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JO1997-V30-N07.Pdf Presents TM e Ultimate Interactive Multimedia Tool for Talmud Study Make your day complete ... Have your own private Rebbe! Perfect for. .. •DafYomi Participant • Maggid Shiur •BeginningStudentof'Ihlinud •Classroom Rav •Advanced Student •Bar Mitzvah •Classroom Rebbe •Anyone who loves Torah! FEATURES... •Audio WORD BY WORD translation and explanation in Englishf • T zuras Hadaf •Automatically view references of ONLY Tunach, Shas, Rambam & Shulchan Aruch $39 •All texts printable & exportable •Print the daf any size Till the Siyum Hashas­ •Ideal for shiur handouts! September 28th! •Built-in word processor, voice note:; . look for additional Mesech as they are released! &muchmore! TEXTS INCLUDED: •Complete Mesechta Brochos with audio WORD BY WORD translation and explanation in English! •All Shas Bavli • Rashi on Tanach •All Rashi and Tosafos • Rambam •Tanach in Hebrew and English • Shulchan Aruch The Largest Selection ofJewish Sofiware Anywhere! 21 Main Street I Monsey, NY I Fax: 914-356-1343 I www.torahscholar.com PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT COMMERCIAL QUALITY • INSTITUTIONAL & RESIDENTIAL • WOOD • STEEL • PLASTIC • SWINGS • SLIDES • PICNIC TABLES • SCHOOL & CAMP EQUIPMENT • BASKETBALL SYSTEMS • RUBBER FLOORING • ETC. • Equipment meets or exceeds all ASTM and CPSC safety guidelines CURRENT INSTALLATIONS • Site planning and design services CLAYTON POWELL SCHOOL - Harlem with state-of-the-art Auto CAD MT. SINAI HOSPITAL - NYC • Stainless steel fabrication for WALTON HIGH SCHOOL - Bronx ultimate rust resistance HEBREW ACADEMY OF NASSAU COUNTY CHANC) - Union­ dale MAXWELL HIGH SCHOOL - Greenpoint CAMP MUNK - Ferndale HEBREW ACADEMY FOR SPECIAL CHILDREN CHASC) - Canarsie better 5302 New Utrecht Avenue• Brooklyn, NY 11219 health Phone: 718-436-4801 Ellul 5757 •September 1997 U.S.A.$3.50/Foreign $4.50 •VOL XXX/NO. 7 THE JEWISH OBSERVER (ISSN) 0021 ~6615 is pub/lshed monthly except July and August by the Agudath Israel of America, 84 William Street, New York, N.Y. 10038. Second class postage paid in New York, N.Y. Subscription $24.00 per year; two years, $44.00; three yeais, $60.00. Outside of the United Slares {US funds drawn on a US bank only) $12.00 surcharge per year. Single copy $3.50; foreign $4.50. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Jewish Observer, 84 William Street, APPROACHING THE $/YUM HASHAS - DAF YOMI N.Y., N.Y 10038.Tel:212-797-9000, Fax: 212-269-2843. 6 Printed in the U.S.A. Shiur Terror: Saying the Daily Oaf Robbi Avrohom Stone RABBI NISSON WOLPIN, EDITOR 37 EDITORIAL BOARD OR. ERNST L. BODENHEIMER New Technological Frontiers in Dialing the Oaf Chairman Robbi Eli Teitelbaum RABBI JOSEPH ELIAS JOSEPH FAIEOENSON 13 RABBI NOSSON SCHERMAN New Torah Cities in Eretz Yisroe/ Today MANAGEMENT BOARD Zev Roth AVI FISHOF NAFTOLI HIRSCH 21 ISAAC KIRZNER The Beis Din in America: RABBI SHLOMO LESIN NACHUM STEIN The Idyllic Depiction vs. The Facts on the Ground Rabbi Alfred Cohen RABBI YOSEF C. GOLDING Business Manager 27 Published by Titchadshi!, Sarah Shapiro Agudath Israel of America RABBI MOSHE SHERER SECOND LOOKS PRESIDENT 30 U.S. mADE OISTRIBUTOf\ ISRAELI DISTRIBUTOR Neutrality:The Changing View from Switzerland Feldheim Publishers Nechemia Rosenberg 200 Airport Executive Par~ Kiryat Telshe Stone. 108A Spring Valley, N.Y. 10977 D.N. Harei Yehuda. ISRAEL 34 Taking the Prize EUROPEAN REPRESENTATIVE AUSffiALIAN DISTRIBUTOR M.T. Bibelman Gold's Book & Gift Co. Robbi Avi Shafran Grosvenor Works 36 William Street Mount Pleasant Hill Balaclava 3183, Vic .. 41 Lorulon E5 9NE, ENGLAND AUSTRALIA Readers' Forum on Life Style Issues THE JEWISH OBSERVER does not s I BOOKS IN REVIEW assume responsibility for the Kashrus THE MANCHESTER ROSH YESHIVA of any product, publication, or service reviewed by Rabbi Avraham Chaim Carmell advertised in its pages YESTERDAY,TODAY,AND FOREVER/EXPLORING CONTEMPORARY JUDAISM FROM THE © Copyright 1997 PERSPECTIVE OF JEWISH HISTORY, VOL. II reviewed by Rabbi Joseph Elias SEPTEMBER 1997 VOLUME XXX/NO. 7 S3 POETRY Welcome!, Shiffjr Lichter Shiur Terror: Saying the Daily Daf D af Yomi shiurim are no longer found exclusively in large metropolitan areas. Recent years have seen an explosion in the study of this uniform page of Talmud; now, groups large and small pursue the intricacies of the daily daf throughout the nooks and crannies of Jewish America. Two years ago, Rabbi Avrohom Y. Stone, a talmid of Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, became the Rav of a congregation in small, suburban West Orange, New Jersey. One of his first initiatives in his new position was the formation of a community Daf Yomi. In the following pages, he describes the inner workings of his shiur, and in the course of doing so, he reveals the profound impact Daf Yomi has had on his community, his shiur and on himself. 