Reply To: Does the state really support Torah?

“Posting about the year 1700 in Eastery Europe, and when challenged relating a story from 1930s Lithuania is nonsense. You can’t extrapolate from Vilna in 1936 to a village in Galicia in 1700.”

I made several points and that’s the one you comment on? Interesting.

The main point is that in rural societies there isn’t much to do in Winter and after dark. Particularly back then, so they all went to the beis midrash. What we see from R’ Miller’s observation is how Torah was the national pastime back then, not soccer, not facebook .