one day of each week. The "Freitisch" (free board) was an
inseparable adjunct to every school. Poor young men were not regarded as
"beggar students." They were looked upon as earning their living by
study, even as teachers by instructing. To pray for the dead or the
living in return for their support is a recent innovation, and mostly
among other than Slavonic Jews. It is a custom adopted from medieval
Christianity, and practiced in England by the poor student, who, in the
words of Chaucer,

Busily 'gan for the souls to pray
On them that gave him wherewith to scolay.

For a faithful and vivid description of the yeshibot we cannot do better
than transcribe the account given in the pages of the little pamphlet
_Yeven Mezulah_ in which Nathan Hannover, mentioned above, has left us a
reliable history of the Cossack uprisings and the Kulturgeschichte of
his own time.

I need bring no proof for the statement that nowhere was the
study of the Law so universal as in Russo-Poland. In every
community there was a well-paid dean (rosh yeshibah), who,
exempt from worry about a livelihood, devoted himself
exclusively to teaching and studying by day and by night. In
every kahal, many youths, maintained liberally, studied under
the guidance of the dean. In turn, they instructed the less
advanced, who were also supported by the community. A kahal of
fifty [families] had to provide for at least thirty such. They
boarded and lodged in the homes of their patrons, and frequently
received pocket-money in addition. Thus there was hardly a house
in which the Torah was not studied, either by the master of the
house, a son, a son-in-law, or a student stranger. They always
bore in mind the dictum of Rabba, "He who loves scholars will
have scholarly sons; he who welcomes scholars will have
scholarly sons-in-law; he who admires scholars will become
learned himself." No wonder, then, that every community swarmed
with scholars, that out of every fifty of its members at least
twenty were far advanced, and had the morenu (i.e. bachelor)
degree.

The dean was vested with absolute authority. He could punish an
offender, whether rich or poor. Everybody respected him, and he
often received gifts of money or valuables. In all religious
processions he came first. Then followed the students, then the
learned, and the rest of the congregation brought