“When all of Klal Yisrael come together, especially when they come together through learning Torah,” the Toldos Aharon Rebbe, shlita, exclaimed, “they create a tremendous nachas ruach for Hashem!”
These remarks of the Toldos Aharon Rebbe were made earlier this month at an inspiring Dirshu event held in the Rebbe’s home that was also graced by the presence of HaGaon HaTzaddik HaRav Shimon Galei, shlita, Rav Dovid Hofstedter, Nasi of Dirshu, and numerous Dirshu Daf HaYomi B’Halacha maggidei shiur.
The Rebbe explained, “There are so many maalos that come along with belonging to Dirshu. One of them is the achdus factor. Dirshu is an organization that belongs to everyone: Ashkenazim, Sefardim, Chassidim and anshei maaseh all learn in Dirshu’s programs, ‘kulanu bnei ISH echad nachnu – We are ALL the sons of one man.’ The passuk says, ‘Hashem ISH milchama.’ Hashem is called ISH and we are all sons of that ISH.”
The event at the Rebbe’s home was just one of a series of Daf HaYomi B’Halacha siyumim and haschalos as the program recently completed hilchos Shabbos and began hilchos Eruvin.
Other events were held at the homes of HaGaon HaRav Shraga Shteinman, shlita, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Orchos Torah, HaGaon HaRav Sariel Rosenberg, shlita, Av Beis Din of Rav Nissim Karelitz’s Bais Din, and in Modiin Illit where, HaGaon HaRav Bunim Schreiber, shlita, Rosh Yeshiva Nesiv Daas, HaGaon HaRav Chaim Feinstein, shlita, Rosh Yeshivas Ateres Shlomo and Hagaon HaRav Meir Kessler, shlita, Rav of Modiin Illit, attended and addressed the event.
There was also an inspiring siyum held with HaGaon HaTzaddik HaRav Binyomin Finkel, shlita, and an amazing event with hundreds of members of the Kehillas Hamasmidim.
Dirshu: The Catalyst for This Revolution!
One of the most gratifying aspects of the Amud HaYomi and Daf HaYom B’Halacha is the way it has brought entire kehillos together, literally on the same page! One such kehillah is Khal Adas Yerushalayim, commonly known as Kehillas Hamasmidim, led by Rav Elimelech Mintzberg.
Kehillas Hamasmidim has thriving branches in Yerushalayim, Bet Shemesh, Modiin Illit, Beitar and other places. The kehillah decided to adopt the Amud HaYomi as their official limud and since then, tens of shiurim have been established in each of their centers. Both kollel yungeleit and baalei battim are learning the Amud HaYomi. The kollel yungeleit have added these limudim, to their regular kollel schedule and the baalei battim had adopted it as their main limud.
Their siyum, which was held at the Mondial Hall, began with each member learning three hours b’retzifus, without interruption! Hundreds of participants joined with some fifty maggidei shiur to celebrate the siyum. In fact, one of the community leaders said, “Wherever I go, I see our baalei battim and avreichim deeply immersed in the limud, learning, chazering and taking tests in a way that we have never witnessed before. Yes, yemos haMashiach is an age when everyone has the ability to become a talmid chochom! That is what I am seeing today in our kehillah. Everyone is so taken up with the limud! There are no words to describe our profound gratitude to Dirshu for being the catalyst for this revolution!”
Dirshu’s Rabbi Avigdor Bernstein related, “It was an amazing sight! Rav Dovid Hofstedter came into the packed hall and walked up and down the aisles accompanied by the leaders of the kehillah and all they saw were community members totally immersed in their sefarim. These community members included kollel yungeleit and baalei battim all united by their limudim of Daf HaYomi B’Halacha and Amud HaYomi.”
From an Obscure Limud to Mainstream
Another memorable event was the major gathering of Daf HaYomi B’Halacha maggidei shiur in Modiin Illit.
That event was graced by Rav Bunim Schreiber, who despite undergoing grueling treatments for a serious illness, still felt compelled to come and show how much he values the maggidei shiur who are the heartbeat of the program.
HaGaon HaRav Chaim Feinstein, shlita, and Rav Dovid Hofstedter also delivered words of chizuk and bracha.
Perhaps the words of the Rav of Modiin Illit, Rav Meir Kessler, said it all.
