The Novardok yeshiva in Novardok, then Lithuania, was one of the biggest and most important yeshivas in pre-World War II Europe, and a powerful force within the Mussar movement. The yeshiva was established in 1896, together with a Kollel for married men, under the direction of Rabbi Yosef Yoizel Horowitz, an alumnus of the Kovno Kollel and pupil of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter. In the footsteps of his mentor, he was a staunch advocate of the Mussar approach. He was known as the der Alter fun Novardok, a Yiddish term meaning "the elder of Novardok". Navahradak (Нава́градак in Belarusian; Russian: Novogrudok; Polish: Nowogródek; Lithuanian: Naugardukas) is a city in western Belarus. ... Yeshiva or yeshivah (IPA: ) (Hebrew: ישיבה pl. ... Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom France Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Charles de Gaulle Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian... World map showing Europe A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is one of the seven traditional continents of the Earth. ... Mussar movement refers to an Jewish ethics educational and cultural movement (a Jewish Moralist Movement) that developed in 19th century Orthodox Eastern Europe, particularly among the Lithuanian Jews. ... A kollel (Hebrew: כולל; a gathering/collection [of scholars] is an institute for advanced studies of the Talmud and of rabbinic literature for post-graduate Jewish adults, essentially a yeshiva which pays married men a regular monthly stipend or annual salary (and/or provides housing and meals) to study Judaisms... Kovno kollel, (or Kollel Perushim of Kovno or Kollel Knesses Bais Yitzchok) was an advanced Orthodox Judaism Torah and Talmud yeshiva (advanced Jewish school) for Jewish adults, located in what is today known as Kaunas, Lithuania. ... Rabbi Yisrael ben Zev Wolf Lipkin (1810-1883) was the father of the Mussar movement in Orthodox Judaism. ... Yiddish (Yid. ...

The yeshiva opened with ten students. A few months later there were already fifty. A year after the yeshiva's establishment, great criticism was levelled at the study and practice of Mussar, and the opponents of that philosophy sought to close the yeshiva. They didn't succeed. By 1899, the yeshiva had swelled to 200 pupils.

After the Bolshevik takeover of Russia, the Alter ordered his students to cross the border into Poland. Many of the students were shot in the attempt; others were sent to Siberian prison camps, but six hundred made it across the border. Novardok yeshiva was re-established in Białystok under the leadership of the Alter's son-in-law, Rabbi Avraham Yoffen, it soon became the center of an entire movement. Following the doctrine of "springs flowing outward", in a few years Novardok established yeshivas all over the region, in major cities such as Kiev, Kharkov, Odessa Kherson, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov-on-Don, Zhitomir, Berdichev, Tsaritsyn, Saratov, Plogid, Chernigov, Pinsk, Cherson, Mogilev, Kamieniec-Podolski, Nikolaev, Bălţi and Od. Red October redirects here. ... Siberian Federal District (darker red) and the broadest definition of Siberia (red) Udachnaya pipe Siberia (Russian: , Sibir; Tatar: ) is a vast region of Russia constituting almost all of Northern Asia. ... Prisoner of War camps Contents // Categories: Substubs | Prisons and detention centres ... BiaÅ‚ystok (pronounced: , Belarusian: , Lithuanian: , Yiddish ביאַליסטאָק) is the largest city (pop. ... Location Map of Ukraine with Kiev highlighted. ... Kharkov (rus: Ха́рьков) or Kharkiv (ukr: Ха́рків) is the second largest city in Ukraine, a center of Kharkivska oblast. It is situated in the northeast of the country and has a population of two million. ... For other uses, see Odessa (disambiguation). ... Kherson (Ukrainian and Russian Херсон) is a city in southern Ukraine, the capital of Kherson Oblast, with 303,900 inhabitants (2004). ... Nizhny Novgorod (Russian: ), colloquially shortened as Nizhny and also transliterated into English as Nizhniy Novgorod or Nizhni Novgorod or Nizhnii Novgorod, is the fourth largest city of Russia, ranking after Moscow, St. ... Central market and Church in Rostov. ... Zhytomyrs’ka oblast’ (Житомирська область in Ukrainian; Żytomierzczyna in Polish) is an oblast (province) of northern Ukraine. ... Berdichev (Polish language: Berdyczów, Ukrainian language: Бердичів, Russian language: Бердичев) is a town in Zhytomyrska oblast, Ukraine, 44 km South of Zhytomyr. ... Rodina Mat (Motherland), statue on the Mamayev Kurgan, Volgograd Volgograd (Волгогра́д) (population: 1,012,000), formerly called Tsaritsyn (Цари́цын) (1598 - 1925) and Stalingrad (Сталингра́&#1076... Saratov (Russian: ) is a major city in southern European Russia. ... Chernihiv (Чернігів in Ukrainian) is an ancient city in northern Ukraine, the central city of Chernihivska oblast. Some common historical spellings of the name are Polish: Czernichów, and Russian: Чернигов, Chernigov. ... Pinsk (Belarusian: , Russian: ), a town in Belarus, in the Polesia region, travesed by the river Prypiać, at the confluence of the Strumen and Pina rivers. ... Tauric Chersonesos, Greek Χερσονασος (Chersones, Khersones, Korsun, Russian: Херсонес) was the Greek settlement founded approximately 2500 years ago in the southwestern part of Crimean (Taurian) Peninsula. ... Mogilev, or MahiloÅ­ (Belarusian Магілёў (Mahilyow), Russian Могилёв (Mogilev, Mogilyov), Polish Mohylew or Mogilew) is a city in eastern Belarus, close to the border to Russia with about 300,000 inhabitants. ... ... Mykolaiv or Mykolayiv (Ukrainian: ), also known by its Russian name (Nikolaev or Nikolayev) is a city in Southern Ukraine with the population of 514,000 (2001 estimation). ... now. ...

