You Can Do It
By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
As a Jewish newspaper, our focus
this week is totally on the Siyum Hashas. Everything else pales compared
to that magnificent event. What is more important than tens of thousands of
Jews marking their completion of studying Shas? The celebrations taking
place around the country and across the world are at the center of everyone’s
attention, even as we are in the grips of a series of anti-Semitic attacks.
Words have consequences, and the
utterances of leftist politicians and other leaders have awakened a dormant
eternal hatred of our people. We had thought that vile anti-Semitism would
never take root in this great democratic country. We had thought that in
America, we were free - free to practice our religion, and free from the hatred
that cost our forefathers their lives and limbs. We were wrong.
We taught our children that pogroms
were a thing of the past, never to be repeated. We taught them that in our day,
in our world, in our country, the evils perpetrated against our people would
not be repeated. We were wrong.
Madness At Our Own
Doorstep
From afar, we witnessed murderous
attacks against our brothers and sisters in Eretz Yisroel. We pitied them, we
said Tehillim for them, and we went about our daily lives, feeling very
safe. From afar, we witnessed Jews getting killed in France. We pitied them and
wondered why they didn’t leave. We went about our daily lives, feeling quite
safe. After a few years, the madness came here, spreading across the country
from Pittsburgh to Poway to Jersey City. Then, on Motzoei Shabbos, it
came to Monsey, as a man entered a home on a quiet safe street and attempted to
kill Jews. No, no place is safe anymore. Golus is back with a vengeance.
We need to take appropriate steps and learn appropriate lessons.
Ever since our father Yaakov was
on the run from his brother Eisov, the Jewish people have found refuge in the
Torah. Studying Torah gave their lives meaning, infused their hearts with
strength and pumped their souls. Torah is our essence. It is our being. It is
what no one can take away from us. So many have tried, but no one has
succeeded.
We just finished celebrating Chanukah,
marking the triumph of the Jewish people over the Greeks and their culture. So
many have come after us, seeking our destruction. We have survived; they
haven’t. The Torah has sustained us throughout the centuries.
This week’s Siyum Hashas
proclaimed, “Kol kli yutzar olayich lo yitzloch.” Tens of thousands
gathered to say that nothing will cut us down. Nothing will deter us. Nothing
will separate us from Hashem and His Torah.
Klal Yisroel came together to proclaim, “Netzach
Yisroel lo yishaker.” All the nisyonos in the world, all the tumah,
all the temptations, will never stop people from waking up early in the morning
to learn a blatt Gemara. No day will ever be difficult enough to
keep our people from the bais medrash.
Torah has been our life, in the
past, in the present, and in the future.
Some wonder why so many people
come together. What brought them? Why did grandparents buy tickets for their
entire family? Why did fathers and mothers and children come? What drove them?
They were all there for no reason
other than to proclaim the nitzchiyus of Torah and Am Yisroel.
“HaTorah hee chayeinu.” Our
life is Torah. There is nothing more important to us than studying a blatt
Gemara. There is nothing as fulfilling as grasping the holy words and
concepts of the Tannaim and Amoraim. There is nothing as great as
greatness in Torah.
The Fifth Question
A father and son celebrated the Pesach
Seder in Auschwitz. They were concealed, shuddering from hunger and
exhaustion. The son asked the four questions and then asked a fifth. “Tatteh,”
he whispered, “will we have a Seder next year? Will I be asking you
these questions next year?”
The father was quiet, as memories
of Sedorim in years past flew by, mixing with the tragedy of his current
situation. And then he spoke with the emunah that has kept our people
alive through the centuries of torture and pogroms. He said, “My dear son, I
don’t know if you will be asking me the questions next year. I am not a
prophet. But I promise you that somewhere, a Jewish child will be asking his
father the four questions and the father will answer.”
“Ki heim chayeinu v’orech yomeinu.” Torah is our lifeblood. Torah
is what sustains us and keeps us going.
Ever since Rav Papa died, killed
by the Romans for teaching Torah to the next generation of scholars, Jews have
given their all to transmit the chochmah of Torah to the next
generation. The mightiest of men threatened the weakest Jews, and just as they
did in the battle with the Chashmonaim, the gibborim fell into
the hands of the chaloshim, and the temei’im into the hands of
the tehorim.
This week, when the Siyum
Hashas of Daf Yomi occupies center stage, it is a fitting time to
examine our relationship with Shas and those who study it.
