Yeshiva

A yeshiva (plural yeshivot) is a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and Torah study.

Until the late 20th century, yeshivot were attended by males only. Many Modern Orthodox yeshivot have opened since then for girls and women. A yeshiva gedola ("senior/great yeshiva") is a post-secondary institution, whereas a yeshiva ketana ("junior/small yeshiva") is an elementary school or high-school. A kollel is a yeshiva with a framework for independent study and providing stipends for male married students.

Studying is usually done together with a study-partner called a chavrusa (Aramaic: "friend"), or in a Shiur (lecture). The chavrusa is one of the unique features of the yeshiva. The partners actively and intensely study the nuances of Talmudic text.

Etymology

Alternate spellings and names include yeshivah (; , "sitting" (noun); metivta and mesivta (Aramaic: מתיבתא methivta); Beth midrash, Talmudical Academy, Rabbinical Academy; and Rabbinical School. The word yeshiva, lit. "sitting," is applied to the activity of learning in class, and hence to a learning "session."

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 known as shte ha-yeshivot, "the two colleges."

History

Origins

The Mishnah tractate Megillah 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 beth din ("rabbinical court") was attended by a number of pupils up to three times the size of the court (Mishnah, 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 (Elul and Adar, the months preceding the harvest, called Yarchay Kalla) to study, the rest of the year they worked.

Gaonic Period

The gaonic period is named after the gaon, which was the title bestowed on the heads of the three yeshivas in existence from the 3rd century to the 13th century. These gaons acted as schoolmaster to their individual yeshivot, and as a spiritual leader and high judge for the wider communities tied to them. All official business of the yeshiva was conducted in the name of its gaon, and all correspondence to or from the yeshiva was addressed directly to the gaon.

Throughout the gaonic period there were three yeshivot. These were named for the cities in which they were located, Jerusalem, Sura, and Pumbedita; the yeshiva of Jerusalem would later relocate to Cairo, and the yeshivot of Sura and Pumbedita to Baghdad, but retain their original names. Each Jewish community would associate itself with one of the three yeshivot; Jews living around the Mediterranean typically followed the yeshiva in Jerusalem, while those living in the Arabian Peninsula and modern-day Iraq and Iran typically followed one of the two yeshivot in Baghdad. There was however, no requirement for this, and each community could choose to associate with any of the yeshivot. The yeshiva served as the highest educational institution for the Rabbinites of this period. In addition to this, the yeshiva wielded immense power as the principle body for interpreting Jewish religious law. In this regard, the gaon of a yeshiva was seen as the highest judge on all matters of Jewish law. Each yeshiva ruled differently on matters of ritual and law, these divisions were accepted by the other yeshivot, and all three were considered equally orthodox. The yeshiva also served as an administrative authority; in conjunction with local communities, the yeshiva would appoint members to serve as the head of local congregations. These would serve as a go-between for the local congregation, and the larger yeshiva it was attached to. These local leaders would submit questions to the yeshiva to obtain final rulings on issues of dogma, ritual, or law. Each congregation was expected to follow only one yeshiva to prevent conflict with different rulings issued by different yeshivot.

The yeshivot were financially supported through a number of means. First, there were fixed, but voluntary, yearly contributions made to the yeshivas, these were collected and handled by the local leaders appointed by the yeshiva. Private gifts from individuals were also common and could consist of money or goods. Private donations were also regularly submitted on holidays. Finally, fines were assigned for the maintenance of the yeshivas.

The yeshiva of Jerusalem was finally forced into exile in Cairo in 1127, and eventually dispersed entirely. Likewise, the yeshivot of Sura and Pumbedita were dispersed following the Mongol invasions of the 13th century. After the yeshiva were scattered, education in Jewish religious studies became the responsibility of individual synagogues. No organization ever came to replace the three great yeshivot of Jerusalem, Sura and Pumbedita.

Post-Gaonic to 19th Century

Traditionally, every town rabbi had the right to maintain a number of full-time or part-time pupils in the town's beth midrash (study hall, 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.

Lithuanian yeshivas

in Yeshivas Ner Yisroel, Baltimore]] 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, Rabbi 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 in response to demands by the Russian government, a number of yeshivot opened in other towns and cities, most notably Slabodka, Ponevezh, Mir, Brisk, and Telz. Many prominent contemporary yeshivot in the United States and Israel are continuations of these institutions and often bear the same name.

