Mesivta
Encyclopedia
Mesivta is an Orthodox Jewish
yeshiva
high school
for boys. The term is commonly used in the United States to describe a yeshiva that emphasizes Talmud
ic studies for boys in grades 9 through 11 or 12; alternately, it refers to the religious studies track in a yeshiva high school that offers both religious and secular studies. The comparable term in Israel is yeshiva ketana . After graduation from a mesivta, students progress to a beis medrash
, or undergraduate-level, yeshiva program.
In practice, yeshivas that call themselves mesivtas are usually a combination of mesivta (high-school) and beis medrash (post-high-school) programs. Students in the beis medrash program are often called upon to mentor those in the mesivta.
learned in the mesivta in Tzippori
under Judah ha-Nasi, his son, and grandson. Under the leadership of Rav
and Shmuel
, the Talmudic Academy
of Sura
during the Babylonian Exile
was called a sidra, but under Rav Huna
, the second dean of the Academy of Sura, the yeshiva began to be called a metibta and Huna was the first to hold the title of resh metibta (corresponding to rosh yeshiva
). According to Graetz
, since the Academies convened in certain months of the year, they were known as metibtas, or "sessions". Mesivtas continued in operation throughout the era of the Geonim
, a period of approximately 1,000 years.
introduced the concept of a mesivta as a Talmudic studies program for boys aged 14 and older in New York in 1926. Until that time, religious boys attended Talmud Torah
(elementary school) until their bar mitzvah and then went on to public high school and college, where their level of Torah observance and commitment were sorely tested. The only post-bar mitzvah religious education available at the time was at Yeshivat Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchonon
, which prepared students for a career in the rabbinate. When Rabbi Mendlowitz, who had begun teaching at the Yeshiva Torah Vodaas
elementary school in 1923, suggested the innovation, he was met with widespread resistance. An editorial in the Yiddish Morgen Journal stated:
With the support of three Torah Vodaas board members – Binyomin Wilhelm
, Ben Zion Weberman, and Abraham Lewin – Rabbi Mendlowitz successfully opened Mesivta Torah Vodaas in its own building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
, in September 1926. The mesivta opened with four classes of post-bar mitzvah students and 11 students in the advanced, beis medrash program. The mesivta went on to graduate generations of students who became Torah scholars and leaders in the American Jewish world.
Rabbi Mendlowitz also influenced the administration at Yeshivas Chaim Berlin to expand beyond eighth grade and open a mesivta as well. Mesivta Rabbi Chaim Berlin opened in the 1930s. Other mesivtas founded in the 1930s and 1940s were Mesivta Tifereth Jerusalem
, Kaminetzer Mesivta of Boro Park, and Rabbi Jacob Joseph School
. In the 1950s, the latter four mesivtas had their own basketball league.
In 1937 Rabbi Mendlowitz founded Camp Mesivta, the first yeshiva summer camp in America, in Ferndale, New York
. This became the summer camp of choice for thousands of students from other yeshivas and a prototype for yeshiva learning camps in later decades. Rabbi Mendlowitz instituted the practice of inviting Gedolim
to visit the camp for a few days or a few weeks, giving campers the experience of seeing Torah greats in action. The Gedolim who regularly stayed at Camp Mesivta included Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky
, Rabbi Shlomo Heiman
, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein
, and Rabbi Avraham Kalmanowitz. Camp Mesivta operated until the early 1960s; in 1966, it was succeeded by Camp Ohr Shraga-Beis Medrash LeTorah in Greenfield Park, New York, headed by Rabbi Zelik Epstein
and Rabbi Nesanel Quinn
.
has a yeshiva high school. Because of the proliferation, mesivtas have developed reputations that reflect the academic level of their students. There are schools for metzuyanim (top learners), schools for average students, and schools for students with "serious scholastic and/or yirat shamayim (religious belief) challenges". Some mesivtas operate different "tracks" to satisfy a diverse student body.
