Tens Of Thousands Celebrate Historic Siyum HaShas
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Participants in the MetLife Stadium Siyum HaShas recite the Minchah prayer.
Neither the threat of rain nor heavy traffic prevented the huge throng of enthusiastic participants from attending the 12th Siyum HaShas last Wednesday, August 1 at MetLife Stadium. The event, which attracted more than 90,000 people, was in celebration of the conclusion of the seven-and-a-half year learning cycle of the Babylonian Talmud.
It was 36-year-old Rabbi Meir Shapiro who introduced the learning of Daf Yomi at the first Knessia Gedolah two weeks before Rosh Hashanah 5684 (1923). The Daf Yomi program requires one to learn one daf (a two-sided page) of the Talmud’s 2,711 pages each day.
Several speakers heaped accolades on Daf Yomi teachers and students alike, the former for preparing their sessions thoroughly and the latter for balancing their busy schedules to ensure early morning or late night learning. Wives of both teachers and students were commended for supporting their husbands’ dedication in this Torah-learning challenge.
Siyum HaShas Chairman Elly Kleinman spoke about Rabbi Shapiro’s vision – uniting Klal Yisrael through the learning of Torah. Rabbi Shapiro visualized a scenario whereby a traveler would enter a shul in another village and find fellow Jews studying the same Talmud page that he was learning. Rabbi Shapiro’s goal has become reality as thousands of Jews from diverse backgrounds and various locations throughout the world learn the same page of Gemara daily. This unity of purpose and achievement was on display at MetLife Stadium, as Jews from all walks of life joined together to partake in the Siyum HaShas.
Rabbi Shlomo Yehuda Rechnitz of Los Angeles, the evening’s MC, mentioned the August 1 date of this Torah-learning accomplishment – 76 years to the day after Adolf Hitler addressed tens of thousands of people at the 1936 Olympics. Rabbi Rechnitz spoke of the sweet revenge the Jewish people could feel on this night with their answer – learning Torah – to Hitler’s barbarism.
The Novominsker Rebbe, Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, said that it is Torah that defines the Jewish people as a nation, adding that Torah is the only ingredient that can explain our existence throughout the generations while the world’s evil superpowers have perished over time.
Rabbi Yissocher Frand
(Photo courtesy of Menachem Adelman/Agudath Israel)
Noted author Rabbi Yissocher Frand, the senior lecturer at Yeshivas Ner Yisroel in Baltimore, urged Jews to formulate a plan that aims higher in their Torah study. He pointed to American-born Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel, zt”l, who despite the handicap of Parkinson’s disease, grew to become a gadol b’Yisrael. Rabbi Finkel never let his debilitating illness interfere with running the largest yeshiva in Eretz Yisrael. Rabbi Frand said that this should be a reminder that it is never too hard to accomplish great things in life, and what seems to be out of one’s reach is in fact in the person’s grasp.
Rabbi Yitzchok Scheiner, rosh yeshiva of Kaminetz Yeshiva in Jerusalem, withstood his advanced age of 90 to make the trip. Impressed with Rabbi Frand’s moving words, Rabbi Scheiner substituted his planned message by taking up Rabbi Frand’s suggestion to devise a plan of action to aim higher in Torah study. Rabbi Scheiner’s two-fold plan was a call for those who have yet to learn Daf Yomi to begin now, and that everyone should learn the Chofetz Chaim’s Sefer Shemiras Halashon. He also spoke briefly about his rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, whose recent passing is still fresh in our minds.
Rabbi Yitzchok Scheiner
(Photo courtesy of Menachem Adelman/Agudath Israel)
For his part, Tel Aviv Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, a former Ashkenazic chief rabbi of Israel, stressed the importance of chazarah, reviewing what one has learned. Rabbi Lau emphasized that one who learns 100 times cannot be compared to one who has learned 101 times.
Yechiel Eisenstadt, Shrage Goldschmidt and Moshe Hass spearheaded the groundbreaking Masmidei Hasiyum youth program, whereby thousands of elementary and junior high school boys have completed one-and-a-half million mishnayos in memory of the same number of children murdered in the Holocaust, and six million lines of Gemara in memory of the six million martyrs of the Holocaust.
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