Takkanot (Regulations)

Every householder is required to have his son taught in school at least until he is twelve years old. He must take care of him and pay his tuition as much as he can afford. If he is unable to pay, he should ask for assistance from the community, or from the charity wardens, or he should send him to a larger community that has a yeshiva. He must support him until the age of thirteen, as stated above, to the best of his ability, so that he remains in school. Even if the boy is unable to study, he is nevertheless forbidden to remove him from school so that he can learn commerce or find a place in service or a trade after he is thirteen. In school he must learn the prayer book and the Pentateuch, to chant from the Torah and read the Haftarah, to master reading and writing and the like; he shall study all aspects of the Jewish religion.

Regarding orphans who have no father or mother, the charity wardens are obligated to ensure that no such orphan will be removed from school until after the age of thirteen, as above. The congregation is obligated to provide assistance for the tuition of that orphan, if he is the son of a poor man, for they are considered the fathers of orphans. Alternatively, they must send him to relatives, to ensure that he is not idle from school until he is thirteen years old, for the study of Torah is equal to all of them [i.e., the other mitzvot; see b. Shabbat 127a]. In every community where certain individuals are appointed as “fathers of orphans,” they must watch over the orphans in this manner and ascertain that they remain in the house of study until they are age thirteen.

Every small community that maintains a schoolteacher, or if there are in that community one or two members—or even more—who are ordained and know the Torah, and, certainly communities that maintain a rabbi but do not maintain a yeshiva, they must set aside time for Torah every day and study together, in the house of study, a topic that is good in the eyes of God. The head of the community is required to supervise this personally, under threat of a massive fine, as the head of that district sees fit, so that the Torah will not be forgotten, etc.

In any small community that does not regularly have a minyan [quorum] to pray the morning and evening prayers in the synagogue each day, the council and the holy community are required to institute an ordinance that will be strictly enforced, under pain of a large fine, so that they will always pray in a minyan every day, morning and evening. Any community head who violates this requirement must pay a fine of two gold pieces to charity, without any possibility of a discount. [ . . . ]

If the head of the state [i.e., governor] punishes someone from his district for any reason, due to improper behavior or because a decision went against him in a suit with another man, and he proceeded to speak illegally against him, the head of the state can and may do as he wishes with that man, including ostracizing, seizing, and fining him. Similarly, he can and may pass judgment himself. However, in general the head of the state must act pleasantly toward people and not be contemptuous of their honor, for perhaps—perish the thought—he might cause someone to open his mouth against him, and a person is not held responsible for his comments when he is in a state of distress [see b. Bava Batra 16b]. If it is found that the head of state harmed some individual, by banning or fining him, or imposed some other punishment illicitly, and this is proved to be the case, it shall be proclaimed loudly in that community that the ban never applied from the outset, and the fine shall be returned to him fully from the pocket of the head of state. The nobles and officers of the council will pass judgment against that head of state who did this and will not show special favor to that head of state in such a situation, perish the thought.

All fines that are levied by the nobles of the council, all or part of them, even if there is only one of them, will be written down accurately, and an account must be given regarding the purpose for which the fines were used.

If the head of a district ostracizes someone from his district for whatever reason, and the ostracized man pays no attention and remains in excommunication for eight days and does not repent of his evil ways in order to release himself from excommunication, then he shall announce that excommunication to his colleagues, the nobles of the councils in other districts, and they, too, are required to proclaim a ban on him in all the districts. Anyone who allows the excommunicated man to enter his home, after his ban has been proclaimed in all the communities as above, or if any district head permits him to go to the synagogue in his community, he will receive a very large fine, and he himself will be punished with excommunication and ostracism and a ban in the aforementioned manner.