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The Yeshiva: Vol. 1
Tsemakh Atlas, torn between his commitment to the ascetic life of the yeshiva community and his natural longings, tries to protect his students from the earthy villagers of Valkenik
394 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1967
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
July 11, 2023
A profoundly human book. When Bashevis Singer won his Pulitzer Prize, there was grumbling from many that Grade deserved it, and even if this book was the only thing he ever wrote, Grade would still deserve it.
The characters in this novel are so fully realized that you feel they could walk off the page at any moment and start debating ethics with you. They are real humans; sometimes insightful, sometimes blind, sometimes empathetic, sometimes coldly removed.
Tsemakh Atlas, the Musarnik Rosh Yeshiva who struggles with his own belief in God, and Chaikl Vilner, one of his handpicked students (and another author insert, as in “My Quarrel”) are both given such depth, even in the moments when they are being cruel, unthinking, or cruelly exacting. Their struggles — with faith, with temptation, with identity — are so deeply portrayed, in a book that is full of different kinds of piety, both good and bad. That he manages to do all this without becoming preachy is astounding.
Grade grew up in the musar movement, and it shows in his incredible level of detail about the ins and outs of Yeshiva life and the ideology of the movement. His inclusion of real life figures like R’ Yosef-Yoizl Hurwitz and the Chazon Ish are more than cameos for the sake of it, they are portrayals of men Grade actually interacted with in his formative years and, in the case of the Chazon Ish, someone he remained close to even after he left the musar world.
I wish I could read the second volume but even after scouring the internet, it doesn’t seem to be available. I’ll have to keep an eye out and read Grade’s other novels in the meantime.
I will definitely return to this book for its utter power and wisdom.
The characters in this novel are so fully realized that you feel they could walk off the page at any moment and start debating ethics with you. They are real humans; sometimes insightful, sometimes blind, sometimes empathetic, sometimes coldly removed.
Tsemakh Atlas, the Musarnik Rosh Yeshiva who struggles with his own belief in God, and Chaikl Vilner, one of his handpicked students (and another author insert, as in “My Quarrel”) are both given such depth, even in the moments when they are being cruel, unthinking, or cruelly exacting. Their struggles — with faith, with temptation, with identity — are so deeply portrayed, in a book that is full of different kinds of piety, both good and bad. That he manages to do all this without becoming preachy is astounding.
Grade grew up in the musar movement, and it shows in his incredible level of detail about the ins and outs of Yeshiva life and the ideology of the movement. His inclusion of real life figures like R’ Yosef-Yoizl Hurwitz and the Chazon Ish are more than cameos for the sake of it, they are portrayals of men Grade actually interacted with in his formative years and, in the case of the Chazon Ish, someone he remained close to even after he left the musar world.
I wish I could read the second volume but even after scouring the internet, it doesn’t seem to be available. I’ll have to keep an eye out and read Grade’s other novels in the meantime.
I will definitely return to this book for its utter power and wisdom.
April 23, 2017
It's been a while since I read this. I read both volumes at once. A long, long read that went by really fast. The book I'm reading now, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell (an amazing book also) reminds me of The Yeshiva. Like JS&MN, this book thrives off the depth of its characters and their relationships. Not to mention, it's also philosophically stimulating and like all good character/relationship driven books, it can be very humorous. And again, both volumes together make a huge book: but it's all relative.... time flies when your having fun... I mean, I'm not the type to want to re-read novels (it's difficult getting through some of them once...) but like JS&MN, I think I'll re- read this again when I get a hold of it.
April 27, 2020
This novel is out of print and hard to find for a decent price. I downloaded a digital copy from here: https://archive.org/details/yeshiva00... and read it on my nook.
The setting of this book isn't a place but a school of thought: Navardok Mussar. Mussar is a movement that began with Rabbi Yisroel Salanter. Salanter saw that many yeshiva students were learning lots of Torah, but weren't necessarily being good people because of it. He realized that one cannot simply study Talmud all day and automatically become a good person. A student must also train himself to be a good person and develop his character traits. Therefore, Salanter introduced a system for yeshiva students to devote time to studying moral texts and making themselves a better person.
