Heichal Hatalmud was a yeshiva established in Tel Aviv in the early 1930s, and was the first Torah institution in Little Tel Aviv. Today, it still operates as a Kollel Evrachim, and has recently become the home for the Chaslat community.

 

Yehuda Halevi 13, Synagogue and Beit Midrash "Heichal Hatalmud"

Early history

In the early years of Tel Aviv, the residents prayed in a private house on Yehuda Halevi Street, and on

holidays and times, the halls of the girls' school and the Herzliya Gymnasium

were used as temporary prayer houses.

 

On Yehuda Halevi Street  Tel Aviv's first synagogue was built. 

 

It was a big wooden hut inside which hundreds of men were crammed, and "women's

section" was also in it. Over the years, the place became too narrow to accommodate

those who wished to pray, and in 1913 (1912-1913) the cornerstone was laid for the

synagogue on Yehuda Halevi Street. But then the First World War broke out, and construction was delayed.

 

In the meantime, the wooden hut continued to function as a synagogue, and in 1918, when

the Torah books that were taken out of the city during the expulsion from Tel Aviv on Passover 1917 were returned to it, the synagogue gained fame by returning the books  in a procession ccompanied by an Australian military band, school choirs, the sage Bashi, the rabbi Uziel and Chaim Weizman, head of the Board of Deputies.

 

The joy was great and symbolized the governmental change that took place in the Land of Israel from Ottoman rule to a British mandate. 

 

But the question remained where and when the synagogue would be built. 

 

Eventually the Beit Haknesset Hagadol was built on a new site, and it was inaugurated in the 1920s. 

 

 The ‘Heichal Hatalmud synagogue was built in 1931, and its design, in the international style, was designed by the architect Philip Hitt.

 

In 1921 Aharon Eliyahu began to initiate the establishment of a Beit Midrash in Tel Aviv. While Mayor Meir Dizengoff supported the initiative, some citizens opposed it and also published their position in the daily press. Aharon Eliyahu insisted, and in 1933 the cornerstone was laid for the building. Despite the fact that it was a religious building, the event was seen as a national celebration.

 

And so they wrote in Haaretz newspaper:

“the institution was intended to be "a symbol of a permanent factor in the cultural form of the new life that is gradually being woven in our ancient homeland, in its return to revival" (Haaretz,7/26/1933). 

Indeed, the name chosen for the Beit Midrash "Hichal HaTalmud" symbolized these perceptions: "Beautiful and exalted is the name, which expresses the purpose of the house and what it was built for.

Not for business, not history, not poetry, not folklore, not a scientific investigation of any kind, Only the Talmud itself, as the people of Israel studied it for fifteen hundred years, . And this house is one of the middle pillars of the Israeli culture that would develop in the building of our homeland..." (Haaretz, (26.7.1933)

 

The information included in this article is sourced, with the kind permission of Shula Vidrich, from her book. 

History – from Wikipedia
In the mid-1920s Rabbi Natan Zvi Finkel immigrated to Israel with a group of his students and founded a branch of the Slavodka yeshiva in Hebron. He lived in Israel for about two years until his death.  Due to his health condition, he stayed several times near the beach in Tel Aviv. When he saw that there was no Torah institution in the new and developing city, he encouraged his son Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Finkel and a group of his associates, including Rabbi Israel Zissel Dvoretz, to found a yeshiva there. In this way he sought to influence the spiritual and Torah situation of the new settlement in the center of the country.

In 1927, the grandfather of Slavodka passed away, without ever seeing his vision come to fruition. However, his sons Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Finkel and Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Finkel, together with Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein and a group of his grandfather's students from Slavodka, decided to work towards the realization of the idea of establishing a yeshiva in Tel Aviv. They were helped by the religious businesses of Little Tel Aviv, and also received recommendations from the greatest rabbis in the Land of Israel, including Rabbi Yosef Haim Sonnenfeld, Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak HaCohen Kook and Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer, who called on the public to hire them and contribute to the establishment of the yeshiva.

In Cheshvan 1930 the new yeshiva was founded - "Heichal Hatalmud". For the first two years the yeshiva operated inside the Great Synagogue on Allenby Street. In 1933 (1933) the cornerstone was laid for the yeshiva at 13 Yehuda Halevi Street in Tel Aviv, in the presence of the Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv Shlomo HaCohen Aharonson and Mayor Meir Dizengoff, and a year later the building was inaugurated. Later, the street where the yeshiva is located was named after it – Heichal Hatalmud Street.

The yeshiva was headed by Rabbi Yosef Ferber and Rabbi Chaim Ze'ev Finkel. The honorary president was Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Finkel. Later, the Yeshiva was headed by Rabbi Tovia Lisitsin.

Unlike other yeshivot, the "Heichal Hatalmud" yeshiva was intended from the beginning for married students, in order to train them for rabbinic positions in the new towns and settlements in the center of the country. Dozens of graduates of the Hebron yeshiva went on to study at the yeshiva and after several years of studies were appointed rabbis of cities, colonies, neighborhoods and more.

During the Second World War, a special area was established in Heichal Hatalmud complex for refugees who came from Europe called the "Yeshiva Plaitat Seforim." One of the staff members was Shlomo Lorintz. In 1971, a Yeshiva Ketana, "Or Hatalmud", was established there, which was affiliated with the "Heichal Hatalmud". Among its rabbis were: Rabbi Chaim Aryeh Bernstein, author of the book "Halikhot Chaim". Among its students: Rabbi Baruch Dov Pobarsky. 
In the 1980s, he established The management group of the "Heichal Hatalmud", headed by Rabbi Tovia Lisitsin, a Yeshiva Katana in Bnei Brak called "Or HaTalmud", headed by Rabbi Chaim Elazar Zvebner, Rabbi Lisitsin's son-in-law. After the death of Rabbi Yishai Lisitsin, it was named "Heichal Tovia" after him.

With the development of nearby Bnei Brak and the dwindling of the ultra-Orthodox population in Tel Aviv, the "Heichal Hatalmud" became less used and it became a Kollel Avrachim. The head of the kollel was Rabbi Tovia Lisitsin, followed by his son Rabbi Dovid Lisitsin, then Dovid's son Ronen Lisitsin and then Ronen's son Yishai Lisitsin.

The Kollel continues, but the beautiful Shul was hardly used for many years until, on Lag B’omer 2023, the Chaslat Community (www.NeveTzedekShul.com) under Rav Horvitz, started a morning minyan there. 

There is now an exciting new project to completely renovate the shul and bring it back to it’s former glory and beauty, and to create a vibrant community centre, for the Neve Tzedek and South Tel Aviv area, for all services and activities 7 days a week.

 

(for further information on this Rabbi Zvi Horvitz +972-52-7907056 - ravhorvitz@gmail.com)