“Please send information about daf hayomi,” pleads a letter to the editor in a 1982 edition of the now-defunct Jewish Observer, the truncated sentences apparently the result of it being sent via telegram. “Want to study Torah, but live in North Carolina. Can this be done by correspondence???” The letter was signed, “Chaim Tevye Cholmetsky, Raleigh, No. Carolina.”At the 13th Siyum Hashas according to the daf yomi schedule last week Wednesday, four decades after that memo was written, Chaim Tevye Cholmetsky would hardly have a hard time getting a shiur. An estimated 50,000 people from virtually every state celebrated the learning of the 2,711th daf, some for the first time, others for the seventh. Double that number rejoiced with the mesaymim, most in the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey’s Bergen County, with a spillover to Brooklyn’s Barclay’s Center.
Thousands more joined in at live video hookups at over 100 locations across North and South America, as well as Europe and Eretz Yisroel—an estimated million people altogether. Proceedings were translated into five languages and speakers constituted the arc of the community. The achievement marks a milestone for Jewish life in the US—the largest gathering for kvod haTorah in history.
Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Londinski of Lakewood was sitting near the dais before the program began, coming to the Siyum Hashas for his fourth time. A grandson of Rav Moshe Londinski, the rosh yeshiva of Radin under the Chofetz Chaim, he was not making a siyum, but came specifically “to see such an oilam!” he said. “I thank the Eibishter that we are able to get together and have this simcha.”
Naftoli Davidowitz, who assists with distributing the divrei Torah of Rav Avigdor Miller, was walking around the stage area. Asked what the highlight of the day would be to him, he cited a familiar name.
“Rav Avigdor Miller said that when even 10 Yidden get together, it’s a wonderful thing,” Davidowitz said, his voice taking on the famed singsong lilt of the baal hashmuah. “That creates a minyan and you’re able to say ‘amen yehei shmei rabba.’ Imagine 90,000 people screaming out ‘amen yehei shmei rabba’—what could be a greater kiddush Hashem than this?”
Event Was Meticulously Planned
Planning for the event began at the last siyum, when the date of Jan. 1, 2020, was called out at the conclusion by Agudah’s Shlomo Gertzulin— “no matter the weather!” The weather was indeed cold, with nearly 90,000 people braving temperatures with a real feel in the low 30s to attend, and most stayed for the entire program. The Barclay’s Center program was indoors.
Organizers distributed a bag containing hand, toe and body warmers, along with the three official siyum publications. Hasiyum was edited by Rabbi Yitzchok Hisiger, Nshei Hasiyum by Victoria Dwek, and Hasiyum Junior by Shrage Goldschmidt.
Law enforcement left nothing to chance with security. Along with the septennial inspiration for the Jews comes the inevitable security headache, especially for the New Jersey State Police, who led the effort to keep the location safe. Dozens of security agencies, from the FBI and the local East Rutherford beat cops to the New York State Police and the NYPD, operated together. A team of former Israeli soldiers was brought in to detect suspicious activity. FBI agents monitored social media posts for any threats related to the siyum.
If you came to MetLife from virtually anywhere, there were watchful eyes trained on you. Police helicopters buzzed overhead, with armored Bobcats and a Medevac copter on standby as a safety precaution. Police cars were situated along the roads from every major Jewish population area from which people would be coming. Canine units sniffed around. A series of command posts ringed the area, with the nearby Secaucus train station having its own command center manned by dozens of cops.
To keep traffic to the stadium flowing, transportation officials has all cash-lane toll booths leading to MetLife fully staffed, despite it being New Year’s Day. GPS tracking “pods” were placed on roads for miles around so assistance could be rendered in real time in the event of a slowdown.
Hatzolah sent about 75 members, with hundreds of others on standby, spread out in the giant stadium. A Hatzolah sources said that over 100 people were treated at the event, mostly for hyperthermia. They also handled the few reports of children searching for their parents. Most of their calls were treated on scene, with only three of them requiring hospitalization.
Daf Yomi Gains Thousands of New Participants
The daf yomi program has exploded in popularity over the past few decades, with about 2,000 shiurim around the world and 1,068 in the United States, estimated Rabbi Avrohom Nisan Perl, director of Agudah’s Commission on Torah Projects. This, he added, does not include those learning by themselves or with chavrusos.