The Novardok Philosophy

Self Improvement

Novardok had its own unique outlook, stressing the wearing of tattered clothing and total negation of ego and the physical world. Like other Mussar schools, Novardok demanded the complete shattering of personal desires, eradicating any vestige of evil habits. For that purpose, students would carry notebooks, in which they would daily enter records of failures and achievements. Before bedtime they would check their "bookkeeping" and make plans-of-action for correcting faults. One method of "breaking" oneself was by denying oneself the rewards of a sin. eGO is a company that builds electric motor scooters which are becoming popular for urban transportation and vacation use. ...

Students of Novardok participated in deliberately humiliating behaviour, such as going to a bakery and asking for a box of nails, or wearing a tie made out of hay. One pupil related that the purpose of these exercises were not to "put yourself down", as is commonly thought. The training, in fact, promoted the opposite; it gave the students the emotional freedom from the chains of public approval. They discovered that the fear of embarrassment was actually much greater than the reality. This strengthened their confidence to do the right thing, oblivious to what others might think.

Novardok Network

An extension of Novardok's unconventional approach entailed the establishment of numerous branches of the yeshiva. The most elite students of the yeshiva would set out on foot to strange communities without a penny in their pockets, simultaneously abstaining from speech and not asking for a ride or even food. Upon reaching a town, they would enter the Beth Midrash, and without a word to anyone, study Torah. Beth midrash (or Beit Midrash or Bais Medrash or Bais Medrish) (plural battei midrash) literally means a House of Interpretation or Lecturing or Learning in Hebrew. ... Torah () is a Hebrew word meaning teaching, instruction, or law. It is the central and most important document of Judaism revered by Jews through the ages. ...

With this method, Novardok established in Poland alone no less than seventy yeshivas of varying sizes. Dispatched from the yeshiva base in Białystok, teams would investigate towns and cities and evaluate their suitability for a yeshiva. The extensive Novardok network supplied half of all the students to Eastern Europe's other famous yeshivas. Regions of Europe as delineated by the United Nations (UN definition of Eastern Europe marked salmon):  Northern Europe  Western Europe  Eastern Europe  Southern Europe Pre-1989 division between the West (grey) and Eastern Bloc (orange) superimposed on current national boundaries: Russia (dark orange), other countries of the former USSR (medium...