“For many decades,” Rav Kessler began, “Eruvin has been an area learned by virtually no one except for some elite rabbanim. It was deemed too obscure and too difficult to understand. Now, however, there is tremendous interest in Eruvin, not only by rabbanim but also by kollel yungeleit and even baalei battim.
“I can clearly trace the reason for this tremendous increased interest over the past years to Dirshu. Since Dirshu introduced the Daf HaYomi B’Halacha of Eruvin in the previous machzorim insisting that it could be done and investing in providing lomdim with the tools to understand Eruvin, everything has changed. It is not an obscure area of Torah that no one learns anymore. It has gone mainstream. For this,” he concluded, “we must thank Dirshu’s Nasi, Rav Dovid Hofstedter!”
Collective Success, a Result of Collective Mesiras Nefesh
Rav Sariel Rosenberg has been delivering shiurim in Daf HaYomi B’Halacha since the program’s inception some fifteen years ago. In a voice full of heartfelt emotion, Rav Sariel addressed some of the most prominent maggidei shiur from the Bnei Brak area at the beautiful siyum on Chelek Gimmel held in his home.
In addition to Rav Sariel, divrei bracha were given by HaGaon HaRav Messoud Ben Shimon, shlita, Sephardic Rav of Bnei Brak and a Daf HaYomi B’Halacha maggid shiur, HaGaon HaRav Ephraim Newhouse, shlita, a son-in-law of HaGaon HaRav Moshe Shaul Klein, shlita, leading posek in Bnei Brak, and Rav Dovid Hofstedter.
Rav Dovid cited the Meshech Chochma that writes that Yehuda was moser nefesh for Binyomin, putting his life in this world and the next world on the line. That power of mesiras nefesh was passed on to his descendent Nachshon ben Aminadav who jumped into the Yam Suf and was further passed on to Bezalel who built the Mishkan. It was from that koach of shevet Yehuda’s mesiras nefesh that the Mishkan, which contained the Torah, emanated. The power of Torah comes only from mesiras nefesh.
Rav Hofstedter then reminisced on how he came, during the first machzor of Daf HaYomi B’Halacha, to HaGaon HaRav Aharon Leib Shteinman, zt”l, before the machzor was to begin hilchos Eruvin. He was worried about whether or not it would be successful. “Will people actually learn hilchos Eruvin?” he asked.
Rav Shteinman, however, laughed and said that when Rav Meir Shapiro instituted the Daf HaYomi there were also naysayers. They wondered how people would learn Seder Kodshim, etc.
“Rav Shteinman told us not to worry, and he was right! This tremendous success in hilchos Eruvin is only with the koach of the collective tzibbur’s mesiras nefesh. Klal Yisrael has this koach in their DNA from Yehuda and we see how it continues in our time.”
Rav Sariel Rosenberg emphasized this same point when he said, “In the not-too-distant past, comprehensive knowledge of hilchos Eruvin was relegated to a few rabbanim. Not even all rabbanim were familiar with its intricacies. Yes, the Mishnah Berurah and the Chazon Ish made it somewhat easier to learn and understand but still, it remained an area of Torah that was not learned by the masses.
That changed with Dirshu! Dirshu spearheaded the revolution in hilchos Eruvin. Over the past two machzorim, when so many thousands learned hilchos Eruvin and realized that it was possible to learn, this created a thirst to learn Eruvin b’iyun. As a result, many kollelim started learning these halachos. Today, we have hundreds of rabbanim and avreichim who are true experts in all the intricacies of hilchos Eruvin, most in areas of learning and in practical areas as well.”
From “What Will Become of Me?” to… a Siyum!
The siyum at the home of Rav Shraga Shteinman was very unique. It was a siyum made by R’ Zev Shechter, Chairman of the Ezer Mizion Organization, and the history behind the siyum is fascinating.
Four years ago, R’ Shechter attended the previous Daf HaYomi B’Halacha siyum held at the Yad Eliyahu Stadium. He related, “At that siyum there was such a beautiful atmosphere of simcha… but for me, it felt like there was a dagger in my heart! After a while, I felt so bad that I couldn’t stay anymore and I went home. Why? Because I felt so worthless. Here I saw all these Yidden learning and knowing so much! But me…? I kept wondering, ‘what will become of me? I know so little!’ Being very close to Rav Shraga Shteinman, I went over to him the next day and said, ‘I feel like such a piece of nothing! Look at all those Yidden who learned and took tests on Daf HaYomi B’Halacha. They are full of simcha, they have accomplished and me…? Yes, I do a lot of chessed in Ezer Mizion but what about my Torah?”