“An informal survey that we took two years ago,” Rabbi Perl said, “is something that changed dramatically in the last few years. We found that chavrusashafts and people learning on their own to be a much more widespread phenomenon than it was 15, 20 years ago.”
The earliest shiur in the world takes place at 4:00 a.m. in Boro Park’s Sfardishe shul, while the latest is a post-chatzos shiur at the Kosel. People are much more likely to be participating via video broadcast or online shiurim than ever before.
The daf yomi program was instituted by Rav Meir Shapiro at the 1923 Knessiah Gedolah, made famous several years ago when a video was discovered of it, with such luminaries as the Chofetz Chaim and Rav Yisroel of Chorktov in it.
Every Siyum Hashas inspires thousands more to join the program. Rabbi Perl says he expects that 25,000 more people will have begun Berachos than finished Niddah the day before.
“So many people join but then they fall away,” Rabbi Perl said. “We’ve seen existing shiurim double after every siyum and then fall away. It doesn’t go back to where it was before, but it lessens.”
There are many kehillos that have their own structured learning today that didn’t exist years ago, he noted. There are also daily amud programs and weekly daf schedules.
Interestingly, the largest shiur in the world as well as the longest-running shiur are located outside the major Jewish population centers. Florida has the largest shiur, while the longest-running daf yomi is in Elizabeth, New Jersey, said Rav Yonasan Schwartz, the rav of Adas Yisroel in that city.
“We have about 60 people coming to three daf yomi shiurim in our shul,” Rav Schwartz said, smiling with pride, “including one of the longest running shiurim in the United States given by the same maggid shiur—Rav Eliezer Meir Teitz. He’s into his seventh cycle.”
Rav Eliezer Meir is a son of Rav Pinchos Teitz, a legend in American rabbanus, who served as rav in Elizabeth and was the first to give daf yomi shiurim on the radio.
Rav Schwartz said he began coming to the Siyum Hashas 30 years ago, in 1990, as a 16-year-old bochur. His relationship with daf yomi began at that event, which took place at the Madison Square Garden, where he heard a speech given by Rav Shimon Schwab, rov of Khal Adath Jeshurun in Washington Heights.
Rav Schwab related that he was in Europe when a bochur came over to him and said he was learning Bava Kama. Rav Schwartz said he perked up hearing that, since he was also learning that masechta.
“I’m not interested in what you’re doing to Bava Kama,” Rav Schwab said he told the bochur, “I’m interested in knowing what Bava Kama is doing to you.”
Those words penetrated into his heart, Rav Schwartz said, and he has been coming to the siyum ever since.
Aharon Schwartz got a three-year headstart to his father. At 13 years old, he accompanied the Elizabeth rov to MetLife for the siyum and was blown away at the sheer number of people in the stadium, saying he never saw so many people together at one time. When I asked him if was going to start learning daf yomi, he replied, “I’m thinking about it,” later adding, “I guess so.”
Chesky Holtzberg, the president of Lumiere Eyewear on Boro Park’s 16th Ave., was celebrating his third siyum hashas.
“The truth is,” Holtzberg said, “that it’s very sad that we see every daf only about once every seven-and-a-half years or so. We should see it more often. But boruch Hashem, we have such an event to energize ourselves to get back into it for more learning.”
Chesky then motions to an old yeshiva chavrusa of his from over 20 years ago. Yossi Klein is today one of three maggidei shiur at the famed daf yomi shiur on the Long Island Rail Road. Along with Eliezer Cohen and Sholom Fried, he has just completed their first cycle together. Prior to that, Rabbi Pesach Lerner, the vice president emeritus of the Young Israel, had pulled the chore along with Rabbi Cohen and Rabbi Fried.
“Twenty-eight years on the Long Island Rail Road,” said Rabbi Cohen, who said that on average between a dozen to fifteen people are on the fast-paced shiur in the train’s back car. “We started with Beitzah on Dec. 26, 1991—exactly 29 years ago.”
Teaching Gemara on the LIRR provides a steady dose of comic and interesting moments. There was the shidduch done by two shiur participants, and one member made a sheva brachos on the rails.
