2008 Woodie Awards
Eleventh Siyum Hashas Hosts Record Breaking Turnout
Moshe Goldfeder
Issue date: 3/8/05 Section: News
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With the celebration of the eleventh Daf Yomi Siyum Hashas, hundreds of thousands of Jews around the world finished what they started, and once again began anew a cycle as old as it is relevant.
Daf Yomi, (Daily Page) is a systematic approach to the study of the Talmud that involves reading one two-sided page a day. Jews from all areas and walks of life study the same topics, debate the same issues, and work at the same steady pace. Thus a Jew from New York vacationing in Australia could walk right into a study group without missing a beat.
Daf Yomi has certainly grown from its fairly humble origins in a small study hall in Lublin. On Rosh Hashana, 1923, Rabbi Meir Shapiro started a revolution that would spiral beyond even his own wildest dreams. At the time, many viewed the study of Talmud as a specialized endeavor to be attempted only by full-time yeshiva scholars. Seeing as the Talmud serves as the fundamental rabbinic commentary on all of Jewish life and law, Rabbi Shapiro felt the need to involve more Jews in the study of the text. Seven years and five months later, his small group of followers celebrated their completion of all six orders of the Talmud, the entire Babylonian Shas. Today, the celebration is worldwide.
On Tuesday night, March 1st, participants flocked to gatherings in 40 North American cities, and in countries across the globe, including China and Africa. In Tel Aviv, students packed the Nokia Arena, while in the New York/New Jersey area Madison Square Garden, the Jacob Javits Convention Center, and Continetal Airlines Arena were filled to capacity. Although the networked broadcast began with opening greetings from New York, cameras later cut to speakers from locations including the Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto, The Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and the Rosemont Theatre in Chicago. Over 120,000 Jews in total were expected to attend the festivities, the largest crowd on record for such an event.
The climax of the evening, the actual completion of the Talmud achieved by the reading of the last line, was performed in New Jersey by Rabbi Chaim Stein, head of the Telshe Yeshiva of Wickliffe. Rabbi Stein has the distinction of having participated in every Siyum Hashas since the very first, way back in Poland, 1930. Like every siyum since the third one in 1945, the ceremony was dedicated to the memory of the six million Jews that were killed in the Holocaust.
Daf Yomi, (Daily Page) is a systematic approach to the study of the Talmud that involves reading one two-sided page a day. Jews from all areas and walks of life study the same topics, debate the same issues, and work at the same steady pace. Thus a Jew from New York vacationing in Australia could walk right into a study group without missing a beat.
Daf Yomi has certainly grown from its fairly humble origins in a small study hall in Lublin. On Rosh Hashana, 1923, Rabbi Meir Shapiro started a revolution that would spiral beyond even his own wildest dreams. At the time, many viewed the study of Talmud as a specialized endeavor to be attempted only by full-time yeshiva scholars. Seeing as the Talmud serves as the fundamental rabbinic commentary on all of Jewish life and law, Rabbi Shapiro felt the need to involve more Jews in the study of the text. Seven years and five months later, his small group of followers celebrated their completion of all six orders of the Talmud, the entire Babylonian Shas. Today, the celebration is worldwide.
On Tuesday night, March 1st, participants flocked to gatherings in 40 North American cities, and in countries across the globe, including China and Africa. In Tel Aviv, students packed the Nokia Arena, while in the New York/New Jersey area Madison Square Garden, the Jacob Javits Convention Center, and Continetal Airlines Arena were filled to capacity. Although the networked broadcast began with opening greetings from New York, cameras later cut to speakers from locations including the Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto, The Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and the Rosemont Theatre in Chicago. Over 120,000 Jews in total were expected to attend the festivities, the largest crowd on record for such an event.
The climax of the evening, the actual completion of the Talmud achieved by the reading of the last line, was performed in New Jersey by Rabbi Chaim Stein, head of the Telshe Yeshiva of Wickliffe. Rabbi Stein has the distinction of having participated in every Siyum Hashas since the very first, way back in Poland, 1930. Like every siyum since the third one in 1945, the ceremony was dedicated to the memory of the six million Jews that were killed in the Holocaust.