Mesivtas, like yeshivas, do not follow the public education schedule of terms and vacations, but organize the school year according to the Jewish calendar. School is in recess during Jewish holiday
s, and the term ends in the month of Av
, the traditional break for yeshivas since the days of the Talmud. There is also a dress code: whereas in elementary school, boys wear casual clothes to school, upon entering mesivta, they are expected to dress in dark suits and white shirts.
of Machon Oz Vehadar for its Talmud Bavli series, published in conjunction with the worldwide Daf yomi
schedule.
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
yeshiva
Yeshiva
Yeshiva is a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and Torah study. Study is usually done through daily shiurim and in study pairs called chavrutas...
high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
for boys. The term is commonly used in the United States to describe a yeshiva that emphasizes Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
ic studies for boys in grades 9 through 11 or 12; alternately, it refers to the religious studies track in a yeshiva high school that offers both religious and secular studies. The comparable term in Israel is yeshiva ketana . After graduation from a mesivta, students progress to a beis medrash
Beth midrash
Beth Midrash refers to a study hall, whether in a synagogue, yeshiva, kollel, or other building. It is distinct from a synagogue, although many synagogues are also used as batei midrash and vice versa....
, or undergraduate-level, yeshiva program.
In practice, yeshivas that call themselves mesivtas are usually a combination of mesivta (high-school) and beis medrash (post-high-school) programs. Students in the beis medrash program are often called upon to mentor those in the mesivta.
In Talmudic and Geonic eras
The term mesivta (or metibta) first appears in the Talmud, where it refers to a yeshiva of Talmudic sages. RavRav
Rav is the Hebrew word for rabbi. For a more nuanced discussion see semicha. The term is also frequently used by Orthodox Jews to refer to one's own rabbi....
learned in the mesivta in Tzippori
Tzippori
Tzippori , also known as Sepphoris, Dioceserea and Saffuriya is located in the central Galilee region, north-northwest of Nazareth, in modern-day Israel...
under Judah ha-Nasi, his son, and grandson. Under the leadership of Rav
Abba Arika
Abba Arika was a Jewish Talmudist who lived in Babylonia, known as an amora of the 3rd century who established at Sura the systematic study of the rabbinic traditions, which, using the Mishnah as text, led to the compilation of the Talmud...
and Shmuel
Samuel of Nehardea
Samuel of Nehardea or Samuel bar Abba was a Jewish Talmudist who lived in Babylonia, known as an Amora of the first generation; son of Abba bar Abba and head of the Yeshiva at Nehardea. He was a teacher of halakha, judge, physician, and astronomer. He was born about 165 at Nehardea, in Babylonia...
, the Talmudic Academy
Talmudic Academies in Babylonia
The Talmudic Academies in Babylonia, also known as the Geonic Academies, were the center for Jewish scholarship and the development of Jewish law in Mesopotamia from roughly 589 CE to 1038 CE...
of Sura
Sura (city)
Sura was a city in the southern part of ancient Babylonia, located west of the Euphrates River. It was well-known for its agricultural produce, which included grapes, wheat, and barley...
during the Babylonian Exile
Babylonian captivity
The Babylonian captivity was the period in Jewish history during which the Jews of the ancient Kingdom of Judah were captives in Babylon—conventionally 587–538 BCE....
was called a sidra, but under Rav Huna
Rav Huna
Rav Huna , a Kohen, was a Jewish Talmudist who lived in Babylonia, known as an amora of the second generation and head of the Academy of Sura; He was born about 216, died in 296-297 ).-Youth:...
, the second dean of the Academy of Sura, the yeshiva began to be called a metibta and Huna was the first to hold the title of resh metibta (corresponding to rosh yeshiva
Rosh yeshiva
Rosh yeshiva, , , is the title given to the dean of a Talmudical academy . It is made up of the Hebrew words rosh — meaning head, and yeshiva — a school of religious Jewish education...
). According to Graetz
Heinrich Graetz
Heinrich Graetz was amongst the first historians to write a comprehensive history of the Jewish people from a Jewish perspective....
, since the Academies convened in certain months of the year, they were known as metibtas, or "sessions". Mesivtas continued in operation throughout the era of the Geonim
Geonim
Geonim were the presidents of the two great Babylonian, Talmudic Academies of Sura and Pumbedita, in the Abbasid Caliphate, and were the generally accepted spiritual leaders of the Jewish community world wide in the early medieval era, in contrast to the Resh Galuta who wielded secular authority...