In the 19th Century, Rabbi Israel Salanter initiated the Mussar movement in non-Hasidic Lithuanian Jewry, that sought to encourage yeshiva students and the wider community to spend regular times devoted to the study of Jewish ethical works. Concerned by the new social and religious changes of the Haskalah (secularising movement), and emerging political ideologies such as Zionism, that often opposed traditional Judaism, the masters of Mussar saw a need to augment Talmudic study with more personal works. These comprised earlier classic Jewish ethical texts (mussar literature), as well as a new literature for the movement. By focusing the student on self understanding and introspection, often with profound psychological insight, the spiritual aims of Judaism could be internalised. After early opposition, the Lithuanian yeshivah world saw the need for this new component in their curriculum, and set aside times for individual mussar study and mussar talks ("mussar shmues"). A spiritual mentor (Mashgiach Ruchani) encouraged the personal development of each student. To some degree also, this Lithuanian movement arose in response, and as an alternative, to the separate mystical study of the Hasidic Judaism world. Hasidism began previously, in the 18th Century, within traditional Jewish life in the Ukraine, and spread to Hungary, Poland and Russia. As the 19th Century brought upheavals and threats to traditional Judaism, the Mussar teachers saw the benefit of the new spiritual focus in Hasidism, and developed their alternative ethical approach to spirituality.

Some variety developed within Lithuanian yeshivas to methods of studying Talmud and mussar, for example the contrast between breadth (beki'ut) and depth ('iyyun), or the place given to pilpul (the type of casuistic argumentation popular from the 16th to 18th centuries). The new analytical approach of the Brisker method, developed by Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik of Brisk, has become widely popular, though there are other approaches such as those of Mir, Chofetz Chaim, and Telz. In mussar different schools developed, such as Slabodka and Novhardok, though today a decline in devoted spiritual self-development from its earlier intensity has to some extent levelled out the differences.

Hasidic yeshivas

With the success of the yeshiva institution in Lithuanian Jewry, the Hasidic world developed their own yeshivas, in their areas of Eastern Europe. These comprised the traditional Jewish focus on Talmudic literature that is central to Rabbinic Judaism, augmented by study of Hasidic philosophy (Hasidus). Examples of these Hasidic yeshivas are the Chabad Lubavitch yeshiva system of Tomchei Temimim, founded by Sholom Dovber Schneersohn in Russia in 1897, and the Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva established in Poland in 1930 by Meir Shapiro, who is renowned across Hasidic and Lithuanian Judaism for initiating the Daf Yomi daily study cycle of Talmud.

In many Hasidic yeshivas study of Hasidic texts is a secondary activity, similar to the additional mussar curriculum in Lithuanian yeshivas. These paths see Hasidus as a means to the end purpose of inspiring emotional dveikus and mystical enthusiasm. In this context, the personal pilgrimage of a Hasid to their Rebbe is a central feature of spiritual life, in order to awaken spiritual fervour. Often, such paths will reserve the Sabbath in the yeshiva for the sweeter teachings of the classic texts of Hasidism. In contrast, Habad and Breslav, in their different ways, place daily study of their dynasties' Hasidic texts in central importance. Illustrative of this is Sholom Dovber Schneersohn's wish in establishing the Habad yeshiva system, that the students should spend a part of the daily curriculum learning Habad Hasidic texts "with pilpul". Pilpul is the in-depth analytical investigation of a topic, traditionally reserved for the profound nuances of Talmudic study. The idea to learn Hasidic mystical texts with similar logical profundity, derives from the unique approach in the works of the Rebbes of Habad, initiated by its founder Schneur Zalman of Liadi, to systematically investigate and articulate the "Torah of the Baal Shem Tov" in intellectual forms. Further illustrative of this is the differentiation in Habad thought (such as the "Tract on Ecstacy" by Dovber Schneuri) between general Hasidism's emphasis on emotional enthusiasm and the Habad ideal of intellectually reserved ecstacy. In Breslav, by contrast, the daily study of works from the imaginative, creative radicalism of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov awakens the necessary soulfulness with which to approach other Jewish study and observance.

Sephardi yeshivas

Although the yeshiva as an institution is in some ways a continuation of the Talmudic Academies in Babylonia, large scale educational institutions of this kind were not characteristic of the North African and Middle Eastern Sephardi Jewish world in pre-modern times: education typically took place in a more informal setting in the synagogue or in the entourage of a famous rabbi. In medieval Spain and immediately following the expulsion in 1492 there were some schools which combined Jewish studies with sciences such as logic and astronomy, similar to the contemporary Islamic madrasas. In 19th-century Jerusalem a college was typically an endowment for supporting ten adult scholars rather than an educational institution in the modern sense; towards the end of the century a school for orphans was founded providing for some rabbinic studies. Early educational institutions on the European model were Beth Zilkha founded in 1870s Iraq and Porat Yosef Yeshiva founded in Jerusalem in 1914. Also notable is the Bet El yeshiva founded in 1737 in Jerusalem for advanced Kabbalistic studies. Later Sephardic yeshivot are usually on the model either of Porat Yosef or of the Ashkenazi institutions.

