Page 33 - Hamizrachi #30 USA 2021 Yom Yerushalayim - Shavuot

Daf Nach

Yomi Yomi

// Rabbi Shalom Rosner // Rabbi Ya’akov Trump

here are three main qualities that lmost every finals season in school,
benefit a daf yomi learner. First, it the students turn to their teacher
connects each Jew to Torah every and ask what will be in the final
single day of the year. There is no exam. The more they know, the
Tday when there is no daf. No matter Amore it helps them prepare. In a
what is happening in one’s life, no matter similar vein, we all tacitly wish to know what will
how busy one is, there is always the daf to be be in the final exam at the end of our lives.
learned. The keviut, the time commitment that The truth is, we do know. The Gemara
is devoted to learning, is invaluable. The way we (Shabbat 31a) tells us a number of questions we
accomplish the most in our lives is by accepting will be asked at the end of their life journey. It
commitments. This takes us all the way back is worth considering these questions to help us
to עמשנו השענ, our first national commitment. prepare correctly. One of those questions will be:
If we want to ensure our daily and constant “Did you make time for Torah study?”
involvement in Talmud Torah, then daf yomi is Before we answer about the volumes and
an amazing option. libraries of sefarim written by our Sages, it
Second, the daf connects each learner to every behooves us to know the sefarim given to us
part of Torah. No masechet is out of the purview by G-d via our prophets. There are 24 books
of the daf. Sefer Chasidim (261) bemoans the and 929 chapters in Tanach. That is a far
fact that certain parts of Torah have become smaller corpus of material than the Talmud and
“meit mitzvah” masechtot, ‘dead,’ in that Jews sometimes much more accessible. And yet it is
are not dedicated to learning them. Daf yomi, oft overlooked.
conversely, gives each of us the chance to The Gemara tells us that although there were
connect to every single concept and message in hundreds of thousands of prophets, only those
the corpus of Torah SheBe’al Peh. prophecies which speak to each generation
Finally, daf yomi is a wonderful mechanism to were canonized for posterity. That means that
connect us to our fellow Jews. Rav Meir Shapiro, as we open up Yeshayahu, we gain insight into
the founder of daf yomi, at the first daf yomi a utopian era we yearn to see ourselves; when
siyum in 1931, said: we learn Iyov, we experience the challenges of
“The secret of the magnetic pull of the Daf suffering in Eastern Europe, and when we study
Yomi is the idea that the same daf that someone Chaggai, we can gain perspective on Zionism in
learns here is being learned by thousands of Jews the 19 -20 centuries.
th
th
all over the world… Each person has his own way Tanach is alive. Tanach is our identity.
of learning, his own way of thinking, and his own At a perek a day for seven days a week, one can
type of shiur to go to, but Abaye and Rava are finish Nach in two years; at five days a week in just
always the same Abaye and Rava…” three years. It is a journey within our reach and
These three qualities are what make learning within our responsibility. Join me on this journey.
daf yomi so magical.
Rabbi Ya’akov Trump serves as the Rabbi of Young Israel
Rabbi Shalom Rosner is renowned for his ability to clarify of Lawrence Cedarhurst. He has thousands of online Nach
the most complex sugiyot. His popular Daf Yomi shiurim shiurim at his Nach website https://www.nachnook.com/,
are broadcast online and followed by thousands of global as well as on his app, podcast and on various online Torah
talmidim at www.OU.org and YUTorah.org. platforms.
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