Abraham Rothstein - text

Education and the bet hamidrash

very young scholars sometimes turned out to be great leaders in
Israel, and some became our greatest poets, publicists, novelists, and
philosophers. The Talmud embraces every phase of life, dissecting
and discussing and judging upon a world of knowledge in the thirty-
six volumes of rabbinical law, and those young men’s minds were
sharpened to the highest extent through its study.
But one has to have very good training to study the Talmud and
its commentators. They are not like the ordinary books in a public
school or correspondence course. It is around fifteen hundred years
since the books were compiled and arranged by the last of the great
rabbis, Rav Huna and Rav Ashi. Their subjects, embracing every
phase of life, have been discussed and scrutinized by scores of those
who studied in the yeshivot of Babylonia and Jerusalem, the greatest
centers of Jewish learning, and after which parts of the Talmud are
named. Having been written in several places over hundreds of years,
they contain many words, like names of plants and materials, whose
meanings we do not know today. Had it not been for Rashi, who
wrote a great commentary on the Talmud, it would have been
forgotten by today.
Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi was the man who put down the law, which
he called Mishna. For instance, in the case of divorce, the Mishna
says that if a messenger brings a notice of divorce to a woman from
her husband overseas, he has to state that it was written and signed in
his presence. Although human character and conduct have changed
radically since it was written, society still tries to restrain the breaking-
up and demoralization of the family. Rabbis and students in the
different seats of learning took Yehuda Hanasi’s promulgation,
dissected it, discussed it, added to and amended it, analyzing every
possibility that might come up in the future in a divorce matter. Yet
with all their discussions and elucidations one has to be a real student
to understand many of their writings. They were deep thinkers and
very wise, but they often did not have the physical means or the
vocabulary to write down their thoughts explicitly.
Pelcovizna had only one synagogue and one bet hamidrash, where
grown-ups gathered for prayers or discussion. Men came there, to sit
and study the Talmud and Bible, or to listen to the teachings of
others in the community. The trade of this community was mostly
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