Information about Yeshiva

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A Yeshiva or yeshivah (IPA: [jəˈʃivə]) (Hebrew: ישיבה, "sitting (n.)" ; pl. yeshivot or yeshivas) is a Jewish institution for Torah study and the study of Talmud. Yeshivot are usually Orthodox Jewish institutions, and generally cater to boys or men. A roughly equivalent womens' institution is the midrasha.

The term yeshiva gedola ("senior/higher yeshiva") refers to post-high school institutions, and yeshiva ketana ("junior yeshiva") refers to institutions catering to boys of high school age. The term "Yeshiva" is also used as a generic name for any school that teaches Torah, Mishnah and Talmud, to any age group.

A yeshiva with a framework for independent study and providing stipends for male married students is known as a kollel.

Etymology

Jewish tradition holds that students should sit while learning from a master. The word yeshiva, meaning "sitting", therefore came to be applied to the activity of learning in class, and hence to a learning "session."^[1]

The transference in meaning of the term from the learning session to the institution itself appears to have occurred by the time of the great Talmudic Academies in Babylonia, Sura and Pumbedita, which were commonly referred to as shte ha-yeshivot, "the two colleges".

History

See also: Torah study

Pre-1800s

Traditionally, every town rabbi had the right to maintain a number of full-time or part-time pupils in the town's study hall (beis midrash, usually adjacent to the synagogue). Their cost of living was covered by community taxation. After a number of years, these young people would either take up a vacant rabbinical position elsewhere (after obtaining semicha, rabbinical ordination) or join the workforce.

The Mishna (tractate Megilla) mentions the law that a town can only be called a "city" if it supports ten men (batlanim) to make up the required quorum for communal prayers. Likewise, every rabbinical court (beth din) was attended by a number of pupils up to three times the size of the court (Mishna, tractate Sanhedrin). These might be indications of the historicity of the classical yeshiva.

As indicated by the Talmud, adults generally took off two months a year (Ellul and Adar, the months preceding the harvest) to pursue work, the rest of the year they studied.

The Lithuanian yeshivas

Organised Torah study was revolutionised by Rabbi Chaim Volozhin, a disciple of the Vilna Gaon (an influential 18th century leader of Judaism). In his view, the traditional arrangement did not cater for those who were looking for more intensive study.

With the support of his teacher, Reb Chaim Volozhin gathered a large number of interested students and started a yeshiva in the (now Belarusian) town of Volozhin. Although the Volozhin Yeshiva was closed some 60 years later by the Russian government, a number of yeshivos opened in other towns and cities, most notably Ponevezh, Mir, Brisk and Telz. Many prominent contemporary yeshivos in the USA and Israel are continuations of these institutions and often bear the same name.

Types of yeshivot

There are a few types of yeshivot:

1. Yeshiva ketana ("junior yeshiva") - Many yeshivot ketanot in Israel and some in the diaspora do not have a secular course of studies and all students learn Judaic Torah studies full time.
2. Yeshiva High School - Also called Mesivta or Mechina, combines the intensive Jewish religious education with a secular high school education. The dual curriculum was pioneered by the Manhattan Talmudical Academy of Yeshiva University (now known as Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy) in 1916.
3. Mechina - For Israeli high-school graduates who wish to study for one year before entering the army.
4. Beth medrash - For high school graduates, and is attended from one year to many years, dependent on the career plans and affiliation of the student.
5. Kollel - Yeshiva for married adults. The kollel idea, though having its intellectual roots traced to the Torah, is a relatively modern innovation of 19th century Europe. Often, a Kollel will be in the same location as the yeshiva.
6. Baal teshuva yeshivas that cater to the needs of the newly Orthodox. The best known are Ohr Somayach and Aish HaTorah.

Traditionally, religious girls' schools are not called "yeshiva." In 1918, under the guidance of Sarah Schenirer the Bais Yaakov system was started, which provided girls with a Torah education, with a curriculum that skewed more toward practical halacha and the study of Tanach, rather than Gemara. Bais Yaakovs are strictly Hareidi schools. Non-Hareidi girls' schools' curricula often includes the study of Mishna. They are also sometimes called "yeshiva" (e.g., Prospect Park Yeshiva). Post-high schools for girls are generally called "seminary."

