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There was a yeshivah in Gelnica. Though it wasn’t as well-known as for example the yeshivah in Huncovce. Back then Huncovce was very famous. Almost as much as the yeshivah in Bratislava. So I attended it at the same time. To this day I can’t imagine how it was. I attended council school, finished council school, and continued with the rabbi. Then I didn’t live with Mr. Reichner any more, but at a dormitory. The rabbi that led the yeshivah had a dormitory for boys of my age. I remember that it was this duplex building. On the one side lived the rabbi with his family, and there was also a classroom there, the yeshivah, and on the other side was the dormitory.
The yeshivah was a larger room. We had our books open, the Talmud. The rabbi lectured and explained. The explanations! The Talmud is one big mystery. What did that person two thousand years ago actually mean? It can be explained like this, and like that. It’s an incredible treasure trove of explanatory possibilities. One can tell riddles, but also hone reason. We young ones didn’t dare argue with the rabbi, but his assistants, who would then take us into smaller groups, they argued. We were witness to how they didn’t agree with the rabbi’s explanations, and said: “You’re not right, Rabbi. It’s actually like this...!” We liked it very much, and we’d say to ourselves: “Just wait. When we finally...!” When the rabbi was finished explaining, studies continued in small groups. The groups weren’t very big. Usually the way it was, was that there were about five or six of us 13 to 14-year-olds, and one of the older ones, the rabbi’s assistants. In Yiddish he was called the chaser bocher. In Yiddish chaser means to repeat, and bocher is a young person, a student. So it means a student that repeats things with students. Well, and now, when he’d tell us his explanation, we’d of course pipe up, discuss and argue. The windows were open, and it was an awful commotion. That’s why they say: “A commotion like in a Jewish school.” That commotion is always very important. On the one hand, the citizens and Christian boys made fun of us, that we’re kicking up a fuss there. The importance of it was that it was excellent at honing brains. For us the teaching at the secular council school was ridiculous, that there was no need to explain anything there, everything was written down and you only needed to know it the way it was written.
The yeshivah was a larger room. We had our books open, the Talmud. The rabbi lectured and explained. The explanations! The Talmud is one big mystery. What did that person two thousand years ago actually mean? It can be explained like this, and like that. It’s an incredible treasure trove of explanatory possibilities. One can tell riddles, but also hone reason. We young ones didn’t dare argue with the rabbi, but his assistants, who would then take us into smaller groups, they argued. We were witness to how they didn’t agree with the rabbi’s explanations, and said: “You’re not right, Rabbi. It’s actually like this...!” We liked it very much, and we’d say to ourselves: “Just wait. When we finally...!” When the rabbi was finished explaining, studies continued in small groups. The groups weren’t very big. Usually the way it was, was that there were about five or six of us 13 to 14-year-olds, and one of the older ones, the rabbi’s assistants. In Yiddish he was called the chaser bocher. In Yiddish chaser means to repeat, and bocher is a young person, a student. So it means a student that repeats things with students. Well, and now, when he’d tell us his explanation, we’d of course pipe up, discuss and argue. The windows were open, and it was an awful commotion. That’s why they say: “A commotion like in a Jewish school.” That commotion is always very important. On the one hand, the citizens and Christian boys made fun of us, that we’re kicking up a fuss there. The importance of it was that it was excellent at honing brains. For us the teaching at the secular council school was ridiculous, that there was no need to explain anything there, everything was written down and you only needed to know it the way it was written.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Jozef W.