Siyum on Yerushalmi Seder Zeraim at Home of Rav Moshe Sternbuch

It happened at the home of the famed Mashgiach, HaGaon HaTzaddik, HaRav Don Segal, shlita. Senior members of Hanhalas Dirshu, led by Dirshu’s Nasi, Rav Dovid Hofstedter, shlita, came to receive Rav Don’s bracha upon the completion of Masechta Shabbos in the Amud HaYomi program and Seder Zeraim in the Kinyan Yerushalmi program.

During the course of their conversation, the size and scope of Dirshu’s myriad programs was discussed and the Mashgiach said something absolutely remarkable. “I want to reveal a secret to you regarding Dirshu. There may be some people who encapsulate Dirshu’s contribution to Klal Yisrael as a type of ‘luxury.’ They may say things like Dirshu ‘is a wonderful thing,’ or ‘it is a gift from Heaven.’ They may say, ‘It is wonderful that people are learning in the various programs and are taking tests…’ But that is not how I see it. To me Dirshu is not a luxury in any way, rather it is a necessity for Klal Yisrael. It is critically vital for Klal Yisrael! Klal Yisrael needs Dirshu! Its programs are a hatzalah for Klal Yisrael and are the hatzlacha for Klal Yisrael. Dirshu is no less than a maamid and a matzil!”

When Rav Don was asked to which component of Dirshu he was referring - the halacha programs or perhaps the fact that there are tests that one can take on each of the programs - he replied, “Of course, the tests are important, it is very important that a person should know what he learns and have it ‘in his hands,’ with instant recall, but that is not what I meant. I meant the very fact that there is an organization like Dirshu that is promoting and facilitating limud haTorah on such a size and scope. In this galus, all we have left is Torah, ‘ein shiur rak haTorah hazos.’ We need so much hatzlacha and so much Hatzalah! There are forces out there that seek to destroy us. Who will save us? Only Torah. Torah is meigin u’matzil, Torah shields and saves!”

After taking the time to review all the various programs encompassing the Gemara programs, halacha programs and mussar programs, about which Rav Dan was especially pleased, he took pains to reiterate. “I am not saying this just to be nice or just to be mechazek you. I am saying that Dirshu is the hatzalah of Klal Yisrael because that is the unvarnished truth!”

“You, the Lomdim are the Wealthiest People in Our Generation!”

In addition to the visit to Rav Dan Segal, Dirshu celebrated a major siyum on Talmud Yerushalmi Seder Zeraim that the Dirshu Kinyan Yerushalmi program has just concluded. The event held at the home of the senior Posek of the generation, HaGaon HaRav Moshe Sternbuch, shlita, Raavad of the Bedatz of the Eidah Hachareidis, was attended by numerous maggidei shiur in the Kinyan Yerushalmi program as well as the hanhala of Dirshu, led by Rav Dovid Hofstedter.

Rav Sternbuch, who was clearly deeply moved to see so many maggidei shiur representing thousands of participants in the program, went out of his way to address the event. At his advanced age, delivering a public address takes tremendous energy, but he still felt compelled to express his deep feelings upon witnessing the siyum. Rav Sternbuch said, “It is a tremendous simcha to see such a tzibbur that has completed the entire Talmud Yerushalmi on Seder Zeraim! This is especially significant because in past generations few merited such an accomplishment. No one ever dreamed that there would be an era of such a tremendous uptick in limud haTorah among the masses, like there has been in our times. Yes, on the one hand there is yeridas hadoros. Yes, our generation is, in many ways, inferior in comparison with previous generations. Yet, at the same time, there are tremendous strides being made in limud haTorah. The completion of the Yerushalmi Zeraim by so many lomdim at one time is simply unprecedented,” exclaimed Rav Sternbuch with great emotion.

He then addressed the lomdim directly, saying, “I want the lomdim to know something. You are the wealthiest people! No one can even compare to your wealth! A person who learns an entire masechta has earned a rechush gadol, a tremendous treasure, eternal riches and wealth. How much more so when one learns an entire seder like Zeraim. You may not feel wealthy, but the fact is you are the wealthiest people in our generation! If you would just realize how wealthy you are, you would walk around as the happiest people in the entire world!”

The Greatest Antidote to Today’s Danger is Learning About the Mitzvos of Eretz Yisrael

Rav Moshe added that there is another component that makes learning Yerushalmi Zeraim so important. In Eretz Yisrael, Seder Zeraim is not just a limud that is not relevant on a practical level. On the contrary, all the Gemaros that you learned are relevant to the halachos that we must observe all the time here in Eretz Yisrael.

Rav Sternbuch then commented, “Here in Eretz Yisrael, at this time, the country is in danger. There are all kinds of enemies seeking to infiltrate our land and place all of us in sakana. There is no doubt that learning about the mitzvos that are relative to the land can invoke a great zechus on behalf of the land and neutralize all those who seek to uproot us from the land that Hashem has given to us! We have no idea how much the learning of this area of Torah illuminates the heavens,” Rav Moshe concluded.

The Most Appropriate Place for a Siyum on Zeraim

Rav Moshe was introduced by HaGaon HaRav Mattisyahu Deutsch, shlita, a prominent Rav in Ramot and a Dayan in the Eidah Hacharedis. Rav Deutsch pointed out that there is no place more appropriate for making a siyum on Seder Yerushalmi Zeraim than at the home of Rav Moshe Sternbuch, because Rav Moshe is known as the “pillar of Seder Zeraim” in our generation.

Rav Deutsch described for the assemblage how Rav Moshe merited to discuss many areas of Seder Zeraim with the Chazon Ish, and how it is known that the Chazon Ish, perhaps more than anyone else, was instrumental in seeing that the halachos of the mitzvos hateluyos ba’aretz should be observed in Eretz Yisrael.

“I remember,” Rav Deutsch recalled, “more than thirty years ago, I once asked the Minchas Yitzchok, HaGaon HaRav Yitzchok Yaakov Weiss, zt”l, Gaavad of the Eidah Hacharedis, which sefer I should learn if I wanted to understand the halachos of Shemitta. He immediately mentioned, ‘Sheviis K’hilchasa,’ the sefer authored by the gaon HaRav Moshe Sternbuch, who is sitting here.”

Rav Sternbuch in his closing remarks, praised and hailed Dirshu and its nasi, Rav Dovid Hofstedter, for facilitating nothing less than a revolution in the learning of Seder Zeraim on a size and scope that was once thought impossible.

Perhaps the closing words of the well-known mashpia, HaGaon HaRav Shimon Spitzer, shlita, a Dirshu Kinyan Yerushalmi maggid shiur who made the siyum, encapsulated the elevated feelings in the room, when he said, “May we all be zoche to continue and gather here together once again for a siyum on the entire Shas Yerushalmi!”