[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.
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