Notebook of Yeshiva Student.

(PRESSBURG).

Hungary (likely Slovakia today)

1928-29

Anonymous Manuscript in Hebrew, Yiddish and German.

The Yeshiva notes of a young boy likely around Bar Mitzvah age. A valuable insight to the educational realities in the realm dominated by the Chasam Sofer’s students. All rabbis mentioned here were active in towns only a few dozen miles from Pressburg, the epicenter of the Chasam Sofer’s influence. The 40-odd pages of notes include: * Summary of unpublished sermon heard directly from R. Shmuel David Halevi Ungar (Rosh Yeshiva of Nitra, 1885-1945). 1 ff. * Transcript of Eulogy delivered for R. Yisrael ‘HaRo’eh’ Shor of Subatisht (Sobotište, d. 1929) by the student’s uncle. 4.5 ff. * Sermon on Parshath Beha’alothcha delivered by the student at a meeting of the local Tze’irei Agudath Israel chapter. 7 ff. * Notes on a beginner’s Talmudic Sugya (Kiddushin 36a). 2 ff. * Torah thoughts (likely school notes, alternating pen indicates a new session of the class). 3 ff. * Essay in German. 1 ff. * Hebrew grammar lesson. 1 ff. Thus, the young boy raised in the Soferian mold displays a clear penchant for Talmudic study, respect of rabbinic authority and a desire to make his own contributions to the world of Torah. While he also received a systematic education in Dikduk, as well as rudimentary writing skills in German, the ratio of such content speaks volumes as to the weltanschauung of the Pressburgian educational system.