The Alter of Navardok, Rav Yosef Yoizel Horowitz, took the Mussar idea and really ran with it. In his yeshiva in Navardok, he developed a system of Mussar where students have to kill their yetzer hara - evil desires. Not only must a student make sure to do the right thing, he also must make sure he's doing it for the right reasons. If you do good deeds for the wrong reasons that's worth nothing. Navardok Mussar students were known to ridicule themselves - like walk into a shoe store and ask for bread, always wear shabby clothes, scream in public - just so they can break their arrogance and show they care nothing about what others saw in them. They strove to make sure everything is done for the sake of heaven. Otherwise, the yetzer hara, satan himself, can creep in to even their good deeds and destroy their lives. By constant self-contemplation, they identify their evil traits and eradicate them. Only truth and pure good deeds will survive.
It is in this setting that the book starts. The alter of Navardok himself, founder of this school of mussar, appears in the first chapters of this book. Tsemach Atlas, our main character, is a student in Navardok who struggles with doubt. The yetzer hara abides within him in the worst way, he isn't sure whether he believes in God or not. He approaches the Alter with this doubt, and the Alter's response is to tell him that he should get married, as if this will solve all his problems. The novel then centers around Atlas's marriages, which didn't help his doubts, and his struggle with making himself a better person.
This novel is a gloomy one, to be sure. Everyone in it is depressing and pathetic. It's not an easy read and there aren't any happy-go-lucky characters who everything goes right for. However, it’s a read that makes you think. What makes someone a good person or a bad? How do you become a morally upright person? Tsemach thinks the answer to this is constant self doubt and searching within yourself to see if you’re doing the right thing. However, Tsemach doesn’t seem to be a good person, as much as he strives for it. He’s so obsessed with his own faults, his doubts, and his quest to eradicate them, he doesn’t look outside himself and see himself for who he is - a bad husband and a poor teacher.
The only purely good person in the book, Rav Avraham-Shaya, a character based on the famed rabbi, the Chazon Ish, is a sort of hermit. He lives in the forest and devotes himself to Torah. He doesn’t wish to be a rabbi or a rosh yeshiva. He doesn't believe in mussar, and the constrant struggle against the yetzer hara. Instead, he believes in Torah, and thinks the study of Torah itself will let you rise above and make you a good person. Is that the answer? Do you have to remove yourself from society and devote yourself to higher things to become morally upright?
The novel shows how constantly trying to make yourself a better person can sometimes lead to becoming a worse person. It shows how overthinking can destroy a person. Tsemach Atlas could have been a happy person. He has a beautiful wife and could live a great life. His wife would support him in whatever he wanted to do if he can just love her and devote himself to her. Instead, Navardok Mussar ruins his life. Until the mussarniks reminded him of his roots, he was happy with his life. Once they came, he turned his life over and was determined to be miserable. This obsession for truth and always doing the right thing ruined him and made him do the wrong things.
I took off a star because of the translation. It made everything into English and just felt awkward at times. For example, the Alter of Navardok is translated as "The Old Man of Navardok." While technically Alter is old man in yiddish, that's not the image one is supposed to think. I’d rather it be untranslated or translated as "The Elder" instead of "The Old Man." It also translates “Rosh yeshiva” as “principal,” when rosh yeshiva has so much more meaning in it. A rosh yeshiva is someone revered by all as a giant Torah Scholar, not just a school principal. Choices like that just made it sound awkward at times and loses that original Jewish feel.
There’s so much more in this novel that I’m only skimming the surface. Each character introduced has an inner world and can be psychoanalyzed. The Yeshiva brings pre-war Jewish Poland to life, and you get to see a world destroyed by the holocaust resurrected before your eyes. It explores the inner life of a yeshiva - rabbis and students - something I’ve not seen any other novel do. It’s a fantastic read, though heavy and dark at times. It isn't a light easy read, but one that will provoke a lot of thought.
The setting of this book isn't a place but a school of thought: Navardok Mussar. Mussar is a movement that began with Rabbi Yisroel Salanter. Salanter saw that many yeshiva students were learning lots of Torah, but weren't necessarily being good people because of it. He realized that one cannot simply study Talmud all day and automatically become a good person. A student must also train himself to be a good person and develop his character traits. Therefore, Salanter introduced a system for yeshiva students to devote time to studying moral texts and making themselves a better person.
The Alter of Navardok, Rav Yosef Yoizel Horowitz, took the Mussar idea and really ran with it. In his yeshiva in Navardok, he developed a system of Mussar where students have to kill their yetzer hara - evil desires. Not only must a student make sure to do the right thing, he also must make sure he's doing it for the right reasons. If you do good deeds for the wrong reasons that's worth nothing. Navardok Mussar students were known to ridicule themselves - like walk into a shoe store and ask for bread, always wear shabby clothes, scream in public - just so they can break their arrogance and show they care nothing about what others saw in them. They strove to make sure everything is done for the sake of heaven. Otherwise, the yetzer hara, satan himself, can creep in to even their good deeds and destroy their lives. By constant self-contemplation, they identify their evil traits and eradicate them. Only truth and pure good deeds will survive.
