The following letter sent to the administrative staff of the siyum hashas in the UK is a nice kiddush hashem. (Now if only they hadnt marred the event by banning the Chief Rabbi from attending...)

the letter highlights the differences we delineate in the text of every siyyum..



shep nachas, God! Like my kids, we might fight incessantly with each other, but in public we know how to behave...

mazel tov to the מסיימות and hatzlacha to the מתחילות..

There is a weird fight going on in Elad.

The city had put together a siyyum hashas for the daf yomi cycle that just concluded. The event was scheduled for this evening.

Some people in town are upset that the event was planned for a time when the weather is bad, with cold and rain.

Now, if it were me and the event was not to my liking, even just due to poor weather conditions, I simply would not go. Or maybe I would go and grumble, but at most I would not go. Maybe I would even laugh it off that the city planned such an event with little forethought - in an outdoor venue on a cold evening in wet weather. OK. Stupider things have been done, and if I don't like it, I don't have to participate.

That is not enough for some people.

A group in Elad has started a petition against the siyyum hashas event. They are claiming the show cannot go on, because of the weather. The mayor, on the other hand, is saying that no rain is scheduled for that time of day, according to the meteorologists, and for the entire afternoon leading up to it, so the show will go on. One of the parents of children from a talmud torah planning to attend complained that if the litvishe rabbonim are not going, why should the children bother going in the cold and rain?
source: Kikar

1. you dont want to go, don't go. You dont want your children to go, don't send them.
2. I thought the siyyum hashas is to celebrate with the people who learned through the daf cycle and to honor them and the torah. I did not realize it is only a worthwhile event if specifically the litvishe rabbonim are involved.
3. it seems womehwat disrespectful to complain that the Litvishe gedolim wont be there so we shouldnt even have the event! Are no other rabbonim and gedolim worthy? An event is only worth having if the Litvishe gedolim grace it with their presence? This sounds like some sort of avoda zara but ok. Still, if you dont want to go, don't go, even if it is just because your favorite rabbi is not there - but why should the event be canceled entirely because of that? Should other people not be given the opportunity to participate with the gedolim that they respect?

I don't know, or care, if the event will happen or not. Sometimes people just can't let things be, and if it is not perfect and exactly the way I want it, nobody else can have it either.

mazel tov to all the mesaymim, and hatzlacha to all the matchilim

Mazel tov to all those finishing Shas in the coming weeks in the framework of Daf Yomi (and to anyone finishing Shas under any other framework), but especially noteworthy is those finishing it in an historic way.

VIN is reporting on a the first ever, and anything billed as "first ever" will almost always qualify as historic, all-female siyum hashas. The siyum is going to be held on January 5, 2020.

Anybody who can persevere and have the discipline to learn the daily daf for 7.5 years, day in day out, deserves praise, and much more so when it is a group of people who do not even have the obligation or mitzva to learn regularly but do it purely out of love and dedication.

The all-female siyum will be held at Binyanei HaUma in Jerusalem. Even though the hall will not be filled with people who have learned the entire 7.5 years worth of Gemara pages, it will be filled with female supporters and celebrants honoring those who have. The siyum is being arranged by Michelle Farber who gives a daf yomi shiur in Ranana to a small group of women, with another 250 women who learn from her shiur online.

An interesting anecdote related in the article is mentioned by a student in Farber's class that appreciates Farber using women in her examples and explanations of the gemara - instead of saying things like Reueven lent Shimon money, Shimon stole from Reuven, etc, she uses women's names saying things like Rivka lent money to Devorah, etc.

The event is to celebrate the accomplishments of the participants and also to encourage more to join in the future.

Mazel tov to all the mesaimim and mesaimot.

An avreich spent a few years working towards his goal of learning the entire shas. His plans for celebrating the monumental achievement did not include anything more than having a schnapps and saying lechayim, and getting back to learning. His friends were pushing him to make a nice party, commensurate with the level of accomplishment, though he considered that bittul torah and too much of a bother..

This accomplished avreich went to Rav Chaim Kanievsky to ask for guidance as to what type of siyum he should have.

Rav chaim Kanievsky considered the matter and told him that while he is not obligated to throw a big party, it is appropriate for him to make a respectable seudas mitzva, and not just something small to be "yotzei". Rav Chaim explained that others seeing a respectable seuda for a siyyum causes an increase in their hearts the love of Torah and will cause them to strive to complete shas as well. Being that such a siyyum would be an encouragement for other people, it is worth doing.
source: Actualic

At times one might not know whether or not to actually believe the stories one reads about our gedolim, and this story is an example of that...

Kikar is reporting about Rav Chaim Kanievsky's siyyum during the 9 Days. Besides for his annual siyyum of Masechet Yevamos on the 8th of Av, Rav Kanievsky woke up from a nap on the afternoon of 3 Av and asked his grandson to bring him wine. With wine being a no-no during the 9 Days, Rav Kanievsky realized his grandson was a bit surprised at the request, so he explained his request saying that he was about to make a siyyum for having finished Massechet Brachot in his dream.

