yeshiva

n. Judaism.

1. An institute of learning where students study sacred texts, primarily the Talmud.
2. An elementary or secondary school with a curriculum that includes religion and culture as well as general education.

[Hebrew yəšîbâ, from yāšab, to sit.]

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(pl. yeshivot). An institution dedicated to advanced rabbinic study. Its curriculum consists almost entirely of the study of texts, chiefly those of the Talmud. Traditionally, Rabbis have pursued their studies in a yeshivah, but yeshivot are not institutions for professional training.

Yeshivot are related to the Academies of Erets Israel and Babylonia that flourished from at least the third century CE until about the middle of the 11th century. These academies, also known as yeshivot, served not only as teaching institutions but also as rabbinic courts and centers for the dissemination of rabbinic Responsa, whereas the later yeshivot served primarily as institutions of learning. Changing conditions in Iraq together with the growth of Jewish communities outside of Babylonia led to the decline of the Babylonian academies and a corresponding rise in the importance of other yeshivot. None of these, however, ever gained the centralized authority and influence of the Babylonian institutions.

In the tenth century, a yeshivah existed in Jerusalem. This was apparently the last remnant of the great academies of Erets Israel and was probably transferred to Jerusalem from Tiberias. The Jerusalem yeshivah was moved to Damascus after 1071; other important centers of learning existed in Damascus and Aleppo until the end of the 12th century.

A legend that appears in Abraham Ibn Daud's Sefer ha-Kabbalah (mid-12th cent.) tells of four scholars on their way to study in Babylonia around the year 990 whose ship was seized by pirates. One of the scholars was never heard from again, but the three others were sold as slaves, each in a different port, one in North Africa, one in Egypt, and one in Spain; all three succeeded in establishing yeshivot which became famous. This story reflects the fact that from the tenth century on, yeshivot could be found in most Jewish communities as well as the continuity between these and the Babylonian academies.

Yeshivot existed in North Africa from the eighth century; the first great one, believed to be founded by Hushiel ben Elḥanan, was the Kairouan Academy. It reached its peak in the tenth century, and with its decline in the 11th century the yeshivot of Fez in Morocco and Tlemcen in Algeria became the leading institutions of the region. An important yeshivah existed also in Fostat (near modern Cairo).

One of the first important yeshivot to appear in Spain was located in Cordoba, founded by Moses ben Ḥanokh in the tenth century. The yeshivah of Lucena, which counted among its students Judah Halevi, and the Barcelona yeshivah were among the earliest rabbinical academies in the country. Numerous yeshivot existed in Spain up to the time of the expulsion in 1492, and many of the important Spanish scholars, e.g., Naḥmanides and Solomon ben Abraham Adret, headed their own yeshivot.

A great intellectual contribution was made by the Ashkenazi yeshivot of northern Europe, these institutions being largely responsible for such major authorities as Gershom Ben Judah (Me'or ha-Golah; early 11th cent.), Rashi (late 11th cent.), and the Tosafists (see Tosafot). The Ashkenazi yeshivah bore little rssemblance to the great academies of old. The function of the rabbinic courts was practically nonexistent. The yeshivot were small, with usually fewer than 100 students, who often lived together with the head of the institution and studied in a room in his home. The scholar who headed the yeshivah was responsible for the financial needs of the institution, with some support from the local community. Students from wealthy families were expected to pay for their upkeep. Those attending such yeshivot were generally accomplished scholars who had previously studied privately. Moses Ben Jacob of Coucy noted that the students of the French yeshivot were so dedicated to their studies that they often slept in their clothes. In the yeshivot of northern France there existed a system somewhat akin to the granting of degrees, with the title of ḥaver (fellow) as the first recognition of accomplishment and the title morenu (our teacher) signifying real command of the field studied and qualification to head one's own school. The golden era of French yeshivot ended with the expulsion of the Jews from France in 1306.

By the middle of the 16th century, a new type of institution, the yeshivat ha-kahal (community yeshivah) appeared. Detailed regulations for these communal yeshivot were promulgated by the general councils of entire areas. In Italy and Germany, scholars studied together with small numbers of students in small synagogues. This kind of establishment was known as a klaus in German. Communities were expected to maintain these yeshivot, and the students had their meals at private homes on a rotating basis. Studies centered around discussion and disputation; as a result, the chief literary product of these institutions were glosses and commentaries. The main center of yeshivot moved to Eastern Europe, especially Poland, in the 16th century. A significant intellectual development was a method of study known as Pilpul. It involved dialectic reasoning based on minute distinctions and differentiations, which took primarily the form of oral discussion, so that very little written material remains.

The yeshivot of the Ashkenazi centers experienced a decline in the 17th and 18th centuries due to a number of factors. In Polish regions, the Cossack rebellion of 1648 destroyed many communities along with their yeshivot. For some time, the system of yeshivot in these areas was not revived, apparently as a result of economic hardship and perhaps also to the spread of ḥasidism, which had a somewhat different approach to learning. Not until the early 19th century was there a significant revival (and reformation) of the yeshivah system.