It is in this setting that the book starts. The alter of Navardok himself, founder of this school of mussar, appears in the first chapters of this book. Tsemach Atlas, our main character, is a student in Navardok who struggles with doubt. The yetzer hara abides within him in the worst way, he isn't sure whether he believes in God or not. He approaches the Alter with this doubt, and the Alter's response is to tell him that he should get married, as if this will solve all his problems. The novel then centers around Atlas's marriages, which didn't help his doubts, and his struggle with making himself a better person.
This novel is a gloomy one, to be sure. Everyone in it is depressing and pathetic. It's not an easy read and there aren't any happy-go-lucky characters who everything goes right for. However, it’s a read that makes you think. What makes someone a good person or a bad? How do you become a morally upright person? Tsemach thinks the answer to this is constant self doubt and searching within yourself to see if you’re doing the right thing. However, Tsemach doesn’t seem to be a good person, as much as he strives for it. He’s so obsessed with his own faults, his doubts, and his quest to eradicate them, he doesn’t look outside himself and see himself for who he is - a bad husband and a poor teacher.
The only purely good person in the book, Rav Avraham-Shaya, a character based on the famed rabbi, the Chazon Ish, is a sort of hermit. He lives in the forest and devotes himself to Torah. He doesn’t wish to be a rabbi or a rosh yeshiva. He doesn't believe in mussar, and the constrant struggle against the yetzer hara. Instead, he believes in Torah, and thinks the study of Torah itself will let you rise above and make you a good person. Is that the answer? Do you have to remove yourself from society and devote yourself to higher things to become morally upright?
The novel shows how constantly trying to make yourself a better person can sometimes lead to becoming a worse person. It shows how overthinking can destroy a person. Tsemach Atlas could have been a happy person. He has a beautiful wife and could live a great life. His wife would support him in whatever he wanted to do if he can just love her and devote himself to her. Instead, Navardok Mussar ruins his life. Until the mussarniks reminded him of his roots, he was happy with his life. Once they came, he turned his life over and was determined to be miserable. This obsession for truth and always doing the right thing ruined him and made him do the wrong things.
I took off a star because of the translation. It made everything into English and just felt awkward at times. For example, the Alter of Navardok is translated as "The Old Man of Navardok." While technically Alter is old man in yiddish, that's not the image one is supposed to think. I’d rather it be untranslated or translated as "The Elder" instead of "The Old Man." It also translates “Rosh yeshiva” as “principal,” when rosh yeshiva has so much more meaning in it. A rosh yeshiva is someone revered by all as a giant Torah Scholar, not just a school principal. Choices like that just made it sound awkward at times and loses that original Jewish feel.
There’s so much more in this novel that I’m only skimming the surface. Each character introduced has an inner world and can be psychoanalyzed. The Yeshiva brings pre-war Jewish Poland to life, and you get to see a world destroyed by the holocaust resurrected before your eyes. It explores the inner life of a yeshiva - rabbis and students - something I’ve not seen any other novel do. It’s a fantastic read, though heavy and dark at times. It isn't a light easy read, but one that will provoke a lot of thought.
April 21, 2018
An enjoyable read and a fascinating look into the Musar movement. For anyone interested in western Buddhism and its intersection with Jews/Judaism, this is a must read book.
May 1, 2018
For a few years, as a young man before he left Orthodox Judaism, Grade was the personal Talmud study partner (chavruta) with the world famous Talmud scholar known as (by the name of his books as the Chazon Ish) Rabbi Avraham Yeshaya Karelitz. While-be-it through anonymity in this book, through the stories in this book, Grade clearly offers an unusual view into that unique study partnership and unknown insights and stories about that classic great Talmud scholar. That is also an interesting design because the Chazon Ish himself wrote his commentary on Talmud anonymously, as the 'Chazon Ish'. Generally, the white-washed stories in biographies about the Chazon Ish do not share the raw intimate details about his life and true behind the scenes glimpse into his personality. The stories here give insight into truly the greatness of the Chazon Ish, especially of the nature of his marriage; how it happened, who his wife was, and the dynamics of their relationship.
