Yet Another Reason

I'm learning more and more reasons that explain the uniqueness of the yeshiva in Volozhin, see here.

The first reason in my last post was the one I heard the most often.  It is only within the last year that I've been hearing additional and unique reasons.

 

Well, here is yet another reason I discovered, this one from Torah Tavlin, volume II, p. 239.  It says:

 

"R' Chaim Volozhiner went to his rebbi, the Vilna Gaon, seeking his consent for a new project.  Full of enthusiasm he excitedly described his plans for opening a yeshiva which would be the first of its kind.  Its goal would be to broaden the previously confined boundaries of Torah study not just to individual scholars but to masses of mevakshim - people who truly yearned to quench their thirst for Torah knowledge."

Masses? The yeshiva in Volozhin, over the decades, was not larger in size than other yeshivos.  Very few boys went on to learn in a yeshiva past cheder.  Most went to work and married.  You had to be determined, and usually very smart, to learn in yeshiva when you were in your mid and late teens and beyond.  No masses attended any yeshivos in Eastern Europe.