The modern era in the development of the yeshivah began in 1802 with the opening of the Volozhin yeshivah in White Russia, founded by Ḥayyim of Volozhin, a leading disciple of Elijah Ben Solomon, the Gaon of Vilna. This followed the Vilna Gaon's method of study, which downplayed pilpul. As the school expanded, it constructed its own building---the first structure in modern times to be built solely tp house a yeshivah. Its golden period was under Naphtali Tsevi Judah Berlin (from 1854), when over 400 pupils were attracted to the school from all over the greater Russian area. Other noted yeshivot flourished at Mir in White Russia; at Slobodka and Kovno (Kaunas), which became a center of the Musar Movement, with a daily half-hour session devoted to the study of ethical texts, a revolutionary innovation in a world concentrating solely on the Talmud; and at Telz, Lithuania. These and many other yeshivot attracted thousands of students, some of whom became rabbis and teachers, others regarding their studies as a form of higher education before moving on to employment in the workaday world. In Ḥasidic Poland, most yeshivot were associated with particular Ḥasidic courts, with only their Ḥasidim studying there. The biggest and most important yeshivah in Hungary was the Yeshivat Ḥatam Sofer in Pressburg (Bratislava), founded in 1806 by R. Moses . The biggest yeshivah in Germany was organized in Frankfurt in 1890 by Solomon breuer, son-in-law and successor of R. Samson Raphael HIRSCH. The great European yeshivah center ended abruptly and brutally with the Nazi Holocaust. Survivors reestablished some of the famous yeshivot elsewhere: that of Slobodka in Israel, of Mir in Brooklyn and Jerusalem, of Telz in Cleveland, Ohio.

Before World War II, the development of yeshivot in North America had not been very successful, apart from Yeshiva University, which grew from a merger in the late 19th century of Yeshivat Ets Ḥayyim and Yeshivat Isaac Elhanan. Since the war, those founded include the Rabbi Aaron Kotler Institute for Advanced Studies in Lakewood, New Jersey, Torah Vo-Da'as in New York, and Ner Israel in Baltimore. Although none of these institutions permits secular studies as part of the curriculum, many of their students pursue university studies alongside their yeshivah studies.

By far, the leading center of yeshivot today is the State of Israel. Already in the 16th century, yeshivot again flourished in the country, the new impetus being provided largely by Jews expelled from Spain in 1492 who settled in the Holy Land. Some 18 yeshivot existed in Safed, which was perhaps the most important center of Jewish learning of that period. There were also important Sephardi and Ashkenazi yeshivot in Jerusalem. From the end of the 16th century on, however, there was a serious decline until the 18th century.

In 1840, the Ets Ḥayyim Yeshivah was established in Jerusalem, the first Ashkenazi yeshivah in the country, founded on a Volozhin-type model. Other early examples of this type followed. The growth of the Jewish community after World War I brought about a concomitant growth of yeshivot. A real turning point was reached, however, when, in the wake of the Nazi Holocaust, numerous outstanding Torah scholars found their way to the Holy Land, staffing existing institutions, founding new ones, and re-establishing some of the great yeshivot of pre-war Europe. It has been estimated that there are more full-time yeshivah students in Israel today than there were in pre-war Europe.

The willingness of the State of Israel to defer the army service of anyone studying full time in a yeshivah has permitted the yeshivot to develop rapidly. In the year 2001 nearly 60,000 men, about half of them kolel students, were enrolled in Israel's yeshivot as beneficiaries of government stipends (see ḥaredim).

Among the yeshivot catering to older students in Israel, three main categories can be distinguished: the "Lithuanian yeshivot," continuing the model created at Volozhin, where Talmud is studied to the exclusion of almost every other subject; the Ḥasidic yeshivot; and the Zionist yeshivot, best known of which is the Merkaz ha-Rav in Jerusalem founded by Rabbi A.I. KOOK. The religious kibbutzim have established their own central yeshivah. There are also yeshivot at junior high school and high school levels. A unique form is the yeshivat hesder where students combine yeshivah training with their army service.

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A school in which the Talmud, Jewish legal codes, and rabbinic literature and commentaries are the primary subjects of study.

Although semikha (rabbinic ordination) may be an outcome of yeshiva study, yeshivas are institutions intended for all Jewish males who wish to advance their study of Judaism. Originally, it was the local place to sit and study texts. Yeshivas became places where scholars gathered, where each famous and learned teacher attracted his own students. In eighteenth-century Lithuania, where the modern form was developed, yeshivas drew students from a variety of European localities and provided the students with a formal curriculum, a place to stay, and often a stipend as well.

Yeshiva education consists of endless hours of vocal and intensive review of texts with fellow students (khavruseh). Usually once a day, after posting a bibliography and a series of textual glosses that students must explore in advance, a teacher will give a shiur (lesson in Talmud). Some modern yeshivas include secular studies as well (they are often called day schools in North America and yeshivot tikhoniyot in Israel).

In Israel, yeshivas are numerous; some embrace the ideals of religious Zionism, and some deny them. The former encompass hesder yeshivas, whose students combine military service with study; the latter have students who are exempted from military service. Among the most prominent of the former are the Etzion Yeshiva, Merkaz ha-Rav Kook, and Kerem b'Yavneh. Among the latter are the Ponovez Yeshiva, in B'nei B'rak, and the Mir Yeshiva, in Jerusalem. The greatest growth has been in yeshivas connected with Sephardim.

Bibliography

Helmreich, William B. The World of the Yeshiva: An IntimatePortrait of Orthodox Jewry, augmented edition. Hoboken, NJ: Ktav, 2000.

— SAMUEL C. HEILMAN

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - skole for studier af Talmud, jødisk skole

Nederlands (Dutch)
Talmudhogeschool (joods)

Français (French)
n. - école d'études talmudiques, yeshiva, école hébraïque

Deutsch (German)
n. - jüd. Schule

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - εβραϊκή θρησκευτική σχολή

Italiano (Italian)
accademia talmudica

Português (Portuguese)
n. - instituto judaico (m)

Русский (Russian)
йешива

Español (Spanish)
n. - escuela rabínica, seminario

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - sl judisk skola

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
正统犹太小学

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 正統猶太小學

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 탈무드 학원, 탈무드의 고도한 연구를 하는 유태교의 대학

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - タルムード学院

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) مدرسه دينيه يهوديه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮ישיבה‬

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