, a period of approximately 1,000 years.
Modern-day concept
Rabbi Shraga Feivel MendlowitzShraga Feivel Mendlowitz
Rabbi Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz was an early leader of American Orthodoxy and founder of key institutions such as Torah Vodaath, a Yeshiva in Brooklyn, and Torah U'Mesorah, an outreach and educational organization. He is credited by many to have pioneered authentic Jewish education in the United...
introduced the concept of a mesivta as a Talmudic studies program for boys aged 14 and older in New York in 1926. Until that time, religious boys attended Talmud Torah
Talmud Torah
Talmud Torah schools were created in the Jewish world, both Ashkenazic and Sephardic, as a form of public primary school for boys of modest backgrounds, where they were given an elementary education in Hebrew, the Scriptures , and the Talmud...
(elementary school) until their bar mitzvah and then went on to public high school and college, where their level of Torah observance and commitment were sorely tested. The only post-bar mitzvah religious education available at the time was at Yeshivat Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchonon
Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary
Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary , or Yeshivat Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchanan, is the rabbinical seminary of Yeshiva University, located in Washington Heights, New York. It is named after Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor, who died the year it was founded, 1896...
, which prepared students for a career in the rabbinate. When Rabbi Mendlowitz, who had begun teaching at the Yeshiva Torah Vodaas
Yeshiva Torah Vodaas
Yeshiva Torah Vodaas is a yeshiva located in the Kensington neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.- History :...
elementary school in 1923, suggested the innovation, he was met with widespread resistance. An editorial in the Yiddish Morgen Journal stated:
Just as the Reform have a rabbinical Seminary in Cincinnati, and the Conservative have the Solomon Schechter Seminary in New York, so should Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchonon suffice [to produce Orthodox rabbis].
With the support of three Torah Vodaas board members – Binyomin Wilhelm
Binyomin Wilhelm
Binyomin Wilhelm was the founder of Yeshiva Torah Vodaas.Born in Lodz, Poland, he was the oldest son of a Radoshitzer chassidic family. In his teens he left by himself to the United States. He first peddled a pushcart, until he had made enough money to rent a store...
, Ben Zion Weberman, and Abraham Lewin – Rabbi Mendlowitz successfully opened Mesivta Torah Vodaas in its own building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Williamsburg is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordering Greenpoint to the north, Bedford-Stuyvesant to the south, Bushwick to the east and the East River to the west. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 1. The neighborhood is served by the NYPD's 90th ...
, in September 1926. The mesivta opened with four classes of post-bar mitzvah students and 11 students in the advanced, beis medrash program. The mesivta went on to graduate generations of students who became Torah scholars and leaders in the American Jewish world.
Rabbi Mendlowitz also influenced the administration at Yeshivas Chaim Berlin to expand beyond eighth grade and open a mesivta as well. Mesivta Rabbi Chaim Berlin opened in the 1930s. Other mesivtas founded in the 1930s and 1940s were Mesivta Tifereth Jerusalem
Mesivtha Tifereth Jerusalem
Mesivtha Tifereth Jerusalem, is one of the oldest existent yeshivot in New York City, and is renowned for being the institution led by Rabbi Moshe Feinstein.-Location:The yeshiva has two campuses....
, Kaminetzer Mesivta of Boro Park, and Rabbi Jacob Joseph School
Rabbi Jacob Joseph School
The Rabbi Jacob Joseph School is an Orthodox Jewish day school located in Staten Island, New York that serves students from nursery through twelfth grade. The school was founded in 1903 and named in honor of Rabbi Jacob Joseph, chief rabbi of New York City's Association of American Orthodox Hebrew...
. In the 1950s, the latter four mesivtas had their own basketball league.
In 1937 Rabbi Mendlowitz founded Camp Mesivta, the first yeshiva summer camp in America, in Ferndale, New York
Ferndale, New York
Ferndale is a hamlet in the Town of Thompson, New York. It is situated along the Old Rte 17 between Harris and Liberty....
