It was a very shabby guest who sat down with us at table, but we children watched him with respectful eyes.

Grandmother had told us that he was a lamden (scholar), and we saw something holy in the way he ate his cabbage.
Not every man could hope to be a rav, but no Jewish boy was allowed to grow up without at least a rudimentary knowledge of Hebrew.

The scantiest income had to be divided so as to provide for the boys' tuition.

To leave a boy without a teacher was a disgrace upon the whole family, to the remotest relative.

For the children of the destitute there was a free school, supported by the charity of the pious.