Army Service

In another approach to forging strength of character, the Novardok philosophy saw army service in a different light to other yeshivas. While all other yeshivas in Poland gave their students of army age permission to transfer to yeshivas in neighbouring countries, the administration of the Novardok yeshiva saw the year and a half of required army service as beneficial in helping to produce a physically stronger and more mature student. The experience could enhance his spiritual growth, and his ability to be of service of his community, which was a central part of the Novardok philosophy.

Post World War II

After escaping Nazi Europe, Rabbi Avraham Yoffen settled in Brooklyn, New York where he re-established his yeshiva. The faculty consisted of Rabbi Yoffen as dean, his son Rabbi Yaakov Yoffen as a lecturer, and his son-in-law Rabbi Yehuda Leib Nekritz as Mashgiach ruchani. Brooklyn (named for the Dutch city Breukelen) is one of the five boroughs of New York City. ... NY redirects here. ... Mashgiach ruchani (or Mashgiach, (Hebrew: Spiritual supervisor/guide) is a title that usually refers to a rabbi who has an official position within a yeshiva responsible for the non-academic areas of yeshiva students lives. ...

During the 1960's Rabbi Avraham Yoffen moved to Jerusalem and established a branch of his yeshiva in Meah Shearim. Under the leadership of the younger Rabbi Yoffen and Rabbi Nekritz, the Brooklyn branch continued to thrive and became renowned as a center for very advanced Talmudic studies. Hebrew יְרוּשָׁלַיִם (Yerushalayim) (Standard) Yerushalayim or Yerushalaim Arabic commonly القـُدْس (Al-Quds); officially in Israel أورشليم القدس (Urshalim-Al-Quds) Name Meaning Hebrew: (see below), Arabic: The Holiness Government City District Jerusalem Population 724,000 (2006) Jurisdiction 123,000 dunams (123 km²) Mayor Uri Lupolianski Web Address www. ... Meah Shearim, Hundred Gates, is one of the oldest neighborhoods of extra-mural Jerusalem. ... The first page of the Talmud, in the standard Vilna edition. ...

Following Rabbi Avraham Jofen's passing in 1970, leadership of the Jerusalem branch was assumed by his grandson the brilliant Talmudic scholar Rabbi Aaron Yoffen, the editor of the Kook Ritva on Yevamot. Yearly, Rabbi Yaakov Jofen would travel to Jerusalem to teach the students of his father's yeshiva. Both Rabbi Yaakov, and Rabbi Aaron were known as Talmudic geniuses.

Following Rabbi Nekritz's death and Rabbi Yaakov Yoffen's passing in 2003, the leadership of the Brooklyn-based yeshiva fell to their sons' Rabbi Mordechai Yoffen and Rabbi Tzvi Nekritz. They chose to move the Yeshiva to the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, and bringing in the famous Rabbi Yaakov Drillman of Yeshiva Chaim Berlin as a Rosh Yeshiva. 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The Jerusalem branch is headed by Rabbi Shmuel and Rabbi Eitan Yoffen, sons of Rabbi Aaron Yoffen.

Famous Alumni

• Rabbi Meir Bar-Ilan
• Chaim Grade
• Rabbi Nachman Kahane
• Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman
• Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky
• Rabbi Selig Starr

Meir Berlin, later Hebraized to Meir Bar-Ilan, (1880 - 1949, born Volozhin, Lithuania, died Jerusalem, Israel) was an Orthodox Judaism rabbi and leader of Religious Zionism, Mizrachi movement in USA and British Mandate of Palestine. ... Chaim Grade (b. ... Rabbi Nachman Kahane, a graduate of the Novardok yeshiva, is a rabbinic scholar and the rabbi of the Young Israel congregation of the Jewish settlers in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalems Old City. ... Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman (1886-1969), was a Haredi Judaism rabbi and Rosh yeshiva of the Ponevezh yeshiva. ... Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky, known as the Steipler Gaon (1899–1985), was a world-renowned Posek and Talmudic scholar. ... An editor has expressed a concern that the subject of the article does not satisfy one of the following guidelines for inclusion on Wikipedia: If you are familiar with the subject matter, please expand the article to establish its notability, citing reliable sources, so as to avoid it being considered...

References

• Novogrudok reminiscences
• Rabbi Yosef Yoizel Horowitz, the Alter of Novardok