Prominent yeshivot

Main article: List of yeshivas

Academic year

In most yeshivos the year is divided into three periods (terms) called zmanim. Elul zman starts from the beginning of the Hebrew month of Elul and extends until the end of Yom Kippur. This is the shortest (approx. six weeks), but most intense semester as it comes before the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

Winter zman starts after Sukkot ("Tabernacles") and lasts until just before Passover, a duration of five months (six in a Jewish leap year).

Summer semester starts after Passover and lasts until either the middle of the month of Tammuz or Tisha B'Av, a duration of about three months.

Typical schedule

The following is a typical daily schedule for Beis Medrash students:

• 7:00 a.m. - Optional seder (study session)
• 7:30 a.m. - Morning prayers
• 8:30 a.m. - Session on study of Jewish law
• 9:00 a.m. - Breakfast
• 9:30 a.m. - Morning Talmud study (first seder)
• 12:30 p.m. - Shiur ("lecture") - advanced students sometimes dispense with this lecture
• 1:30 p.m. - Lunch
• 2:45 p.m. - Mincha - afternoon prayers
• 3:00 p.m. - Mussar seder - Jewish ethics
• 3:30 p.m. - Talmud study (second seder)
• 7:00 p.m. - Dinner
• 8:00 p.m. - Night seder - Review of lecture, or study of choice.
• 9:25 p.m. - Mussar seder - Jewish Ethics
• 9:45 p.m. - Maariv - Evening prayers
• 10:00 p.m. - Optional evening seder

This schedule is generally maintained Sunday through Thursday. On Thursday nights there may be an extra long night seder, sometimes lasting beyond 1:00 am. On Fridays there is usually at least one seder in the morning and the afternoons are free. Saturdays have a special Sabbath schedule which includes some sedarim but usually no shiur.

Method of study

Studying is usually done together with a study-partner called a chavrusa (Aramaic: "friend"), or in a shiur ("lecture").

Talmud study

Main article: Talmud

In the typical yeshiva, the main emphasis is on Talmud study and analysis. Generally, two parallel Talmud streams are covered during a zman (trimester). The first is study in-depth (be-iyun) with an emphasis on analytical skills and close reference to the classical commentators; the latter seeks to cover ground more speedily, to build general knowledge (bekiyut) of the Talmud; see The Talmud in modern-day Judaism.

Works generally studied to clarify the Talmudic text are the commentary by Rashi and the analyses of the Tosafists. Various other meforshim (commentators) are used as well.

Jewish law

Main article: Halakha

Generally, a period is devoted to the study of practical halakha (Jewish law). The text most commonly studied is the Mishnah Berurah written by Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan. The Mishnah Berurah is a compilation of halakhic opinions rendered after the time of the writing of the Shulkhan Arukh.

Ethics

The preeminent ethical text studied in yeshivot is the Mesillat Yesharim ("Path [of the] Just") by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto. Other works studied include:

• Orchot Tzaddikim ("Paths [of the] Righteous") Its authorship and time of writing is uncertain, but as it quotes Maimonides, it was written some time after his works were disseminated.
• Chovot ha-Levavot, by Bahya ibn Paquda.
• Ma'alot ha-Middot ("Benefit [of good character] traits")
• Mishnat R' Aharon Mussar Lectures on many topics by Rabbi Aharon Kotler.
• Mikhtav me-Eliyahu, the works of Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler.

Chasidic yeshivos study Hasidic philosophy (Chassidus). Chabad yeshivos, for example, study the Tanya, the Likutei Torah, and the voluminous works of the Rebbes of Chabad for an hour and a half in the morning, before prayers, and an hour and a half in the evening. See Tomchei Temimim.

See also

• Bais Yaakov
• Beth midrash
• Hesder
• Kollel
• List of yeshivas
• Mashgiach ruchani
• Mechina
• Midrasha
• Rosh yeshiva
• Yeshivish

Further reading

• Helmreich, William B. The world of the yeshiva: an intimate portrait of Orthodox Jewry. Free Press, 1982, 412 pages. ISBN 0-88125-641-2.

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