What is the highest form of praise
you can use to describe a good Jew? You say that he is “a Shas Yid.” A
newcomer comes to shul and others ask about him. Who is he? What is he?
Is he a good guy? Someone says, “Ehr iz ah Shas Yid,” and everyone looks
at him with much-deserved respect.
Rav Elozor Menachem Man Shach was
at a chupah. When it was over, he became upset. How can it be that they
didn’t give a kibbud to a certain rosh yeshiva? He knows Shas!
Daf Yomi has brought that goal closer for
so many.
Many tens of thousands joined in
the celebration of the accomplishment of completing the study of Shas.
With each passing siyum, the number of attendees grows larger,
attracting more people, reaching numbers previously thought impossible for an
event of this kind.
Alongside the growing number of
attendees at the siyumim is the ever increasing number of people
participating in the daf-a-day program. More and more people than ever
before are arising early every morning and going to sleep later every night so
that they can learn the daf.
Heroes of our people, these men
stuck with it for seven-and-a-half long years. Through times of happiness and
sadness, deep cold and oppressive heat, ups and downs, good days and bad days,
births and r”l deaths, engagements and weddings, through every challenge
that life throws at us, these people persevered and found a way to study the daf.
The massive siyum was a
celebration of their achievement. We rise in acknowledgment of what masses of
people have done. We offer them acclaim, praise and blessings. We remind them
that they are now on a higher plane, more connected with Hashem, and stronger
than ever before.
And as much as the siyum
celebrated what tens of thousands accomplished in the past, it is also a
rousing cry for the future. The siyum says, “These people have
surmounted multiple obstacles and succeeded in completing something
significant.” But it also proclaims to those who have not yet made the siyum
that they can also do it. It celebrates the potential for greatness in
everyone.
A siyum is not only an end.
It is also an invitation to begin. Perhaps that is the reason it has become de rigueur for boys to make siyumim
at their bar mitzvah celebrations. It is not only to guarantee that the
meal is a seudas mitzvah, but also to prove that the young man is off to
a good start.
Inspiration For A
Lifetime
When we see so many people
gathering, we should draw inspiration for the potential of Am Yisroel
and each one of us. We should all be motivated to undertake additional learning
for ourselves. We should be convinced that it is possible to squeeze more time
into the day for more constructive pursuits.
Should everyone learn Daf Yomi?
Perhaps not. Perhaps some of us should take upon ourselves to learn a masechta
b’iyun, one and then another and then another, until we complete the study
of Shas in depth. Is it a realistic goal? It is as realistic as the goal
of completing Shas with the daf-a-day program. Perhaps we should
undertake to gain a more complete and well-rounded knowledge of halacha
so that we can be yet better shomrei Torah umitzvos, yerei’im ushleimim.
No matter which path we embark
upon, no one has grounds to say that he cannot learn Shas. No one can
say that he can’t learn a daf a day. No one can say that it is an
insurmountable challenge.
Oftentimes, we aspire to study or
accomplish something, and over time, as we continue pursuing the goal, it
appears to slip further and further from our grasp. The weaker ones begin
slackening off and delude themselves into thinking that the goal is
unattainable. It is too hard, they say. It will never work. It’s
impossible to do. They despair, become defeatist, and before long they have
given up.
The initial inspiration wears off,
and if we don’t have people around us supporting us and encouraging us onward,
too often we slip, fall and fail.
The Siyum Hashas is our
cheering squad. The Siyum Hashas beckons us onward, proclaiming to us
for the next seven-and-a-half years that we can do it.
When we are working towards a goal
and it begins to appear unattainable, think of all the people at the various
international arenas who gathered to celebrate the ones who persevered through
every difficulty and reached the finish line. Think about the people sitting at
7 a.m. around a table in a shul basement in the deep of winter with snow
falling outside. Think of the warmth their Torah gives off. Think of their
satisfaction and know that you can also do it.
The siyum is a chance for a
new beginning. Let us at least make the attempt. It’s never too late to make a
new beginning. We’re never too old for a new start.
And then keep at it, one blatt
at a time. One day at a time. One day, one blatt. One day, one blatt.
And then another and another. Without making you feel overwhelmed, they will begin
piling up, and before long, you will begin noticing their effect.
Stick to it. Keep at it. The
learning will inject you with a new spirit. You will feel satisfied. And
fulfilled. One blatt at a time. One halacha at a time. One sugya
at a time.
Mazel tov.
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