An educational initiation ceremony that appears to have been in vogue throughout medieval Ashkenaz (Franco-Germany) mandates that a young boy aged five or six is to be brought to the synagogue (in many instances, on the festival of Shavuot), to be welcomed into the study of Torah. The child was instructed to recite certain letters and verses that were written on a tablet or cake and covered with honey, and then to eat the letters, symbolizing the Torah that would become part of the child (Marcus 1996).

The educational process itself took place in informal settings. Tutors were con…