Through one incident in this book, where he has a discussion with someone who wants advice on breaking an engagement, we learn about the real history of what happened with the Chazon Ish's engagement and why he never had children. The Chazon Ish counsels the young man that he breaks the engagement to marry another girl with a larger dowry and other benefits, he will hurt the feelings of the first girl and break her heart and he must stick to his commitment and marry her. He explains that he is in the position to make that claim because he himself did the same. He was engaged to a girl who he later realized was not the age he had been made to believe, as well as numerous other important facts about the girl (woman) which were changed. He explained that after he realized this, he did some serious soul searching and decided to keep his commitment because he knew how hurt she would be if he broke their engagement (even for legitimate reasons) and perhaps she would never get married. In the book other details about his wife's strong personality are visible, which are not shared in any of the biographies about the Chazon Ish and offer a unique view into his life.
Another fascinating aspect of this book is that it gives a unique insight into the personalities and characters who are in almost any yeshiva. It describes the various types and natures of the array of personalities. In that sense, it could have been written almost today and many of the characters and people would be the same. It is almost a timeless glimpse into the world of the Yeshiva.
Through one incident in this book, where he has a discussion with someone who wants advice on breaking an engagement, we learn about the real history of what happened with the Chazon Ish's engagement and why he never had children. The Chazon Ish counsels the young man that he breaks the engagement to marry another girl with a larger dowry and other benefits, he will hurt the feelings of the first girl and break her heart and he must stick to his commitment and marry her. He explains that he is in the position to make that claim because he himself did the same. He was engaged to a girl who he later realized was not the age he had been made to believe, as well as numerous other important facts about the girl (woman) which were changed. He explained that after he realized this, he did some serious soul searching and decided to keep his commitment because he knew how hurt she would be if he broke their engagement (even for legitimate reasons) and perhaps she would never get married. In the book other details about his wife's strong personality are visible, which are not shared in any of the biographies about the Chazon Ish and offer a unique view into his life.
Another fascinating aspect of this book is that it gives a unique insight into the personalities and characters who are in almost any yeshiva. It describes the various types and natures of the array of personalities. In that sense, it could have been written almost today and many of the characters and people would be the same. It is almost a timeless glimpse into the world of the Yeshiva.
October 24, 2022
I wrote in past reviews of Chaim Grade’s books that I and many others are convinced Grade deserves the Nobel Prize for literature. Most readers of his book published in Yiddish in 1967 titled Tsemakh Atlas and translated into English in 1976 as The Yeshiva in two parts will agree. The first part is 387 pages, and the second is 394. Many consider The Yeshiva his crowning achievement. Tsemakh Atlas is the name of the principal person in the drama. He is a scholar and rabbi and, for a time, the Rosh Yeshiva, the head of a Jewish Yeshiva, which teaches the Bible, Talmud, and Ethics, called Musar in Hebrew. Yet, he is in spiritual turmoil. He doubts God’s existence and the Torah’s divinity, basic principles for most Orthodox Jews. The novel is set in six Jewish towns in Lithuania after the First World War.
Regarding Musar, he rejects the generally accepted view that people should act according to the Golden Mean, in moderation, between extremes. An example of the Golden Mean is courage. A proper courageous hero is not cowardly, fearful, hiding away from danger, or fearlessly rushing into unsafe situations without care. He assesses the difficulty, plans how to overcome it, and faces and overcomes it. Tsemakh rejects caution. He insists that people should behave most strictly, even if it provokes anger, which it usually does. Grade knew this extreme view of Musar since he, born in 1910, attended a Musar Yeshiva as a student until he was 22 in 1932, when he left the rabbinic world and Orthodox Judaism and began his writing career as a poet and later as a novelist. But, unlike Chaim Atlas, Tsemakh Atlas did not abandon Orthodoxy as he understood it. Although, despite his insistence on stringency, Tsemakh is flawed, inconsistent, and attracted by female beauty.
I have seen no explanation of Tsemakh Atlas’ name. The Hebrew word tsemakh means “growth.” The word atlas is used in English and Hebrew to indicate a map or chart, but also one who bears a heavy burden, as the Titan in Greek mythology whom the Greek god forced as punishment for betraying him to carry the heavens on his shoulders. It is possible that Chaim Grade gave him this name because the rabbi attempted to improve and grow to control his emotions and carry his heavy emotional burdens.
Besides the overall story and his outstanding writing, what stands out for me is his treatment of the many people in the novel. I read a lot. But I cannot remember any writer who tells us so much about every character in the book. When a person is introduced, whether male or female, young or old, Jewish or non-Jewish, even if the person appears for a very short time, interesting information is given about that person, which is so detailed that it is like a story in brief.
