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<font size=3>Ever wonder how successful Cheder education was in the
nineteenth century? Saul Stampfer has dealt with nineteenth century
Cheder education in his essay with the above title. <br><br>
It is from the book
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Families-Rabbis-Education-Nineteenth-Century-Civilization/dp/1874774854/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340543903&sr=1-2&keywords=stampfer">
<br>
</a></font><h3><b>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Families-Rabbis-Education-Nineteenth-Century-Civilization/dp/1874774854/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340543903&sr=1-2&keywords=stampfer">
Families, Rabbis, and Education: Traditional Jewish Society in
Nineteenth-Century Eastern Europe (Littman Library of Jewish
Civilization)</a> by
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Shaul-Stampfer/e/B001JWTLAS/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_2?qid=1340543903&sr=1-2">
Shaul Stampfer</a> (Feb 18, 2010) See
<a href="http://tinyurl.com/7utjc4p" eudora="autourl">
http://tinyurl.com/7utjc4p</a></b></h3><font size=3>Below are a few
excerpts. I found the entire essay fascinating, because it is not
at all in consonance with what is often depicted regarding Torah
education and study in eastern Europe during the nineteenth
century. Note footnote [41] below regarding Artscroll.
YL<br><br>
Writing was not taught in the early nineteenth-century east European
cheder, <br>
though it had been standard in Jewish elementary education
earlier.<br><br>
In the Talmud Cheder students were introduced to the study of <br>
Talmud in the same way they began with the Pentateuch. The <br>
teacher simply began with a typical talmudic text, translating it <br>
word by word until the students 'picked up' both the idiom and thought
patterns.<br><br>
There was no formal cut-off point for study in the Talmud cheder. It
was<br>
generally accepted that at about barmitzvah age, or shortly
thereafter,<br>
most students would leave the Talmud cheder. This was not related to the
barmitzvah<br>
ceremony and it was not the result of legislation or religious law,
but<br>
a matter of simple economics. As is clear, there was no direct or clear
link<br>
between the programme of study and the future economic activities of
the<br>
pupil. The only useful skill learned in cheder-reading-was learned first.
At<br>
the age of 3 most boys were responsible and developed enough to begin
to<br>
work and to contribute to the family income, or to begin an
apprenticeship<br>
(formal or informal) in order to prepare for the economic
responsibilities of<br>
adulthood. The only reason that would justify continued Talmud study was
if<br>
there was a good chance of ending up as a scholar. For those who would
not<br>
become scholars, to delay work meant loss of income and putting of the
start<br>
of an apprenticeship. Such a youth would remain dependent on his
parents<br>
longer and for little measurable benefit. For reasons that will be
clarified<br>
below it was clear to most 13-year-old boys-and their parents-that
they<br>
would never be scholars. Therefore most families found that it was
logical to<br>
end a son's cheder education at around the age of I 3, when he was old
enough to<br>
begin preparation for practical life.<br><br>
Most young men were incapable of independent Talmud study because of<br>
the <i>cheder </i>system-just as the brilliant achievements of the
intellectual elite<br>
can be credited to the <i>cheder </i>system.<br><br>
Even if most pupils did not realize it, cheder education was a race
against<br>
time because the cheder was usually followed by the <i>beit midrash.
</i>Study there, as<br>
noted above, was independent--without teachers or structured
guidance-and<br>
the communal support was predicated on the fact that the <i>beit
midrash<br>
</i>student was a fully fledged independent Torah scholar. This meant
that the<br>
entering student had to be able to study the Talmud and the complex
literature<br>
of talmudic commentaries on his own. This was no small achievement<br>
for a 13-year-old. Given the realities of cheder study noted above, it
was impossible<br>
for most children to reach this level by the age of 13, or to continue
in<br>
order to reach it at a later age.<br><br>
If the function of the Talmud <i>Cheder </i>was to bring the student to
the point<br>
where he could study Talmud on his own, then the cheder was not a
very<br>
successful institution. But it was not alone in its ineffectiveness. The
Jewish<br>
community as a whole did not do as much as it could to spread knowledge
of<br>
the Talmud despite all of the talk about the importance of Torah study.
Very<br>
simple steps could have been taken that would have dramatically
increased<br>
knowledge and understanding. Surprisingly, tools such as
Aramaic-Yiddish<br>
dictionaries, or an extensive Talmud commentary in Yiddish or even
Hebrew,<br>
did not exist, even though they would have been of great aid to students.
It<br>
certainly would not have been difficult to produce such books. Even
classical<br>
talmudic dictionaries in Hebrew, such as the <i>Arukh, </i>were not
generally<br>
available. [41] The results were clear. The majority of Jews, such as the
pedlars,<br>
shoemakers, and tailors, could not study a page of Talmud on their own.
They<br>
were pious, they said their psalms, they went to hear the midrashic
sermons<br>
on Saturday afternoons in the synagogues, but they were not
themselves<br>
learned.<br><br>
<br>
[41] The contemporary phenomenon of Talmud commentaries, such as
that of Rabbi Steinsaltz<br>
or the Artscroll commentaries which are in the vernacular and which
require no major<br>
investment of effort to understand, did not have an equivalent in eastern
Europe. This was not<br>
because of any inability to write such a commentary or lack of printing
shops to print one. Popularization <br>
of the Talmud or making it more accessible went against the grain of
traditional Jewish<br>
society. It will be interesting to see what the long-term impact of these
commentaries will<br>
be - whether they will spread knowledge or lead to functional illiteracy
in Hebrew and Aramaic.<br><br>
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