government they
created an aristocracy, not of wealth or of blood, but of intellect. The
education of girls was, indeed, neglected. To be able to read her
prayers in Hebrew and to write Yiddish was all that was expected of a
mother in Israel. It was otherwise with the boys. Every Jew deemed
himself in duty bound to educate his son. "Learning is the best
merchandise"--_Torah iz die beste sehorah_--was the lesson inculcated
from cradle to manhood, the precept followed from manhood to old age.
All the lullabies transmitted to us from earliest times indicate the
pursuit of knowledge as the highest ambition cherished by mothers for
their sons:

Patsche, patsche, little tootsies,
We shall buy us little bootsies;
Little bootsies we shall buy,
To run to heder we shall try;
Torah we'll learn and all good ma'alot (qualities),
On our wedding eve we shall solve sha'alot (ritual problems).[39]

To have a scholarly son or son-in-law was the best passport to the
highest circles, a means of rising from the lowliest to the loftiest
station in life.

It is no wonder, then, that schools abounded in every community. At the
early age of four the child was usually sent to the heder (school;
literally, room), where he studied until he was ready for the yeshibah,
the higher "seat" of learning. The melammedim, teachers, were graded
according to their ability, and the school year consisted of two terms,
zemannim, from the first Sabbath after the Holy Days to Passover and
from after Passover to Rosh ha-Shanah. The boy's intellectual capacities
were steadily, if not systematically, cultivated, sometimes at the
expense of his bodily development. It was not unusual for a child of
seven or eight to handle a difficult problem in the Talmud, a precocity
characteristic to this day of the children hailing from Slavonic
countries. Their 'illuyim (prodigies) might furnish ample material for
more than one volume of _les enfants celebres_.

Nor were the children of the poor left to grow up in ignorance. Learning
was free, to be had for the asking. More than this, stringent measures
were taken that no child be without instruction. Talmud Torahs were
founded even in the smallest kehillot (communities), and the students
were supplied, not only with books, but also with the necessaries of
life. Communal and individual benefactors furnished clothes, and every
member (ba'al ha-bayit) had to provide food and lodging for an indigent
pupil at least