Day 2, 10:30 AM: Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin

We left for Lublin with a new guide on board: a local Polish chap named Malek. Akiva stayed behind to conduct some kind of tour or something for another group in Lizhensk; he would be meeting us later that night.

We arrived in Lublin later in the moning, and went straight to the legendary Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin. The yeshiva is housed in a glorious yellow building that until recently was being used by some kind of nursing school or something, before some generous person or persons purchased it back for the Jewish people. It is now slowly being restored to its former glory.

At the yeshiva, we met up with the legendary Rabbi Hanoch Teller, who would be joining us as a tour guide for the next few days.

Rabbi Teller began by first telling us a bit about the history of the yeshiva and of Rabbi Meir Shapiro, and the extraordinary caliber of the talmidim who learned there (an average farher covered between three and five HUNDRED blatt of Gemara by heart). We then went into the yeshiva itself, where we sat in the beis medrash and learned for a few minutes as a reminder of the great yeshiva that was once there, after which we sang and danced a little.

We then looked around at the rest of the building (there were some pictures and other exhibits in some of the rooms adjoining the beis medrash). After that, we went outside to pose for a group picture on the stairs, and then loaded the bus to head out for our next stop.