The Sephardic world has traditionally placed the study of esoteric Jewish mysticism (Kabbalah) in a more mainsteam position that in the European Ashkenazi world. This difference of emphasis arose in reaction to the historical events of the Sabbatean heresy in the 17th Century, that suppressed widespead study of Kabbalah in Europe in favour of the strenghth of Rabbinic Talmudic study. In Eastern European Lithuanian life, Kabbalah was reserved for an intellectual elite, while the mystical revival of Hasidism articulated Kabbalistic theology through Hasidic thought. These factors did not affect the Sephardi Jewish world, which retained a wider connection to Kabbalah in its traditionally observant communities. With the establishment of Sephardi yeshivas in Israel, after the immigration of the Arabic Jewish communities there, some Sephardi yeshivas incorporated study of more accessible Kabbalistic texts into their curriculum. Nonetheless, the European prescriptions to reserve advanced Kabbalistic study to mature and elite students also influence the choice of texts in such yeshivas.

Conservative movement yeshivas

In 1854, the Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau was founded. It was headed by Zecharias Frankel, and was eventually viewed as the first yeshiva associated with Conservative Judaism. In subsequent years, Conservative Judaism established a number of other institutions of higher learning (such as the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York City) that emulate the style of traditional yeshivas in significant ways. However, many do not officially refer to themselves as "yeshivas," and all are open to both women and men, who study in the same classrooms and follow the same curriculum. Students may study part-time, as in a kollel, or full-time, and they may study lishmah (for the sake of studying itself) or towards earning semichah, rabbinic ordination.

Nondenominational or mixed yeshivas

Non-denominational yeshivas and kollels with connections to Conservative Judaism include Yeshivat Hadar in New York, New York, the leaders of whom include Rabbinical Assembly members Eli Kaunfer and Shai Held. The rabbinical school of the Academy for Jewish Religion in California (AJR-CA) is led by Conservative rabbi Mel Gottlieb. The faculty of the Academy for Jewish Religion in New York and of the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College in Newton Centre, Massachusetts also includes a large number of Conservative rabbis.

The Canadian Yeshiva & Rabbinical School is a yeshiva dedicated to the reestablishment of what it describes as "Classic Judaism". This school, scheduled to accept its first students in September 2012, is led by Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Roy Tanenbaum and Chancellor Rabbi Daniel Sperber. Rav Tanenbaum is a member of the Conservative rabbinate and Rabbi Sperber is a associated with Modern Orthodoxy. However, the school affiliates with neither movement.

Reform and Reconstructionist yeshivas

Hebrew Union College (HUC), affiliated with Reform Judaism, was founded in 1875 under the leadership of Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise in Cincinnati, Ohio. HUC later opened additional locations in New York, Los Angeles, and Jerusalem. It is a rabbinical seminary or college mostly geared for the training of rabbis and clergy specifically. Similarly, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College of Reconstructionist Judaism, founded in Pennsylvania in 1968, functions to train its future clergy. Some Reform and Reconstructionist teachers also teach at non-denominational seminaries like the Academy for Jewish Religion in New York, the Academy for Jewish Religion in California, and the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College.

Contemporary Orthodox Yeshivas

See: List of yeshivas

Types of yeshivot

#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. #Yeshiva High School - Also called Mesivta or Mechina or Yeshiva Gedolah, 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. #Mechina - For Israeli high-school graduates who wish to study for one year before entering the army. #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. #Yeshivat Hesder - Yeshiva that has an arrangement with the Israel Defence Forces by which the students enlist together in the same unit and, as much as is possible serve in the same unit in the army. Over a period of about 5 years there will be a period of service starting in the second year of about 16 months. There are different variations. The rest of the time will be spent in compulsory study in the yeshiva. #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. #Baal teshuva yeshivot catering to the needs of the newly Orthodox. The best-known are Mayanot, Darche Noam, Ohr Somayach, Aish HaTorah, and Hadar Hatorah.

Traditionally, religious girls' schools are not called "yeshiva." The Beis Yaakov system was started in 1918 under the guidance of Sarah Schenirer. This system provided girls with a Torah education, using a curriculum that skewed more toward practical halakha and the study of Tanakh, rather than Talmud. Beis Yaakovs are strictly Haredi schools. Non-Haredi girls' schools' curricula often includes the study of Mishna and sometimes Talmud. They are also sometimes called "yeshiva" (e.g., Prospect Park Yeshiva). Post-high schools for women are generally called "seminary" or "midrasha".

