But though there Were no national or elementary schools before the exile, there were cases in which pro- fessional teachers had to be resorted to, e. g. when the high position or official duties of the parents rendered parental teaching impossible, or when the parents were in any way incapacitated, when the child's abilities to learn surpassed the father's capabilities to teach, or where the son was preparing himself for a vocation dif- ferent from that of his father. For such exceptional cases teachers existed from a very early period, as we have seen above. We find that Bezaleel and Aholiab were qualified by God as teachers (1353 '^ri n'^ltlPl) in certain departments. The Psalmist speaks of his hav- ing had many teachers (irPZ'i'ln 'I'T'OsTa bz'Q [cxix, 99]). Both teachers and pupils are mentioned in con- nection with the temple choir (1 Chron. xv, 22 ; xxv, 8) ; and the prophets, who, by virtue of their superior piety, high attainments, large acquaintance with the political affairs of the world, delivered public lectures on the fes- tivals (2 Kings iv, 22, 23), instructed young men who aspired to a better education in order to fit themselves for public service (1 Sam. x, 5, 10, etc.; 2 Kings ii, 3, etc. ; iv, 38, etc. ; vi, l,etc.).
As for the so-called school, of prophets, no such term occurs in the Old Test. The institution, however, is substantially referred to in several passages which sjieak of the "sons of the prophets" (1 Kings xx,35; 2 Kings ii, 5, etc.), showing some kind of a college for the instruc- tion of the prophetical order from the time of Samuel onward. The intimations on the subject are, indeed, obscure, yet sufficiently clear to warrant the general be- lief in their existence. In later times they were doubt- less merged in the regular synagogical schools referred to below. See Pkopiiets, Sons of.
III. From t/ie Bahylonian CapHvily to the Close of the Tali»iifI.—.\ new epoch in the education of the Jews be- gan with their return from Babylon. In the captivity, the exiled Jews had to a great extent forgotten their vernacular Hebrew, and they became incompetent to understand their sacred oracles. Ezra, the restorer of the law, as he is called, fuinid it therefore necessary.
SCHOOLS, HEBREW
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SCHOOLS, HEBREW
immediately on their return to Jerusalem, to a;ather around him those who were skilled in the law, and with their assistance trained a nutnlier of public teacii- ers. The less distinguished of these teachers went into the provincial towns of Juda3a, gathered disciples, and formed synagogues; while the more accomjilished of them remained in Jerusalem, became members of the Great Synagogue, and collected large numbers of young men, whom they instructed in all things appertaining to the law, in the prophets, and in the sayings of the sages of old (Ecclus. ii, 9-11; iNIishna, Ahoth, i, 1). Scrolls were given to children upon which were written passages of Scripture, such as Shenia (i. e. Deut. vi, 4), or the Halld (\. e. Psa. cxiv-cxviii, cxxxvi), the history of the creation to the deluge ((ien. i-viii, 1), or Lev. i, 18 (comp. Jerusalem Talmud, Megil.la, iii, 1 ; (littin, 60 a ; Sopheriiii, v, 9). The course of study pursued in the metropolis was more extensive (Prolog, to Ecclus. and Ecclus. xxxviii, 24, etc. ; xxxix, 1, etc.), that of provin- cial towns more limited, while the education of the small and more remote places or villages almost exclusively depended upon what the inhabitants learned when they went up to Jerusalem to celebrate the festivals, and was therefore very insignificant. Hence the phrase V~xn D2J, country peoj)le, came to denote the unedu- cated, the illiterate; just as pafianus, or pagan, a coun- tryman or villager, is for a similar reason used for hea- then ; while Ttrbaiius, urbane, or an inhabitant of a city, denotes an educated man.
The schools now began to increase in importance; and the intercourse of the Jews with the Babylonians, the Persians, and the Greeks widened their notions of edu- cation, and made them study foreign languages and lit- erature and Hebraize their philosophy. Tlie Essenes, who found it necessary to separate themselves from the nation because of their foreign innovations, also devoted themselves to the education of the children; but their instruction was confined to the divine law and to mor- als (Josephus, War, xi, 8, VI). See Esshnes. Simon ben-Shetach (B.C. 80) has the merit of having introduced superior schools into every large provincial town, and ordained that all the youths from the age of sixteen should visit them (.lerusalem Kethuboth, viix, 11), intro- ducing government education. So popular did these schools become that while in the pre-exilian period the very name of schools did not exist, we now find in a very short time no less than eleven different expressions for school, e. g. DID'^sX = aXcrof, or D0''5X = (Xeof {Midrash Coh. 91); xblZDX, or ■'biZDX = ffXoXr; (^Midrash Shir flafihir, 15 a) ; X w'-iTi ^2, or more fre- quently 'U-ilTSn n^n (Tebam. 24 b; Aboth, v, 14); ■JE51X ri"i3, hnuse of learning (Jonath. on Exod. xxxiii, 7); "iDOn ri'^3, the house of books (^Midrash Echa, 70 b) ; ~i£10 ri"i3, the house of the teacher (ibid. 77 b); ■JS"! rr^S, the house of the master {Baba Bath-a, 21 a); Tl'ain n^l, the house of instruction (^Gittin, 58 a); liai'jTji, or xnn'^n'Q, the seat, i. e. where the disciples sat at the feet of their master; Q"I3. the vineyard (Rashi on Yebom. 42 b) ; and X~i10, «n 07-?-r7y, where the disci- ples were arrayed according to their seniority and ac- quirements (Ckolin, 173 b). The etj'mologies of some of these words, and the significalion of the others, give us in a very striking manner the progressive history of Jewish education, and tell us what foreign elements were introduced into Jewish pasdagogy. Some idea may be formed of the deep root juvenile education had struck in the hearts of the Jews from the following dec- laration in the Talmud : "The world is preserved l)y the breath of the children in the schools:" "A town in which there is no school must perish;" "Jerusalem was de- stroyed because the education of children was neglect- ed" (^V/66«///, 119, b).