By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for 5tjt.com Today, the 14th of Tammuz marks the 35th Yartzeit of Moreinu HaRav HaGaon Rav Yitzchok Ruderman zatzal, the Rosh Yeshiva of Ner Yisroel.  What follows is an account of the Rosh HaYeshiva’s schedule in the Slabodka Yeshiva as well as how the Rosh Yeshiva was kidnapped as a bochur. Newspapers abound with headlines of Russians taking over Ukraine.  But there was another Russian takeover of Ukraine that occurred over 100 years ago in 1919.  It was while the Slabodka Yeshiva was in exile in the Ukrainian city of Kremenchug. 1882, was the year that two things happened in in the surroundings of Kovno.  The first thing that happened was that Alter of Slabodka, Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel, had founded the Slabodka Yeshiva, wherein the study of Mussar became a prime focus. The second thing that happened was that construction began on the Kovno system of batteries and fortresses that was ordered by decree of Tsar Alexander II – three years earlier on July 7th, 1879. A fort is where the soldiers are housed and kept.  A battery is where they keep the cannons.  Eventually, the fort at Kovno was to have 9 circles of forts and batteries.  The later ones were constructed out of concrete – not brick.  Kovno had been part of Russia since 1795, when Tsarina Catherina and the other states of Europe had swallowed it up and caused Poland and Lithuania to disappear for the next 123 years. True, Poland/Lithuania had rebelled against Russia a couple times – between 1830 and 1831 and then again in 1863. But, these rebellions were put down and the Kovno and its suburb Slabodka, were in the westernmost part of  Tsarist Russia.  Kovno was also located where the two rivers, the Neman and Neris rivers, merged together.  On account of both of these factors, this was the city most likely to be attacked by Germany and Austro-Hungary in the event of war. That year, in 1882, the Jewish residents of Slabodka did not realize that the construction of the Kovno forts and batteries would eventually lead to disaster.  It would cause paranoid Tsarist Russia to force the Jews out of Slabodka and Kovno into exile in the first world war.  It would lead them through a harrowing experience of wandering in exile, being jailed both by the Russians and the Germans, and r”l many deaths. But for those first 33 years, the Yeshiva in Slabodka accomplished the near impossible. It revitalized the Torah world, took the place of Volozhin as one of the leading Yeshivos in Europe.  Opened up branches and influenced the other Yeshivos in Lita to introduce a Mussar curriculum. Rav Ruderman’s general schedule in Yeshiva was as follows: In the summer, Shacharis took place at 7:00 AM, but in the winter it took place at 8:00 AM. Morning Seder began at 9 AM and in the winter it began at 9:30.  First seder lasted until 2:30 PM.  Second seder was between 4 PM and 8 PM, but in the winter it changed from 4:15 to 9 PM.  Mussar Seder was always between 9:00 PM and 9:30 PM. Night Seder was from after Maariv until 11:00 PM. On Shabbos, during Bain HaShmashos, there was a period of time set aside form Cheshbon HaNefesh […]

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