JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

EDUCATION, JEWISH
mim (1960), 48–70; A. Berman, Toledot ha-Ḥinnukh be-Yisrael u-va-
Ammim (19682), 25–35.
[Yehuda Moriel]
in the middle ages
Babylonian, Pre-Geonic, and Geonic Periods
By the end of the fifth century, the time of the completion
of the Babylonian Talmud, the Jewish community in Babylonia
had become the leading Diaspora Jewry, a position it
was destined to maintain for another five hundred years. This
leadership expressed itself also in its educational system and
in its high level of scholarship. Many synagogues had both a
bet sefer for elementary study, and a bet talmud for advanced
study. At the peak of this network of educational institutions
were the two major academies of *Sura and *Pumbedita that
contributed so richly to Jewish scholarship and, through the
interpretation of the halakhah, set the pattern for Jewish religious
life and the place of study in it. The heads of these
academies – known at first as rashei ha-yeshivot, and later as
geonim – were accepted as the authorities on religious law not
only in Babylonia but also in the other lands of the dispersion.
In the seventh century, Babylonia’s influence was enhanced by
the Arab conquests of many Mediterranean countries, extending
as far as Spain, which united them with Babylonia in the
bonds of a common language, Arabic. This last factor facilitated
personal contact and communication between the Jewries
of the geonic period and helped establish and solidify a
more or less uniform style of Jewish life.
One of the chief components of this style of life was the
upbringing of children. Their education was started at home
where at a very early age they noted numerous observances,
learned some of the benedictions and simple prayers and began
participating, on their level, in many traditional practices,
especially on Sabbaths and holidays, where they became acquainted
with the synagogue rituals and celebrations. The
home and the synagogue were effective educational agencies
from the child’s very infancy.
While some children were instructed by their fathers,
starting school at age six was the more common practice. The
school was usually in the synagogue or in a building near it,
and the pupils were accordingly referred to as “synagogue
children” (tinokot shel bet keneset). It was a community institution.
However some affluent parents preferred private
schools for their sons.
The elementary school’s chief aim was to prepare the
boy for participation in the synagogue service. The ability to
read was therefore the first objective. Books being rare and
expensive, children learned the alphabet by copying its letters
on parchment, or paper or slate. In the early stages of
learning, the teachers often outlined block letters which the
children filled out, and sometimes colored. On the more advanced
level, scrolls or sheets with biblical texts were available,
or Torah scrolls that were unfit (pesulim) for synagogue use.
Prayers and sections from the Pentateuch came next on the
program, often starting with Leviticus. The Torah was stud-
ied assiduously in an attempt to cover the sidra (“portion of
the week”). Afterward the pupils delved into the books of the
Prophets and Hagiographa, but a later tendency was to neglect
these works in favor of Talmud. In some schools the native
language and arithmetic were also taught. *Hai ben Sherira
(10/11th century), the last gaon of Pumbedita, permitted teaching
these secular subjects, recognizing the need for them in
daily life. However, their inclusion in the school’s curriculum
probably preceded Hai’s dictum.
Widespread and effective elementary education continued
in Babylonia’s Jewry for a thousand years or so. Surely
*Pethahiah of Regensburg exaggerated when he recorded in
his travel diary (of 1180) that “there is no one so ignorant in the
whole of Babylonia, Assyria, Media, and Persia, that he does
not know the twenty-four books [of the Hebrew Bible] with
their punctuation and grammar. …” This statement, however,
reinforces information from other sources indicating that basic
instruction was the lot of nearly all boys during the centuries
of the gaonate.
The elementary teachers at this period were known as
melammedei tinokot, or simply melammedim. Their economic
position was relatively low, as was also apparently their social
status. Hai Gaon, who, in his didactic poem Musar Haskel
(“Wise Instruction”), urged the people not to be miserly in
educational matters and engage good teachers for their children,
also advocated generosity in the matter of teachers’ remuneration.
Teachers enjoyed extra presents on special occasions
and on gift-giving holidays, particularly from parents
pleased with their children’s achievements.
The elementary schools were also preparatory institutions
for more advanced studies. There were two levels of
such study that may be characterized in the modern terms of
secondary and higher learning but this division did not reflect
so much the age of the students as the level of studies.
In the intermediate stage, those engaged in Midrash Mishnah
(study of the Mishnah) or Midrash Talmud (study of the Talmud)
still needed the assistance of a rav – a teacher. On the
upper level students proceeded with their learning independently.
The subject was almost exclusively Talmud. The stress
on Talmud brought about a nearly complete elimination of
Bible and Mishnah from schools beyond the elementary. *Natronai
b. Hilai Gaon (nineth century) expressed the opinion
that adults, being pressed for time because of the need to earn
their living, should concentrate on the study of the Talmud,
since the Talmud contains much of the other two works. This
same logic was later expressed by Rabbenu Jacob b. Meir
*Tam in France.
The Babylonian academies served substantial numbers
of students, some of them from distant lands: Egypt, Tunisia,
Italy, Spain. During the pre-holiday months of Adar and Elul,
the kallah assemblies in the academies attracted many students.
In Babylonia there thus developed a system of talmudic
learning also for the broader circles of the Jewish population,
something on the order of peoples’ universities or, to use still
another modern term, extension courses.
172 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6