3 - Study at Volozhin in the Time of R. Naftali Berlin

Summary

MOST OF THE INFORMATION available on how the Volozhin yeshiva functioned and the atmosphere there comes from the period after the leadership struggles of the1860s. It was a period of relative tranquillity (so there was no need for outside intervention to resolve disputes) and there were no changes in the mode of study or other procedures. As we shall see, the relative abundance of sources fromthese later years allowsmore precise description of phenomena that are only hinted at in the sources that have survived from the earlier years, and since we know that there was little change in most areas, it is possible to describe the different aspects of yeshiva life during this period quite well on the basis of available sources.

While there do seem to have been shifts in Volozhin's reputation during this time, in general it retained its pre-eminent status. After the building burnt down in 1865 and R. Yosef Dov Soloveitchik left, R. Yosef of Krynki wrote: ‘And now its glory has been brought low and humiliated, for I have heard slander spoken by many, this one asking, “Why is it so important? There are many yeshivas in the world”, and that one saying that the yeshivas of other communities are better in their works and in other matters, and all think that the yeshivas in the large cities are the best.’ It is difficult to know which yeshivas R. Yosef had in mind—the nearby Mir yeshiva, urban yeshivas in Lithuania, or yeshivas outside Lithuania. Mir was not particularly well known in this period, and there is no evidence of a stream of students leaving Lithuania for Pressburg (Bratislava) or other yeshivas abroad. Perhaps R. Yosef was writing in response to some isolated event, or in order to galvanize support for Volozhin, though there is a distinct sense of decline in his words. Whatever the circumstances, the fact that R. Berlinmanaged to raise enough funds for a stone-built building suggests that there were a fair number of donors who had confidence in the yeshiva, for donors do not usually rush to support institutions on the decline.