APRIL 2005 • NISSAN 5765 VOL. XXXVIII NO.4 USA $3.50 (Outside NY area $3.95) Foreign $4.50 CLICK HERE FOR TABLE OF CONTENTS This is the full Table of Contents of the print edition of the Jewish Observer. The web edition contains only a selection of articles (indicated in COLOR). Click on the title to go to the beginning of that article. Navigate using your browser’s menu and THE ELEVENTH SIYUM HASHAS OF DAF YOMI THE JEWISH OBSERVER (ISSN) 0021-6615 is published monthly except July & August by the Agudath Israel of America 42 Broadway, New York, NY 10004. 6 6 THE “ECHAD” MOMENT, Rabbi Nisson Wolpin Periodicals postage paid in New York, NY. Subscription $25.00/year; 2 years, $48.00; 3 years, $$69.00. 14 THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS, Rabbi Yechiel Spero Outside of the United States (US funds drawn on a US bank only) $15.00 surcharge per year. 16 MY TURN…, Sarah Spero Single copy $$3.50; Outside NY area $3.95; foreign $4.50. 18 FROM THE SIDELINES… TO THE FRONT LINES, E.T. 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A p r i l 2 0 0 5 he preparation for this Torah-inspired event began, Then came the taxing schedule, the logistical plan- in its way, over eighty years ago, when Rabbi Meir ning, setting up communications centers and mailings, TShapiro introduced the idea of learning through leasing of arenas, meeting halls and auditoriums, the entirety of Shas – one page at a time – Daf Yomi setting up satellite networks, making and confirming – at the Knessia Gedolah of Agudath Israel in Vienna. seat reservations, and the countdown to the end of It was advanced when the Gerrer Rebbe l”xz ushered in Masechta Nidda. the New Year 5684 by learning the first folio of Shas, The long-awaited day came, and highways, skyways, Berachos daf Beis, and tens of thousands of Chassidim trains, buses – all were crowded with mesyemim (Shas com- followed his example. The more immediate preparation pleters) and fellow celebrants. The confluence of Yidden for this Siyum began on September 29, ’97/27 Elul 5757, outside Madison Square Garden and the Javits Center in when Jews on six continents began the Eleventh Cycle Manhattan, Continental Airlines Arena in New Jersey, Walt of Daf Yomi, which has just come to a close. Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Rosemont Theatre in The arduous task ahead was approached with trepi- Chicago, Ricoh Center in Toronto… the streams of joyful dation… and enthusiasm, explaining one phrase at a people converging outside of the entrances of these gath- time, exploring meanings and implications, analyzing ering places, pulsating with love for Torah, dedication to disputes, absorbing sugya after sugya, paving one’s limud HaTorah, ambition for growth in Torah. All entering way through a perek, completing an entire Masechta. for a defining sort of celebration, declaring, in effect: I am “Hadran alach Masechte Berachos,” and on for 2,711 a Torah Jew, and nothing could be more fulfilling than this pages, for seven and a half years. event, as a catapult to a yet more exciting future. 6 The Jewish Observer or the hundred thousand plus people locking unity. Yeshiva students, Chassidim, who participated in the Siyum HaShas Sephardim, Jews of Polish, Hungarian, Fof the 11th Cycle of Daf Yomi in German, Russian, Moroccan, Syrian and America and around the world, there was red-white-and blue American extraction… an incredibly wide range of overwhelming, men, women, children… Rabbis, Roshei inspiring moments. In this writer’s view, the Yeshiva, Chassidic leaders, mechanchim, most embracing one was the crying out of the teachers… manufacturers, professionals, first passuk of Shema during Maariv, conclud- entrepreneurs, clerks, laborers, full-time- ing with the word “Echad!” Yes, the tens of at-home mothers – all were one in their thousands in the New York City area and at appreciation of Torah study as the life In the Aftermath of the Siyum I can not put into words that which we just experienced. From the moment we walked in, to our amazing seats, to the last Kaddish. From Rabbi Wachsman’s “we want more” to Rabbi Matisyahu’s “we must commit ourselves,” we left a few feet taller and feeling like we have reached a new level. Rabbi Aryeh Feigenbaum Rav of Congregation Ohr HaTorah and leader of the 100 member Dallas delegation to the Siyum. over seventy other locations across America, force of Klal Yisroel: its crowning glory and yet more in far-flung settings joined by in the ideal setting, its saving grace under satellite, all these people covered their eyes pressure, its key to survival in the worst of and intoned the declaration of Hashem’s circumstances. indivisible Unity. And in The achdus amidst doing so together, dem- diversity was under- onstrated that just as “You scored by Rabbi Shmuel are One and Your Name Bloom, Vice-President is One,” one must affirm of Agudath Israel of with equal certainty, “who America, in his address is like Your people Israel, one at the Siyum gathering: nation on earth.”1 When the Gedolei A look at the dais, a Torah convened to glance across the audi- found Agudath Israel, toriums, a scan of the Harav Meir Shapiro l”xz list of locations, and one wondered aloud in the speech in which realizes the extent of the range of partici- he introduced the concept of Daf Yomi pants. Indeed, diversity made for an inter- how it would be possible for the kadosh 7 A p r i l 2 0 0 5 Rav Chaim Brisker to discuss matters cheering everyone else, from wherever The Joy of Completion with a German Rav from Frankfurt, they were sitting. or how a cultured Jew from Holland Perhaps to those of us who were part Rabbi Goldberg also captured the would find common ground with an of the massive New York area assemblies, explosion of joy at the conclusion of Eastern European Jew from Poland. the Maariv following the Siyum – after the actual Siyum: However, when he sat down to completing Shas – had suggestions of The body rejoices. Not just the learn a daf Gemara, he realized that Ne’ila – the final prayer on Yom Kippur, mind. Not just the soul. a blatt Gemara contains these diverse marking the last moments before the The last words of the Talmud are groups. The Gemara was written in doors close on Hashem’s compassion- recited and duly explicated, then Bavel, which today the formal comple- is Iraq; Rashi was tion ceremony and written in France; the accompanying, and the perushim unique Kaddish is of the Rif, Rashba, also recited, and R i t v a a n d then – then – Rambam were No instruction. written in Spain No sooner is and North Africa. the last word of That is what this Kaddish recit- Daf Yomi is all ed than the entire about, and that throng breaks out in is the ratzon of spontaneous dance. Hakadosh Baruch Have you ever Hu. The unity of danced together with Klal Yisroel should tens of thousands of come – and could people? only originate It takes seven from limud haTo- and a half years of rah.2 daily intellectual and “Echad,” in awe, spiritual struggle to in joy, in dedication explain this dance. and determination. People lock arms. Somehow, on this People sing. Children occasion, the place and teenagers move one occupied did to the front, hop the not define one’s role. security barrier, form Regulars at sporting circles and dance in events at the Garden or Continental ate forgiveness. I cannot comment for front of the sages on the dais. The Arena know what to expect when they those whose connection to the event sages themselves, some very old and enter: The players are in the rink or was electronic, but the memory of the infirm, rise and dance in circles, too.