To be a
student there was both an indication of superiority and a means to
proficiency. Rabbi Hayyim did away with the "Tag-essen," or "Freitisch"
custom, and introduced a stipendiary system in its stead, thus fostering
the self-respect of the students. But they did not as a rule require
much to satisfy them with their lot. They came to Volozhin "to learn,"
and they well knew the Talmudic statement, that "no one can attain
eminence in the Torah unless he is willing to die for its sake."
Rabbi Hayyim was succeeded by his son Rabbi Isaac, who united knowledge
of secular subjects with profound Talmudic erudition, was active in
worldly affairs, and played a prominent part in the Jewish history of
his day. He was of the leading spirits who, in 1842, attended the
rabbinical conference at St. Petersburg convoked by Nicholas I. The
number of students increased under his leadership, according to
Lilienthal, to three hundred. But Rabbi Isaac became so engrossed in
public affairs that he found he could no longer do justice to his
position. His two sons-in-law, therefore, took his place, and when the
older died, in 1854, Rabbi Naphtali Zebi Judah Berlin (1817-1893)
entered on his useful career, unbroken for forty years, as the dean of
the greatest seat of learning in the Diaspora.
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