The Latin maxim, ' repetitio mater studiorum,' may be taken as the keynote of Jewish educational method. So great was the importance attached to constant repetition, that the verb njp 'to repeat' came ultimately to mean both ' to learn ' and ' to teach.' J After the letters were mastered § the teacher copied a verse which the child had already learned by heart, and taught him to identify tlie individual words. The absence of vowel signs in Hebrew, as then written, prevented the child from learning to read syllaliles as he does in the ' Talmud Torah ' schools of the Jew ish communities in the East at the present day. In one point, however, the schools of 1900 years ago resembled those schools of to-day, namely, the babel of childish voi<:ea that rose from every corner of the scliool- ro(un, for 'avidible study and distinct pronuncia- tion' (Ab. vi. 6) were the first of numerous re- quisites for the proper study of the Torah. Was tnere not once a pujal who learned his tasks with- out repeating the words aloud, and who, in con- sequence, forgot all he had learned in three years? {Enthin, 54<-«). The ideal schoolboy of the period was R. Eliezer, whom his teachers likened to ' a cemented cistern whicli loses not a drop ' (^ 6. ii. 11).
The scholar sat on the ground facing the teacher (cf. Ac 22', Ab. i. 4), who sat slightly raised above his pupils. Benches were a later invention. The old conception of education as aliove all a dis- cipline was not forgotten, and probably never before was education so exclusively religioiis an<l scri|)tural, with so little reference to the teachings of nature and history. The teacher's function, as then conceived, was not to inform the mind or to impart knowledge for its own sake, but to train up his pupils in the fear of the Lord, and so to prepare them for the ceremonial and moral duties incum- bent on them as the true sons of the covenant of Abraham.
It has become a commonplace that the scribes taught gratuitously. This may have been true of the great doctors of the capital, — although even
• On th« detect* of the Oalllcan pronunciation (Mt 28"), see Buxtorf tub 7*^3, and Ltghtfoot's ditwertatioD tn U^. Uebr. (ed. Oandell) I. 170 IT.
( See also Sota, \x. 14, for a Htatement that the stndy of Greek had only het-n utopped Hiiice the ' war of Titua ' — for which road 'war of Uiiletus,' with most modem Hcholara.
1 Cf. the IntercatinK quoUition from St^ Jerome In Schtlrcr, •p. <n'(. n. I. 324.
I On the later metho<l of tvacliiiiv; the alphabet on the * A-waa- an-Archcr' principle dee Shahhath, 104a. i^iven in full in Wl\ni«che'a Der liahyU>n. Talmud, etc., I. pp. lf>5-&7, cf. Lowit 'title below), p. 47.
then, perhaps, only as regards judicial work (Schiirer), — but scarcely of the elementary teachers in the i)rovinces. It ha-s been suggested that the honorariiuu was paid under some pretext, such as comjiensation for loss of time, etc. (Lewit, p. 26). This is quite in the spirit of the casuistry of the time. Still, as is well known, the scholars of the day had a much worthier conception of the dignity of work than had Jesus the son of Sirach (Sir 38^"-), and taught that the study of the Law should be combined with the exercise of a trade (Ab. ii. 2).
We must not suppose that the educational system here outlined was tlie only system then to be found in Palestine. It was the system adopted by the strict Jews, it is true, but there were other schools of the Greek type, not only in the many Hellenistic centres, — whence came some of the most famous poets, philosojihers, and orators of that age (see Schiirer, II. i. 28),— but even in Jerusalem itself. Such a school was that which the youthful Herod attended (Josephus, Ant. XV. x. 5). In nothing, however, did the Jewish educational ideal (for which cf. Josephus, Ant. XX. xii. \, ^kois 5i (jotplav fMafyrvpoOffi rots tA. vdfxifia aafpu/i ^trifrra^voLSf ic.T.X.jditi'er so widely from the Greek as in the value attached to physical training. For the ordinary forms of gymnastic exercise the Jew apparently had little inclination, unless, perhaps, for swim- ming (Kiddiishin, 29a), while wrestling in public was peculiarly abhorrent to his sense both of dignity and decency (1 Mac 1""-, 2 Mac 4'"'^).
We have said nothing hitherto of the education of Jewish girls. These were from their birth to their marriage their mother's sjiecial care, by whom they were taught, like their brothers, ' to fear God and keep his commandments.' By her, too, they were taught to read, and perhaps to write, as boys in former days were taugiit by their father, and thereafter instructed in the domestic arts corresponding to their station. The deepei study of the Torah, and still more the higher secular learning, were discouraged. The ideal to which every Jewish daughter was — and we may add, is — taught to aspire is that of the ' virtuous woman' who 'looketli well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her, saying : M.any daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them air (Pr SI""**). Truly a noble ideal of womanhood I