One of the funniest moments, Rabbi Klein said, came when a woman got on at the Jamaica station in Queens and noticed a Sichas Chullin. They were up to Chullin and the sefer provides graphic imagery for the masechta that deals with the innards of animals.
“She was able to identify parts of a bovine animal,” Rabbi Klein said, “because she deals with that in her profession.”
“She listened to all the discussions,” added Rabbi Cohen, who was completing Shas for the fourth time.
The shiur even led one Israeli immigrant to become a baal teshuva, Rabbi Cohen recalled. He would come onto the train every day and participate in the shiur, all without wearing a yarmulke. He even purchased the Hebrew ArtScroll Gemara and would prepare for the shiur.
“One day,” Rabbi Cohen said, “I’m giving the shiur and I see that he’s wearing a yarmulke. I asked what happened so he says, ‘For the daf, I have to put on the yarmulke.’ Eventually he moved back to Eretz Yisroel, because he was concerned that his children were going to public school.”
Rabbi Klein said that his grandfather, Rabbi Eliezer Fishoff, was at the first Siyum Hashas made by Rav Meir Shapiro in Lublin. He eventually went on to begin daf yomi and completed the cycle seven times. He started it an eighth time, but was niftar four years ago, at the age of 95.
“What a mamaad, what a kvod sheim shomayim berabim,” said Rabbi Klein. “It’s beautiful,” echoed Rabbi Cohen.
The Siyum Saved My Son
One person credits the siyum with saving the ruchnius of his son. The man said that his son married and learned in kollel for several years before going out to the workforce.
“He got a relatively good job and worked really, really hard to make sure he and his boss were successful,” the man said. “Work really took over his life, to the extent that from Shabbos to Shabbos, he almost didn’t open a sefer.”
The man and his wife, concerned about their son’s slide but unable to mix in, decided that every single member of the family would attend the Siyum Hashas. The only one with a hardship, however, was the son who was the target of their campaign. He had two young children and couldn’t leave them for the day. The man said that his wife arranged for babysitting, and his son and daughter-in-law were at MetLife seven years ago.
At the siyum, the son was watching a video montage, in which the screens flashed one masechta after the next.
“That got him,” the proud dad said. “He saw that there’s a beginning and an end. It’s not infinite. Berachos, Shabbos, Eruvin, Pesachim—it goes in an order and it gets done. He was so entranced by the video that he decided he was going to go into work every day 45 minutes later and make up the time at the end of the day. He started going to a shiur every day — and he’s actually finishing Shas now.”
One of the siyum’s young participants almost didn’t make it. Sholom Eisen, 11, got a surprise when he was in his Rachmastrivke yeshiva that morning. His father, Rabbi Yisroel Mordechai, called his menahel and said at the last minute he wanted to take his son to the siyum.
“Wait a minute,” the menahel said. He called in Sholom, the great-grandson of his namesake who served as a senior dayan in Yerushalayim’s Eidah Hachareidis, and gave him a farher on the first perek of Makkos. “He knew it very well,” the menahel told Rabbi Eisen. “Tell him he deserves to go to the Siyum Hashas.”
Eleven may be too young, but is he starting the daf now?
“Probably not,” Sholom said. “When I get older and will know better. In seven years, I’ll be in yeshiva gedolah.”
Rubashkin Makes His First Siyum Hashas
“How are you, Rabbi Donn?” I turn around to see Rabbi Leibish Lish, a rebbi in Yeshiva Karlin Stolin and friend of Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin.
“If you’re here, Sholom Mordechai must not be far away,” I joked.
Indeed, a few minutes later I spied Rubashkin, who was attending as a first-time mesayem.
“Geloibt der Eibishter that I’m able to be here with 100,000 people and not have to read about it in the papers,” said Rubashkin, who just marked his second anniversary of the commutation of his prison sentence by President Donald Trump.
Sholom Mordechai started the last cycle the day after the last siyum, and was completing Shas now for the first time.
“I remember by the last Siyum Hashas, my wife was here and she told me all about it, and I was mamesh yearning to be here myself,” he said. “And now is the next time and I’m actually here. And what better thing to start with than with Berachos—we should have all the berachos.”
Read more at the Yated.com
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