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Aug 6, 2012
Grand English Speaking Daf Yomi Siyum Hashas in Jerusalem, with comments
I went with my boys last night to the Siyum HaShas in Jerusalem for the English-speaking community in Israel.
It was really a fabulous program. Kudos to those who put it together, both from IMP and from the Kollel Iyun Hadaf (Dafyomi Advancement Forum). And I must say the MC (emcee) did a fabulous job. While I had been planning on just going for a bit and leaving, it was so good I decided to stay, especially so my kids could be inspired, see and hear gedolim, and experience a grand event to honor the torah and the learners.
2 things that I thought were out of place were:
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It was really a fabulous program. Kudos to those who put it together, both from IMP and from the Kollel Iyun Hadaf (Dafyomi Advancement Forum). And I must say the MC (emcee) did a fabulous job. While I had been planning on just going for a bit and leaving, it was so good I decided to stay, especially so my kids could be inspired, see and hear gedolim, and experience a grand event to honor the torah and the learners.
2 things that I thought were out of place were:
- one of the speakers dissed dafyomi learners and dafyomi in general. He said that, not untrue, that dafyomi is a bad system with no preparation scheduled, no review, and at the end of 7 years there is often just a nice party with no memories of what was learnt. He then went on to praise the kollel for the work they do in making the learning more memorable and at a deeper level.
While true, I don't agree that a dafyomi siyum hashas is the place to talk about how everyone there wasted the past 7 years. If his goal was to inspire people to learn more, at a less superficial level, he could have done so without saying they all had wasted the past 7 years. As a matter of fact, a different rosh yeshiva who spoke did just that - he called on people to take more upon themselves, to learn for more time, with more concentration, at a deeper level, and he did not feel the need to talk about how useless dafyomi is in its current format. - Another rav who spoke turned his speech into an anti-internet and cellphone speech. This also seemed out of place, considering the hosts of the event is a kollel whose work is done and used entirely on the internet.
You dont go somewhere as a guest and speak badly about the hosts. It is similar to Mitt Romney going to England and talking about how poor of a job they are doing running the Olympics. there is a time and a place for everything.
Besides for that, the event was grand and well organized.
Besides for that, the event was grand and well organized.
One more point, I could not help but think, when the emcee announced that something happened and we need to say a chapter of tehillim, I checked twitter to see the news. Besides for yesterday's barrage of rockets, I saw that there was talk of an unusual attack on the border with a possible attempt to kidnap soldiers. It was still in progress at the time, so there were no details. After we said the tehillim, I saw that the attack had been thwarted and nobody had been abducted, with all the terrorists killed.
I could not help but think that the event, perhaps that one or maybe the combined events over the past few days, and the tehillim said at that moment, had some sort of an influence in helping the soldiers successfully thwart the attack. Especially as shortly before in a video tribute one of the groups learning dafyomi that were shown was a dafyomi shiur on an air force base.
Obviously we don't know what has an effect on what and how, but the timing was right in that instance.
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So are you saying that your tehilim saved Israel or not?
ReplyDeletetoo definitive. I dont know. at the time it seemd like the timing was right for a definite yes, but how can we ever really know?
ReplyDeleteanyways, if anybody's tehillim helped it most likely was not mine...
I could not help but think that the event, perhaps that one or maybe the combined events over the past few days, and the tehillim said at that moment, had some sort of an influence in helping the soldiers successfully thwart the attack.
ReplyDeleteWhere did I see someone dismissing a program which is based on the effectiveness of strangers saying tehillim for you? Think, Yoni, think!
lol.
ReplyDeleteI did not dismiss it nor did I say their tehillim does not work. I said I dont like it being called "insurance" as if it is a guarantee (even though as you pointed out in the small text they say it isnt)
I wouldn't exactly call it "small text". Firstly, it's the same size as regular text. Secondly, and less of a technicality, it's a sentence which is set apart (i.e., not buried in a dense paragraph) that you have to specifically confirm having read. They can't really be accused of trying very hard to mislead people.
DeleteI just thought the juxtaposition of your two posts was very funny.
If you say tehilim in the middle of a military incident then the chances are that you can then say that your timing was right and that maybe but we never really know anyway but it just seems right all the same that the tehilim helped win the battle. Probably the whole incident occurred because we are in bein hazmanim and too few people are learning Torah but it was saved at the last minute because some guys were having a siyum anyway.
ReplyDeletehe called on people to take more upon themselves, to learn for more time, with more concentration, at a deeper level, and he did not feel the need to talk about how useless dafyomi is in its current format.
ReplyDelete==================================
And how likely do you think it is that people will heed his call? The common wisdom (and you may disagree) that I have heard is that for the vast majority of folks, if they would commit the same level of time, other venues would be better, but we know as a whole they won't so this is better (the following response came from R Y Adlerstein to my question:
So if a cross section of your average Jews (or orthodox Jews) came to you and said they were willing to spend an hour a day learning, in which situations (or what per cent) would you advise daf yome and why.
[YA - Those who can benefit from the discipline of set, inflexible goals and from the novelty of new material arriving at a quick pace, even if understood only superficially)
So are you saying it's better not tobe honest about it or do you feel this is the best way to spend the time?
KT
Joel Rich (who gives a daf shiur once a week)
I would either say you have to find the type of learning program that will keep you interested and connected 9for some that is quicker and for some it is slower, for some it is halacha, others gemara, others mishnayos, etc). or I would say to go ask his rav, a mechanech, or the guy in the shul who arranges chavrusas and shiurim for his advice.
ReplyDeletethats not my point. my point is you dont go into someones house and criticize them. use other venues to criticize, not the daf yomi siyum hashas. the entire point of making such a grand siyum in the first place is to inspire, to motivate, to make people proud of being part of it, and then comes along someone respectable and stands up and says you all just wasted 7 years. how many people were planning on joining daf yomi due to being inspired who now think that its a waste of time and why bother?
I was there, and it was my impression that he was not knocking dafyomi learners nor dafyomi in general, rather he was trying to remind everyone to make sure chazara and understanding the daf are not overlooked or considered trivial extras but should be an essential part of a person's learning. I know his words were a source of chizuk and a motivation for introspection for me to make sure I don't just daaven up the daf instead of understanding and reviewing.
ReplyDeleteWhile not related to daf yomi, it seems the largest round of applause that night was for the choir consisting of mentally and physically challenged young men. That brought a tear to my eye.