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54 LUBOML
one melamed of delicate nature and good heart,
who, rather than beat a student who did not do
well, banged himself several times on the head.
Many parents also sent their daughters for a
few hours of studyseparate from the boys, of
courselearning how to read prayers and a little
bit of Chumash.
Cheders were generally in a rebbe's private
homeusually a small narrow room where the
students barely fit in and were always crowded.
Until the age of five or six the youngsters still
enjoyed a bit of freedom of movement and a few
games: pitching buttons at a hole, hide-and-seek,
horses, chasing pigs and throwing stones at their
non-kosher hides, and others.
When the rainy autumn and snowy winter
came, however, we were stuck in the narrow
house of the rebbe for many long hours, except
for short breaks in the afternoon to eat, and
toward evening to go to the synagogue for the
afternoon and evening prayers. On those days
the cheder became a kind of prison, and our only
wish was to escape from its yoke and its oppressive
atmosphere.
It is no wonder that we could hardly wait for
the approach of the month of Nisanwhen we
had a long breaka week before the Pesach
[Passover] holiday. We were always praying for
the intervention of blind fate so that something
out of the ordinary would happen that would give
us a bit of free time. If the rebbe got sick or
someone in his family died, and as a result we
were free for a day or two from studies and being
cooped up in the cheder, there were no bounds to
our happiness. We were always grateful to the
non-Jewish government inspector of schools, who
caused trembling among the melamdim who were
teaching without a license, and that is how we
unwittingly enjoyed a brief respite.
Talmud Torah
The Talmud Torah was the official educational
institution of the community, and it is where
primarily poor children and orphans learned,
since they had no way of paying for a rebbe.
The building of the Talmud Torah was largethree
large classrooms and a teachers' room. In
the largest front room, enlightened folks prayed
on Sabbaths. There was a large field around the
building where students played at recess and
enjoyed a bit of fresh air.
In addition to religious subjects, prayers, and
Chumash, they were taught some arithmetic and
Russian. The Talmud Torah was overseen by the
official government-appointed rabbi, who saw to
it that the education provided was in the spirit of
the times.
The name of the rabbi in my day was
Bogoslavsky, an elderly Jew with a trimmed
beard, a large, broad nose, and a square-shaped
yarmulke on his head, who had a serious and strict
look to his face. The permanent teacher for the
students in the lower grades was Moyshe Yitshak
Kagan, of blessed memory, who lived in a small
house next to the Talmud Torah, in the middle of
a fenced-off fruit orchard and lovely garden into
which we longed to enter.
The standing of the Talmud Torah and its
importance grew in time, with the arrival of the
licensed teacher Shammai Frankfurt from Kovel,
who was well-loved by all and was, it seems, a
Zionist supporter. He was elegantly dressed, had
nice manners, a felt top hat on his head and a shiny
walking stick in his hand, and he bowed to all in
greeting. (It is worth mentioning that Shammai
Frankfurt was the founder and director of the
Hebrew high school in Kovel [near Luboml] in
the 1920s.) Even today I can hear the lovely
melodies of the songs "Zion Tamati, Zion
Hemdati" and of "Sham Bamakom Arazim
Menashkim Avei Rom" and others, which came
through the windows of the Talmud Torah and
could be heard from afar. We students in the
nearby cheder would sneak up and stand under
the windows and listen to those lovely songs,
which touched us deeply and moved us to longing
for our land.
At about the age of Bar Mitzvah, many students
left the cheder or Talmud Torah and slowly
were initiated into the adult world, either to
learn a trade or to help their parents in business.
A small number did continue to studyGemara
and Tosefot and even the Posekimwith the few
truly learned teachers or on their own in the shtibl,
helped by those who devoted all their time to
Torah study for its own sake.