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 célèbres_.

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 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