“Rav Shraga Shteinman responded, ‘R’ Zev, this is what I want you to do. I want you to start giving a daily shiur in Daf HaYomi B’halacha. The participants in the shiur will be your sons and sons-in-law. Every day, either in person or on the phone, you must deliver the shiur.’”
“I followed his advice,” R’ Shechter continued, “and when we recently finished Chelek Gimmel of Mishnah Berurah I felt such profound feelings of thanks to Hashem, of accomplishment! I decided that we must make a beautiful siyum and the optimum place to make that siyum would be at the home of Mori v’Rebbi, Rav Shraga, the person who originally urged me to start learning the Daf HaYomi B’Halacha and make sure to keep at it by urging me to say a daily shiur.”
At that siyum, Rav Shraga’s grandson, Rav Yonason Honigsberg, a maggid shiur for both Amud HaYomi and Daf Hayomi B’Halacha, also spoke. He related that in his years as maggid shiur, he has seen how the Amud HaYomi and Daf HaYomi B’Halacha programs have literally transformed the spiritual lives of the participants. “It is simply impossible to even gauge the colossal impact that these programs are having on Klal Yisrael!”
The Impact on the Mir Yeshiva
One of the most meaningful events took place at the office of the great tzaddik, HaGaon HaRav Binyomin Finkel, Mashgiach of Yeshivas Mir. Among the best kept secrets in the Dirshu world is the fact that hundreds of Mirrer bachurim and avreichim participate and take tests in Dirshu programs. There are shiurim before Shacharis, shiurim at lunch bein hasedarim, shiurim at supper bein hasedarim and shiurim at night seder in both Amud HaYomi and Daf HaYomi B’Halacha.
The Mir Yeshiva also offers bus transportation for the avreichim who live in various neighborhood and locales a bit further from the yeshiva so that they can come to yeshiva on time every day with the least possible hassle. It is fascinating to note that on almost every bus, there is a Dirshu Daf HaYomi B’Halacha shiur and a large contingent of those shiur participants take the tests every month.
At the event, numerous maggidei shiur were in attendance. Rav Binyomin remarked that those present were only a small portion of the maggidei shiur but being that the office could only contain a limited amount of people, most were unable to attend.
A Dirshu Yid, Is Always Focused on The Next Goal
One of the siyum’s highlights at the home of the Toldos Aharon Rebbe was the sight of the deep friendship and mutual respect between the Toldos Aharon Rebbe and Rav Shimon Galei. The Rebbe, who looked at Rav Shimon with love, mentioned their decades’ long relationship, thanked him for participating and then explained that Rav Shimon has a tremendous zechus in serving as a Daf HaYomi B’Halacha maggid shiur who has spread so much Torah and so much light among Klal Yisrael.
The Rebbe said that the Daf HaYomi B’Halacha program is made for all Yidden. “It doesn’t matter if you are a yungerman learning in kollel and you carve out a half hour each day to learn the Daf HaYomi B’Halacha or a baal habayis who spends morning till night working and you carve out a half hour each day to learn the Daf HaYomi B’Halacha! We have no way of knowing,” the Rebbe continued, “how great and powerful is the koach of a Yid, who returns from a long day at work, exhausted, spent, and nevertheless, somehow, after eating a bit, manages to rip himself off the couch or his chair and venture out to the beis medrash to attend his Daf Hayomi B’Halacha shiur! A Yid who works all day but still goes out to learn at night despite the difficulty is showing that his entire working day was also really for Torah! This is in addition to the fact that he is learning something practical that he can take home and immediately implement. How many houses have been saved from transgressing a prohibition of Shabbos because the baal habayis spent time learning Daf HaYomi B’Halacha?!”
Indeed, the siyumim on Chelek Gimmel were not just celebrations of previous accomplishments. Rather, they were catalysts for further growth because when someone is a member of the Dirshu family, he is always looking forward to accomplishing the next goal and conquering the next frontier!