've often wondered what Rabbi ty DafYomi Shiur gathers in the library inspirer, entertainer, and explainer. Meir Shapiro intended when he pro­ of the large, modern, Orthodox shul to Some in the shiur consider me the cap­ I posed the concept of DafYomi. Per­ "learn the daf.' On Shabbos, we meet in tain of the ship; others, the navigator. haps he envisioned groups of serious the afternoon at a smaller shuL There Those who come infrequently see me as scholars, their lives dedicated to Torah are no great talmidei chachamim in this the tourguide on their sightseeing voy­ study, engaged in passionate discussion bunch. In fact, it's a very eclectic group. age through Shas. of the issues raised in each line of Gemo­ There's one lawyer (sometimes two), two ra. Maybe he foresaw two tailors, doctors (sometimes three), one chemist, Beginnings: Among Great Skepticism stroking long gray beards as they sit by a dentist, one retired butcher (often candlelight in the Schneider Beis two), and a sporadic complement of ur shiur began almost two years Hamidrash, probing the depths of the computer programmers and business­ ago, on Isru Chag Sukkos, amid Talmud after a hard day's work. The men (depending on the mesechta, their 0 great skepticism. Never before possibilities are endless. But of all the schedules and state of mind). They vary had there been an attempt at establish­ likely scenarios he might have imagined, in age and interests. The only common ing a daily regimen of learning in our the least likely, by far, is the Daf Yomi bond they seem to share is the desire to community. The reaction to the pro­ shiur that I give every day. And yet, in accomplish what they thought, until posal was, to say the least, less than a certain aspect, I suspect that our shiur recently, was impossible: to finish Shas. heartening. "It'll never work." "What?! might be exactly what he had in mind. And then, there's me, the maggid A shiur every single day?! People will Each morning, somewhere around i shiur. A lofty title for a difficult job. I come at first. But after two days, no one's 7:20 a.m., the West Orange Communi- am at once a teacher, mentor, cajoler, going to show up!" Nattering nabobs 6 The Jewish Observer, September 1997 of negativism did not hesitate to prog­ place immediately after Shabbos, and it nosticate our quick demise. But some­ wound up taking a little more than an how, the idea of the daf had struck a • hour from start to finish, and it was obvi­ chord, and the response was beyond ever before had ous that the natives had gotten restless. As anyone's expectation. there been an I begin the day's shiur, one of the Miraculously, 35 men materialized N talmidim enters and takes his seat. for that first shiur. The room was filled attempt at establishing Glancing up, I notice that he is dressed in with unasked questions. Would the a karate outfit. Quickly assessing the sit­ Rabbi finish in the allotted forty-five min­ a daily regimen of uation, I decide that it would be prudent utes? Would questions be allowed? to finish on time this morning. Would the Rabbi even show up? Would learning in our *** he speak out commentaries? Would any­ community. The body understand what the Gemora was Are questions allowed? Yes. I am a firm talking about by the time the shiur fin­ reaction to the proposal believer in active participation of the ished? talmidim in the shiur. The pace of a blatt Although participation in our shiur was, to say the least, a day is just too quick for a person to has decreased to seven daily regulars absorb everything on the daf Some­ through attrition, the answers to these less than heartening: times, however, questions can interrupt questions have not really changed in the "It'll never work." the steady flow necessary to explain the last two years. In short, the answers are: Gemora. This is especially true when no, yes, most of the time, not often, and dealing with lawyers and retired persons, you can never be sure. Allow me to when I am forced to exercise my dicta­ explain. • torial powers and invoke the dreaded interject, "you're absolutely right. It's irre­ "no question" rule: all queries are held *** sponsible for me to go beyond 45 minutes. until the end of the shiur. Violation of Can the Rabbi finish in the allotted forty From now on, I give you my word that the the rule is subject to suspension, expul­ five minutes? No, not every day. I try daf will never be longer than that. sion or worse. So far, no one has been my best, but we often run five or ten Thank you for bringing it to my atten- suspended, although some are on shaky minutes late. Many a dafis just too dif­ tion." ground. ficult to finish in exactly three quarters The silence on the other end of the line of an hour.
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