Gallery 5: Encounters with Modernity, 1772–1914
Why are the hands of the clock moving so quickly? Twenty-fours hours pass in less than five minutes in this film about a day in the modern yeshivaYeshivareligious academy where young Jewish men study the Talmud and other religious texts. in Volozhin, which was established in 1803. Hundreds of young men in this private religious academy studied the TalmudTalmudcompilation of Jewish legal literature. The Talmud consists of the Mishna, a legal code that specifies how the commandments of the Torah should be carried out, and the Gemara, rabbinical interpretations of the Mishna. The material in the Talmud was created between the 3rd and 5th century CE in Palestine and Babylonia. The Babylonian Talmud is more comprehensive and became more popular than the one created in Palestine, which is known as the Jerusalem Talmud. and other religious texts day and night. In the modern yeshiva, the study of TorahTorahIn the narrow sense, Torah refers to the first five books of the Bible. In the broad sense, Torah refers to all Jewish sacred teachings stemming in one way or another from the written Torah. The handwritten Torah scroll is the most sacred object in Judaism. was an end in itself, rather than preparation for earning a living as a rabbiRabbireligious leader of a Jewish congregation who is qualified to resolve issues on the basis of Halakhah. A rabbi heads the Jewish court (Hebrew: bet din, Yiddish: bezdin), teaches Torah, performs marriages, and certifies that foods conform to the requirements of kashrut.. The earliest yeshivas in Poland date from the 16th century.