pdf available - Multiple Choices

the end of Friday evening services in the synagogue
and the congregation was invited to come
to the home, after they had their dinners, for a
Shalom Zachar. At tables set with baked goods
and liquor, and particularly with cooked
chickpeas seasoned with pepper and salt (arbes,in
Yiddish) and with various kinds of drinkssoft
and hardthe assembled guests would sing and
discuss Torah on the happy occasion.
On all eight days leading up to the circumcision,
the little children whose schoolroom was
closest to the home where the baby was born,
accompanied by the rebbe's helper (the behelferor
sometimes belfer) would come to the bedside
an d read prayers, including the Sh'ma and
HaMalach HaGoel Mikol Ra, and as payment for
their pains they were given a handful of candies
and nuts.
The circumcision, naturally, was performed
at home, and the skin was wrapped in a cloth and
put in a box of sand in the Great Synagogue. It
was customary to nurse the child for a long time,
and if the mother did not have enough milk, or it
stopped too soon, a wetnurse would be hired.
Until the child learned to stand up and walk,
he was kept mostly in his crib, a boat-shaped
little basket woven of shoots and strung to the
ceiling. The child slept in it and spent most of the
day there, and in order to quiet him when he cried
or to get him to go to sleep, the cradle was rocked
like a swing.
The birthrate was generally high, but the
mortality rate was also high.
The Cheder
When a boy reached the age of three, he was
already sent to the cheder [school], to the nearest
teacher for small children. I remember very well
my first day in cheder with the rebbe R. Yisroel,
who lived across the street; I was brought there
wearing my father's taus [prayer shawl], carried
by the young behelfer, while my mother and grandmother
shed tears of joy and happiness.
The first things we learned were the letters of
the Hebrew alphabetkometz alef, awin order
to become familiar with letters and vowels. Then
they taught us all the particulars necessary to be
able to read the Siddur easily. This was our only
THE EARLY DAYS 53
textbook until gradually we progressed to the
Chumash [Pentateuch].
The occasion marking the beginning of the
study of the Chumash usually took place at home
among family members on a Sabbath, when the
rebbe would come to talk about the pupil's
progress. A diligent student would give a small
talk on a timely topic, which had set formulations.
One began as follows: "I have auspiciously
begun to study Chumash: Chumash means `five'
the five books of the Torah"and here the candidate
would begin reciting the names of the books
in order, with the help of the five fingers on his
hand, explaining their contents.
Another formulation was: "Rav Ashi said:
'Why do the children begin with study of Leviticus,
telling of the sacrifices [in the Temple] and not
with the book of Genesis [the beginning of the
Torah]?' It is because we, the small children, are
like a pure sacrifice," etc.
Studying the commentary of Rashi, with its
characteristic script, was a middle stage and a
transition to the start of studying Gemara with
another rebbe. At age eight or nine children
started to study Gemaraone lesson per week, a
page or page and a half. Thursday was quiz day.
The student had to read in front of the rebbe his
lesson in Talmud and in the weekly Torah portion,
which the rebbe had taught in the previous
four days. The students always were tested in a
set order, starting with the best and ending with
the least capable, the one who had a "hard time
understanding" and was the last in line. Any
student who did not know the lesson as he was
supposed to had to remain beside the rebbe's
table until everyone finishedsometimes until
8:00 or 9:00 in the evening.
There was quite a large number of teachers
for the little childrenperhaps three to five on
every streetand they were especially concentrated
in the alleys near the synagogue. They
made a meager livingand their work was backbreaking,
from morning until late at night, often
including an hour or two on Sabbath afternoon.
The pedagogy of those days did not forbid
corporal punishment, and it was often employed
in many cheders, depending on the disposition
and mood of the teacher. We must give praise to