One year ago. That’s 365 days to this date: January 1st 2020 was the great day of The Siyum.  One year ago, ninety thousand people flocked into the MetLife Stadium to celebrate the 13th Siyum HaShas.  It was a celebration of the Daf HaYomi; it was a celebration of Torah; it was a celebration of all of Klal Yisroel! Hosted by Agudas Yisroel, it was a celebration where one could feel ‘Yisroel v’Oraysa v’Kudsha Brich Hu, chad hu’- all of Klal Yisroel uniting with Hashem and His Torah. It is hard to believe that it was just one year ago. What a year it has been!  Mass events? Live celebrations? Ninety thousand people dancing together? Who can even dream of such things anymore?!? The year that has passed since The Siyum has been a challenging one.  But The Daf didn’t stop! The Daf kept on going and The Daf kept us going. Throughout the global pandemic and ensuing panic; throughout lockdowns and quarantine, The Daf was one thing that remained a comforting constant. Through The daf, Klal Yisroel remained connected, because the Torah is that which connects us all. Anu ratzim v’heim ratzim- their lives ground to a halt, but our lives became ever fuller and richer with Torah. Stuck at home, with no office or store to run out to, K’vias Ittim became even stronger. Daf HaYomi continued by phone or Zoom or even individually- no matter how we learned, it kept us all on the same page!  With superhuman effort, so many dedicated wives and mothers helped their husbands and sons to learn, despite the disorientation and lack of schedule.  In many a home, mothers were hosting (and feeding, and negotiating between!) several different ‘yeshivos’ under one roof! As these Nashim Tzidkoniyos had, previously, given of their time to enable their husbands to go out to learn, they once again stood to the test, thinking of creative solutions to enable and encourage their husbands to stay in and learn without disturbance. Behind every Lomeid haDaf is his wife; it is in great part due to his wife’s encouragement and pride in his learning that a man is able to keep shteiging day after day. When Reb Meir Shapiro zt’’l presented his revolutionary idea of the Daf HaYomi, almost 100 years ago, he spoke about how wondrous it would be if two Yidden, travelling from opposite ends of the world, would meet at a train station or on a boat or in another continent, yet find themselves learning the very same Daf.  “Could there be greater unity of hearts than this?”[14][15][16] said R’ Meir. Little did he imagine a time when The Daf would be the unifying force between men of the same community, neighbors even, who are quarantined at home and can’t go out….yet The Daf kept them on the same page and held them together. While March may have felt to many like the longest month, Shabbos didn’t feel like the longest Masechta. As we learned it day after day, we felt more and more accomplished! All along, the Agudah kept up their mission to inspire and promote Torah through the Ki Heim Chayeinu programs.Thanks to KHC, we were able to be mesayem Maseches Shabbos together….even in the midst of the pandemic. The live-streamed siyumim on Maseches […]

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