Joodse traditie als permanent leren

235.

educational system directed towards this end. Thus,

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for example, Yoreh Deah, the study of which was a prime requisite for the rabbinate, was never taught in the Lithuanian Yeshivas, nor were any of the later halachic authorities studied for the sake of knowing the practical application of the halachah. It is evident, then, that the "rabbinic diploma in the pocket" which Bialik's matmid ^ dreamt about during the last years of the Volozhin Yeshivah was not what the student of Slabodka, Radin, etc. , dreamed about. If, after having spent many years of study and companionship with his friends and teachers, a Yeshivah student decided to enter the rabbinate, he would leave the Yeshivah and devote himself for several months to those "technical studies" necessary for his profession. Slabodka students used to say: If you see a student devoting himself to the study of Yoreh Deah, or to the chapter of the talmudic treatise Hullin, beginning with the words "These are considered trefah ((ongeoorloofd voor consumptie))', or to Eben Ha-Ezer, ^ and if he prepares himself for ordination from the very start, you can be certain that he is neither gifted nor knowledgeable in Torah. Although many graduates later became rabbis, and even though the Yeshivah considered the preparation of qualified rabbis among its goals, the period spent studying in the Yeshivah was not considered the proper time and place for those disciplines dealing directly with practical halachah. If one was steeped in Torah, and sought an appointment, either because he was inclined to the rabbinate or because circumstances left him no choice, then only would he take leave and prepare himself for his vocation. The Yeshivah per se neither served as, nor was it considered, a school for the training of rabbis. (...)

The general intent of the Yeshivah was to open the gates of Torah to the entering scholar and induct him into its world by means of study; to train the