The translators of Book one devote three pages to “Cast of Characters,” telling us their names, when they appear in the six cities where Tsemakh travels, and a few words about them. This listing shows us how many people populate this novel, people whose character is told in brief tales. There is one in Navaredok, Tsemakh’s teacher; two in Nareva, Tsemakh himself and the head of the Musar yeshiva; three in Amdur, Tsemakh’s fiancée, her father, and an innkeeper; nineteen in Lomzhe, including members of Tsemakh’s family and people associated with the yeshiva; sixteen in Vilna, town people and a brilliant young man, Chaikl, who becomes Tsemakh’s pupil; twenty-six in Valkenik, including students of Tsemakh and a renowned scholar, rabbi, and sage who saves Chaikl from Tsemakh. It is significant that despite the vast number of people in the drama, sixty-eight people, readers do not confuse them with other people because of Chaim Grade’s skill. It is like a loving father selecting dissimilar strands of colored silk and weaving them into a single coat of many colors as a gift to a cherished child.
Tsemakh, in this drama, breaks his engagement to a lovely young woman from a religious household and, because he doubts God and the Torah, marries a beautiful woman from a freethinking family, stops being religious and doing the mitzvot, praying, and studying. He tells his friends who try to persuade him to return to Orthodoxy that a Jew does not have to believe in the Torah as long as the Jew loves his neighbor as himself, uses his reasoning ability, and does good deeds. However, he leaves his wife, moves to Valkenik, and with a friend, establishes a yeshiva, but becomes infatuated with a married woman.
March 30, 2021
Really forced myself to finish this one because it is known as a classic.
Every character is a caricature of himself blown out of proportion in every aspect of his being. The defining line of everyone’s personality has been snapped. They are cast in the worst possible light exhibiting the most atrocious traits imaginable.
Therefore, every situation is filled with horrific drama. There aren’t any normal interactions. Everyone is always fighting, insulting each other and insinuating the most nefarious intentions.
It’s hard to imaging how any child brought up in such an environment can be psychologically healthy.
Every relationship is broken and dysfunctional beyond being repair.
Everybody is always playing the brink with each other in the most nasty way. The story would be comical if it wasn’t so tedious.
It almost seems like the author hates the Jewish religious society and sees zero redeeming qualities in its way of life.
In addition, it seems that the biggest attack is saved for the Navordok style of mussar as if the Alter was educating his students to be some worthless humans whose only accomplishments were the conquests of their inclinations.
Through the mouth of Rabbi Abvraham Yeshaya the admonishments upend the entire aforementioned philosophy by stating that the light of Torah needs to pervade through a person’s being in every action in life while the author doesn’t manage to find one character who exemplifies that ideal.
In addition to all the above, there are so many characters that its difficult to keep track. It seems that everyone’s issues are fully exposed forging so many tributaries in the main story line that one loses interest in what is actually happening.
Happy that I finished volume one. Doubt that I will pick up volume two.
November 15, 2017
Chaim Grade is a little rough on The Jewish People at times, but his books are not for just reading, they're collector items.
July 3, 2018
Vol. 1 was riveting. Vol 2, less so.
July 10, 2024
Incredible novel - his best work and the best Yiddish novel in existence in my humble opinion
July 14, 2025
Good plot, good writing, but slow reading.
September 26, 2022
The best book I ever read. Great writing with complex philosophical discoveries of life and the difficulties of being human. Hard to get a copy of this book(s) but worth the search. There is a second volume which I read which was harder to find. What a story!!!!
December 6, 2009
The first volume of an epic piece of Yiddish literature featuring the extremely conflicted, serious, and tumultuous Tsemakh Atlas. Tsemakh is a follower of the Musar movement and constantly scrutinizes the actions of himself and others for any sign of pleasure or pride, which must be immediately uprooted. This does not make him a very fun guy to hang out with. In a moment of weakness, he breaks his engagement to a pious but dull girl and marries a wealthy and secular beauty from a freethinking merchant family. Disgusted with himself, he leaves his wife to start a yeshiva in a nearby town, but the townspeople aren't that interested in his brand of study and he has his hands full keeping his own demons in check, let alone the problems and doubts of a whole school of young scholars.
December 14, 2014
Good read. Protagonist is a very tormented Musarnik Rabbi who loses his faith, but keeps up pretenses. Very interesting portrait of varieties of Jewish life in pre-war Poland with little portent of what was shortly to come.
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