Close to 100,000 members of the Jewish faith gathered on Wednesday afternoon at MetLife Stadium in East Brunswick, New Jersey for the 13th Global Siyum HaShas which is sponsored by the Agudath Israel organization.
By: Fern Sidman
Siyum HaShas is the celebration of the completion of the Daf Yomi (daily Talmud folio) program, a seven-and-a-half-year cycle of learning the Oral Torah and its commentaries, in which each of the 2,711 pages of the Babylonian Talmud are covered in sequence.
Similar events have recently been held in major cities around the globe, such as Mexico City, while others are scheduled in the next few weeks, according to a CBS News report.
With such a large gathering of Jews on the heels of numerous anti-Semitic attacks — including a Saturday night attack at a Hanukkah party in Monsey, New York, and the recent Jersey City shootings — security was tight: Parking lots were jammed with traffic, and security lines stretched for miles. Everyone was required to pass through metal detectors, with a K-9 unit on hand to sniff vehicles as well as bags.
Among the prominent rabbinical figures who addressed the throngs of Orthodox Jews who were assembled for the Siyum HaShas were Rabbi Aryeh Malkiel Kotler, shlita, Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, shlita, Rabbi Yissocher Frand, shlita, Rabb Chaim Benolier, shlita, Rabbi Nosson Scherman, shlita, Rabbi Aharon Schiff, shlita, Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky, shlita, Mr. Jay Schottenstein, Rabbi Aharon Feldman, Rabbi Uren Reich, shlita, Chazan Yizchak Meir Helfgot, Rabbi Shlomo Gertzulin, (who davened for the omed at mincha) and Rabbi Eliezer Ginsburg, shlita.
Daf Yomi can be studied alone, with a chavrusa (study partner), in a daily shiur (class) led by a rabbi or teacher, via a telephone shiur, CD-ROM, or audio and online resources. Typically, Daf Yomi shiurim are held in synagogues, yeshivas, and offices. They also take place in Wall Street board rooms, and on the Long Island Railroad, in the last car of two commuter trains departing Far Rockaway at 7:51 am and 8:15 am, respectively, for Manhattan.
Daf Yomi shiurim have been piped into the in-flight sound system of El Al flights. A typical Daf Yomi shiur lasts one hour. Participants study the text together with the commentary of Rashi.
The Schottenstein Edition of the Babylonian Talmud, an English-language translation and interpretation published in 73 volumes between 1990 and 2004 by ArtScroll, has been credited with significantly increasing the number of English-language participants in the Daf Yomi program.
The Schottenstein Talmud has also been translated into Hebrew. Additional resources to assist those endeavoring to complete the cycle for the first time are audiotapes, online websites, and iPods preloaded with lectures covering every page of the Talmud. The Daf Yomi Advancement Forum, founded by Kollel Iyun Hadaf in 1996, is a free resource center offering English-language translations, outlines, charts, analyses and lectures on every daf, as well as answers to any question by email. Meoros HaDaf HaYomi, founded in 1999, disseminates a weekly Daf Yomi study sheet in both Hebrew and English available by email and regular mail. It has recorded shiurim on the daf on CD-ROM in English, Hebrew, Yiddish, and French.
The first Daf Yomi cycle began on the first day of Rosh Hashanah 5684 (September 11, 1923); the twelfth cycle concluded on August 2, 2012 and the next day began the thirteenth cycle, to be concluded on January 4, 2020. The Siyum HaShas marks both the end of the previous cycle and the beginning of the next and is characterized by inspiring speeches and rousing singing and dancing.
Early Siyum HaShas celebrations also took place in December 2019 in Melbourne and Vienna.
For Jews for whom Torah study is an essential part of their lives, the publicity and excitement surrounding the Siyum HaShas has resulted in more participants, more Daf Yomi shiurim (lessons), and more Siyum locations with each cycle. Since 1990, attendance at the main Siyum HaShas in America, organized by the Agudath Israel of America, has increased dramatically, necessitating the booking of larger arenas and stadiums.
The 12th Siyum HaShas on August 1, 2012 took place in MetLife Stadium in New Jersey was the most monumental event in recent Jewish history. It impacted, inspired and uplifted over 120,000 participants across 80 cities and 18 countries.
The special moments and experiences of the last Siyum HaShas left a lifelong imprint on the collective memory of generations of Klal Yisroel. Other celebrations that took place in the United States, Israel, Canada, Europe, and Australia in 2012 attracted hundreds of thousands.