. This became the summer camp of choice for thousands of students from other yeshivas and a prototype for yeshiva learning camps in later decades. Rabbi Mendlowitz instituted the practice of inviting Gedolim
Gadol
Gadol or godol גדול , is a Hebrew term used mostly by Haredi Litvish Jews to refer to the most revered rabbis of their generation. These rabbis are usually held in high esteem by other Haredi or Orthodox Jews, though not necessarily to the same degree as by Litvish Jews...
to visit the camp for a few days or a few weeks, giving campers the experience of seeing Torah greats in action. The Gedolim who regularly stayed at Camp Mesivta included Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky
Yaakov Kamenetsky
Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky , was a prominent rosh yeshiva, posek and Talmudist in the post-World War II American Jewish community....
, Rabbi Shlomo Heiman
Shlomo Heiman
Shlomo Heiman was a Rabbi, Talmudist, and Rosh Yeshiva of the most prominent yeshivas in Europe and America.-In Europe:In 1892, Reb Shlomo was born in Paritsh, Minsk in Belarus. His father was Rabbi Michel Heiman. When he was 12 years old, he went to Kaminetz yeshiva to study under R' Baruch Ber...
, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein
Moshe Feinstein
Moshe Feinstein was a Lithuanian Orthodox rabbi, scholar and posek , who was world-renowned for his expertise in Halakha and was regarded by many as the de facto supreme halakhic authority for Orthodox Jewry of North America during his lifetime...
, and Rabbi Avraham Kalmanowitz. Camp Mesivta operated until the early 1960s; in 1966, it was succeeded by Camp Ohr Shraga-Beis Medrash LeTorah in Greenfield Park, New York, headed by Rabbi Zelik Epstein
Zelik Epstein
Zelik Epstein, also known as Zelig Epstein , was a prominent Orthodox rabbi and rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Shaar HaTorah-Grodno, a private, Talmudical institution in Kew Gardens, Queens, New York, containing a high school, Beis Midrash, and Kollel...
and Rabbi Nesanel Quinn
Nesanel Quinn
Nesanel Hakohen Quinn was the renowned principal of Yeshiva Torah Vodaas in Brooklyn, New York, for nearly 80 years.-Biography:...
.
Mesivtas today
Today mesivtas are located in cities throughout the United States that have a sizable Orthodox Jewish population. Since the 1980s, the number of mesivtas in the New York/New Jersey area has mushroomed. Whereas before there were at most a handful of schools to choose from, today every city with a religious Jewish population and nearly every townshipTownship (United States)
A township in the United States is a small geographic area. Townships range in size from 6 to 54 square miles , with being the norm.The term is used in three ways....
has a yeshiva high school. Because of the proliferation, mesivtas have developed reputations that reflect the academic level of their students. There are schools for metzuyanim (top learners), schools for average students, and schools for students with "serious scholastic and/or yirat shamayim (religious belief) challenges". Some mesivtas operate different "tracks" to satisfy a diverse student body.
Mesivtas, like yeshivas, do not follow the public education schedule of terms and vacations, but organize the school year according to the Jewish calendar. School is in recess during Jewish holiday
Jewish holiday
Jewish holidays are days observed by Jews as holy or secular commemorations of important events in Jewish history. In Hebrew, Jewish holidays and festivals, depending on their nature, may be called yom tov or chag or ta'anit...
s, and the term ends in the month of Av
Av
Av is the eleventh month of the civil year and the fifth month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar. The name is Babylonian in origin and appeared in the Talmud around the 3rd century. This is the only month which is not named in the Bible. It is a summer month of 30 days...
, the traditional break for yeshivas since the days of the Talmud. There is also a dress code: whereas in elementary school, boys wear casual clothes to school, upon entering mesivta, they are expected to dress in dark suits and white shirts.
Other uses
Mesivta is an imprintImprint
In the publishing industry, an imprint can mean several different things:* As a piece of bibliographic information about a book, it refers to the name and address of the book's publisher and its date of publication as given at the foot or on the verso of its title page.* It can mean a trade name...
of Machon Oz Vehadar for its Talmud Bavli series, published in conjunction with the worldwide Daf yomi
Daf Yomi
Daf Yomi "page [of the] day" or "daily folio") is a daily regimen undertaken to study the Babylonian Talmud one folio each day...
schedule.