Talmud Torah

This was meant to prepare them for yeshiva or, particularly in the movement's modern form, for Jewish education at a high school level.

In the United States, the term Talmud Torah refers to the afternoon program for boys and girls after attending public school.

The institution known as the bei rav or bet rabban (house of the teacher), or as the bei safra or bet sefer (house of the book), is said to have been originated by Ezra and his Great Assembly, who provided a public school in Jerusalem to secure the education of fatherless boys of the age of sixteen years and above.

In later times, possibly influenced by the Christian parochial schools of the thirteenth century, the reading of the prayers and benedictions and the teaching of the principles of the Jewish faith were included.

In almost every community an organization called Hevra Talmud Torah was formed, whose duty was to create a fund and provide means for the support of public schools, and to control all teachers and pupils.

Asher ben Jehiel (1250–1328) ruled to allow withdrawals from the funds of the Talmud Torah for the purpose of meeting the annual tax collected by the local governor, since otherwise great hardships would fall upon the poor, who were liable to be stripped of all their belongings if they failed in the prompt payment of their taxes (Responsa, rule vi., § 2).

On the other hand, money from the general charity fund was at times employed to support the Talmud Torah, and donations for a synagogue or cemetery were similarly used (ib.

It is common even in the present day for men to continue their full-time Torah studies well into their third decade of life while women marry.

The income of the society was derived from several sources:[citation needed] Samuel de Medina (1505–1589) ruled that in case of a legacy left by will to a Talmud Torah and guaranteed by the testator's brother, the latter was not held liable if the property had been consumed owing to the prolonged illness of the deceased (Responsa, Ḥoshen Mishpaṭ, No.

Yoel Sirkis, rabbi of Cracow in 1638, endorsed these regulations and added many others, all of which were confirmed at a general assembly of seventy representatives of the congregations on the 25th of Ṭebet, 5398 (1638; F. H. Wetstein, "Ḳadmoniyyot," document No.

From the congregational record (pinḳes) of Cracow in 1551 it appears that the Talmud Torah society controlled both private and public schools.

It passed the following taḳḳanot, or Jewish legal writs: (1) The members shall have general supervision over the teachers and shall visit the Talmud Torah every week to see that the pupils are properly taught.

(5) The members of the Ḥebra Talmud Torah shall hire a competent and God-fearing melamed, with an assistant, for poor and orphaned boys at the bet ha-midrash.

(6) The melamed and assistant shall teach pupils the Hebrew alphabet (with the vowels), the Siddur, the Pentateuch (with the "Be'er Mosheh" translation), the Rashi commentary, the order of the prayers, etiquette, and good behavior—every boy according to his grade and intelligence; also reading and writing in the vernacular.

1680), describes this Talmud Torah and wishes it might serve as a model for other schools: It is built near the synagogue, and has six rooms, each accommodating a separate class under a melammed.

In the fifth, they learn grammar and begin upon a series of halachic excerpts from the Talmud, the text being in Hebrew and the explanations in the vernacular.

In this class every day one halachah, with the commentaries of Rashi and the Tosafot, is studied, and compared with the conclusions in the codes of Maimonides, Asheri, and Caro.

In Jerusalem the Talmud Torah of the Sephardim, called Tiferet Yerushalayim, was reorganized by the Hakham Bashi rabbi Raphael Meir Panigel in 1891, with 300 pupils and 13 teachers.

The Ashkenazic Talmud Torah and Etz Chaim Yeshiva, with 35 teachers and over 1,000 pupils, succeeded the school established by Judah HeHasid.

The studies comprised elementary Hebrew, the reading of the prayers, the translation of the Pentateuch into Yiddish and English, and the principles of the Jewish faith and practise.

There were several other Talmud Torahs in New York; and similar institutions existed in all cities of the United States and Canada with a large Jewish population.