My brother the freethinker, who wrote to me in his letter from Warsaw, that "the whole world does not consist only of Jews, and the whole wisdom of the world is not found only in the Gemorrah", had made a big mistake. The Slobodka Yeshiva was a whole world in itself! And if not the whole world, then it was, at the very least, the center of the world. So it appeared in my eyes. Hundreds of yeshiva-boys, from the four corners of the word came together here. All roads led to Slobodka. All the Jewish communities and all the Jewish settlements, from every country, wherever they might be, North, South, East, or West....they all sent their sons here to learn the Torah. Slobodka...this was the present-day Sura, the Nahardai and the Pumbadita (the great Yeshivas in long-ago Babylon).

Even the Holy Russian City of Moscow was represented here with her own yeshiva-boy. This was the millionaire's son, from the famous Peresik family. He came dressed in a fine coat, with golden buttons, with tassles on his hat, as befitted a Moscow millionaire’son...but as soon as he crossed the threshold of the Slobodka Yeshiva, he quickly shed the trappings of "the Gentile", and changed into common clothes...he had come here to study, together with all the other yeshiva-boys.

They came here from outside the country, even from Germany and Austria. Over there walked a slim, fine-looking boy with dark eyes, like a Gypsy, who had come here all the way from the distant, high Caucasus, or possibly from somewhere in Bukhara. He didn't know how to speak a word of Yiddish, and studied the Gemorra in its Russian translation, or in his Sephardic Hebrew. Without a doubt, Slobodka was a true "ingathering of the exiles". David Varshever, a former yeshiva-boy from Warsaw, then a resident scholar in Slobodka, was right when he said:

"They all come here sooner or later..."

The great "Masortic-Yeshiva", which bore the name "Knesset Yisroel", was packed with hundreds of boys. But these yeshiva-boys did not resemble the ones in Brisk. Those ones had "yeshiva-boy" written all over their faces...the way they dressed, the way they moved, all their gestures and habits. But here in Slobodka, they had the look of real big-city religious scholars. All of them were smartly dressed, their clothes clean, stylish and well-tailored. On their heads - fedoras; or, in the warm summer months, straw hats, all in the latest style. Almost all carried walking-sticks. Even on their faces, not a trace of the old ways...if there should come along a yeshiva-boy from Poland, wearing a long black gabardine, he'd have to get rid of it right away...it wouldn't be too long before they'd have him looking like a proper Litvak...

And wherever you went and wherever you stood in Slobodka, you saw nothing but yeshiva-boys. You heard the quiet, mournful gemorrah-melody. You got the feeling, that the whole world consisted exclusively of yeshiva-boys, who had no other interest in life, and who sought no other "future" for themselves, than simply to study and study.

As soon as I arrived in Slobodka, I was required to report to "the Old Man", as they called him, Reb Notte-Hirsh, the director of the Yeshiva. I showed him my letter of recomendation from our Kamenetz Rabbi, Reb Ruben Burshteyn, in which he asked that I be admitted into the Yeshiva, and that they should provide me with an allowance, or stipend, in order that I should be able to sit and study in tranquility, because, as everybody knows, "the Torah shall be in front of his eyes".....and he said on my behalf, that with good supervision, I would grow into a student of wisdom...

From there I went to the Head of the Yeshiva, the renowned master, Reb Moyshe-Mordekhay Epshteyn, the Slobodka Rabbi. He had with me a little chat about my studies. He let it be known that here in Slobodka, they would not let me stumble. And at the earliest opportunity, they would provide me with a young, well-to-do student, who would pay me for teaching him. This, together with the monthly allowance from the yeshiva, would provide me with my income. Soon I had worked out my entire budget...so, with my mind at ease and with a light heart, I began to apply myself to my studies...and in fact, with great enthusiasm!