Curriculum

Learning at an Orthodox yeshiva includes Torah study; the study of Rabbinic literature, especially the Talmud (Rabbinic Judaism's central work); and the study of Responsa for Jewish observance, and alternatively ethical (Musar) or mystical (Hasidic philosophy) texts. In some institutions, classical Jewish philosophy (Hakira) texts or Kabbalah are studied, or the works of individual thinkers (such as Abraham Isaac Kook).

Non-Orthodox institutions offer a synthesis of traditional and critical methods, allowing Jewish texts and tradition to encounter social change and modern scholarship. The curriculum focuses on classical Jewish subjects, including Talmud, Tanakh, Midrash, Halacha, and Philosophy. Learning is generally conducted in the traditional yeshiva method (chevruta and shiur) with an openness to modern scholarship.

Academic year

In most yeshivot, 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 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

Talmud study

In the typical Orthodox 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 (iyyun), often confined to selected legally focused tractates, with an emphasis on analytical skills and close reference to the classical commentators; the second seeks to cover ground more speedily, to build general knowledge (beki'ut) of the Talmud; see the Talmud in modern-day Judaism.

In the yeshiva system of talmudic study the first area to be mastered are eight mesechtohs (volumes that deal with a given subject which are divided into chapters that deal with sub-topics relating to the general subject) that deal with civil jurisprudence. These are the mesechtohs that are studied in undergraduate yeshivohs. These eight volumes are mastered first because it is with these subjects that a student can best master the technique of proper analysis of the talmud. Only after this technique is mastered is a student ready to go on to other areas of the talmud and develop a scholorship in all areas of the talmud.

Works generally studied to clarify the Talmudic text are the commentary by Rashi and the analyses of the Tosafists and other rishonim (commentators from the 11th to 14th centuries). There are two schools of rishonim, one from France and the other from Spain who will sometimes hold different interpretations and understandings of the talmud. Various other mefarshim (commentators), from later generations are also used.

Jewish law

Generally, a period is devoted to the study of practical halacha (Jewish law). The text most commonly studied in Ashkenazic Yeshivot is the Mishnah Berurah written by Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan, the Chofetz Chaim. The Mishnah Berurah is a compilation of halachic opinions rendered after the time of the writing of the Shulchan Aruch. In Sephardic Yeshivot the Shulchan Aruch itself is more commonly studied.

Ethics, mysticism and philosophy

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

Hasidic yeshivot study the mystical, spiritual works of Hasidic philosophy (Chassidus). This draws on the earlier esoteric theology of Kabbalah, but articulates it in terms of inner psychological awareness and personal analogies. This makes Jewish mysticism accessible and tangible, so that it inspires emotional dveikus (cleaving to God) and spiritual contribution to daily Jewish life. This serves some similar purposes to mussar, but through different means and with different contributions to intellectual and emotional life. Chabad yeshivot, for example, study the Tanya, the Likutei Torah, and the voluminous works of the Rebbes of Chabad for an hour and a half each morning, before prayers, and an hour and a half in the evening. (See Tomchei Temimim.) Many Yeshivot in Israel belonging to the Religious Zionism study the writings of Rav Kook, who articulated a unique personal blend of mysticism, creative exegesis and philosophy.

Torah and Bible study

Intensive study of the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy with the commentary of Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaqi 1040 - 1105) is stressed and taught in all elementary grades, often with Yiddish translations and more notes in Haredi yeshivas.

The teaching of Tanakh, Hebrew Bible, is usually only done on the high school level, and students read the Weekly Torah portion by themselves (known as the obligation of Shnayim mikra ve-echad targum, "Hebrew Bible twice and Aramaic Targum once"). Exceptions are the five Megilloth and Tehillim. Since their inception, Modern Orthodox yeshivot in Israel, offer courses in many, if not most, of the books of Nevi'im and Ketuvim.

College credit

Some Yeshivas permit students to attend college on a limited basis, and this is facilitated by arrangements for the above study to receive credit towards a degree.

Yeshivish

Yeshivish, also "Frumspeak," is a combination of English, Yiddish and Hebrew used in Orthodox yeshivas in America.

See also

Center for Jewish History

List of yeshivas

Mashgiach ruchani

Rosh yeshiva

Yeshiva University Museum

References

Category:Hebrew words and phrases Category:Jewish education Category:Jewish religious occupations Category:Religious education Category:Yiddish words and phrases Category:Religious schools