Ashkenaz, Reception of the Bible in

Abstract

Already in the period prior to the First Crusade and continuing through the Middle Ages, the text of the Bible served as an introduction to the reading and understanding of Hebrew for elementary-level students. In addition, tutors (melammedim ) taught the weekly Torah portion together with the Aramaic Targum, and later with Rashi’s commentary, and often taught other books of the Bible as well. Rabbenu Gershom (d. 1028) discusses the case of a melammed who was contracted to teach his young pupil “all of Scripture” and subsequently claimed that he had done so. The sections in Sefer Ḥasidim (ca. 1200) that discuss biblical studies for children attempted to guide that study, not create it. (from the Introduction)