ABSTRACT
Jewish education from ancient to modern times was an awkward yoking of high ideals and dedication with neglect and contempt. From the time of the Mishna until the early 20th century, Jewish education was polarized by the exceptional low status of schoolteaching and the exceptional high status of Gemara dialectics. This chapter examines the hard life of the elite older scholars at exacting schools for talmudic study, supported through public or private funds or able to support themselves through separate employment. The relationship of teachers to students was like that of father to son. Students were virtually adopted by their teachers. They lived with them and served their teachers as part of the educational experience of Torah study. Students would learn Torah not just through the sacred texts and the oral tradition but also by observing their rabbis in every iota of their lives. They were studying life itself, and their rabbis were, in effect life models. A Torah apprenticeship could last many years: forty was the accepted age to start teaching. Once the student had sufficient knowledge and maturity, he was obliged to use his training. Eternal students were not encouraged. Life in the talmudic seminaries was hard, but the potential reward was great: engagement with the ‘warfare of Torah’ could bring distinction and fame. For this reason, Gemara study, intrinsically dialectic, provoked intense competition. Prior to 1789, this was practically the only intellectual arena in which Jewish males, living mostly in a religiously closed, self-ruled world, could compete.