When the incident was told over to Rav Shteinman, he said that there is no doubt that by Rav Chaim Kanievsky who has everything laid out before him and has the ability to say that he finished a massechet of gemara in his dream, he definitely will have actually finished it and can have happiness for it.

True story or not, I don't know.

I do know that:
1. they do not tell such stories about me
2. I do not finish, or even start, tractates in my dreams. I usually do not remember my dreams when I wake up, but when I do they have never been like this dream of Rav Kanievsky

I do wonder, assuming the story is true:
1. did he finish the entire massechet in one dream or was it over the course of a series of dreams throughout the year?
2. if he did the learning in the dream, maybe he should only make his siyyum in a dream as well

Tonight there is a "major" siyum Hashas for daf yomi in RBS. Instead of holding it in any of the local auditoriums - the Ulam Sport, the Matnas, or any of a number of event halls, they decided to hold it outdoors (in the heat) in the Merkaz Mischari (shopping center) of RBS. I hope it won't be too hot or humid, but they have really messed over the residents who already suffer from a shortagre of parking in the area...

(I snagged this picture off someone's Facebook page)

Very nice. Even though it is two weeks late and even though anybody interested has already been to at least one siyum hashas already, if not more, still it is very nice to have another siyum. Whoever wants to go and listen to more speeches, can go and enjoy.

The best thing about it is probably that in honor of the big event they probably cleaned up the area of the merkaz for the first time in years.... If that's the case, someone should consider holding a siyum in the merkaz and other especially central (and dirty) areas around town ona  regular basis - maybe once a week or once a month.

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"Prayer for Welfare of State of Israel" (Sung by Cantor Chaim Adler)

Chazzan Adler sings the prayer for the state at the siyum hashas at the Great Synagogue..

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Siyum haShas Presentation, You can still catch the train


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Anglos in Israel Join Worldwide Talmud Celebration


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On the same page: first ever group of women complete full Talmud study

and speaking of the siyum hashas, the women have been given honorable mention at all the siyum events for supporting their husbands, encouraging their husbands to learn, etc. I wonder if at this siyum, of women who actually finished shas themselves, if they gave honorable mention to their husbands for their support and encouragement...

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Baruch Levine Vezakeini 12th Siuym Hashas


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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:

1. 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.
2. 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.

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Brand New Song for siyum HaShas By Mordechai Ben David "יחד שבטי ישראל"



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Interestingly, while driving up north last week, I heard on the radio one evening a discussion about the big events being held in honor of the siyum haShas.

The radio host mentioned some of the big events and described it as a "mifgan koach" - a show of strength. The host explained that the haredim were holding these various events as a show of strength due to the expiry of the Tal law and the upcoming debates regarding drafting the haredim and the coming attempts to legislate an alternative law. The theory expressed was that the Haredim will have better negotiating power for a better law (better for the haredim) because they will have shown their numbers in these various events.

Whoever that host was really had no idea what he was talking about. these events were planned and scheduled a long time before the Tal Law became an issue and before drafting the haredim became the issue of the day. The events were celebrations of finishing the daf yomi cycle and were not political muscle flexing.

I found it interesting that that is how these events were being viewed, just because they fell out fairly close to each other..

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Siyum Hashas - Mendy Werdyger - Music Video




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The big news in the frum world is that the Vizhnitzer Rebbe has decided to withdraw his support from the siyum HaShas celebration organized by Agudas Yisrael of America. He had a problem with appearing on the same dais as Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, former Chief Rabbi of Israel, due to appearing to be in partnership with Zionists. Instead, the Vizhnitzer Rebbe will be flying to Israel, to participate in the Israeli edition of the siyum HaShas. He is also supposedly offering to pay the value of the ticket to any of his chassidim who wish to turn in the tickets they purchased for the siyum,

Vizhnitz-Monsey Rebbe sends hassidim to Israel in anti-zionist move

I was just going to write that people are making this into a very big deal, as if it is something new. We complain when we discover that some people do not like us, the religious, that they discriminate against us, that they work against us, but in reality we do it best ourselves. one rabbi won't sit with another...

Every single event has it's own edition of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza, whether Hassidic, Litvishe, Modern Orthodox or whomever else might arrange an event. Someone is sure to say that he can't attend because he cannot sit alongside a different rabbi whose name appears on the guest list. It is interesting that this refusal to participate is happening during the 9 Days.

As I was writing this I realized the irony in the decision of the Vizhnitzer. The Vizhnitzer Rebbe refuses to sit, out of anti-Zionist ideology inherited from his relative the Satmar Rebbe, in New York, on the same dais as a rabbi from Israel. Instead he is going to fly to Israel to partake in the siyum there, alongside dozens of other rabbis from Israel, representing many Israeli communities, cities and sectors. It seems to me that the Vizhnitzer Rebbe is far more Zionist that he makes himself out to be...


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The Miami Boys Choir - When The Siyum Calls



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Picture Of The Day



Actually, this is a group of rabbonim, including Motke Bloi in the foreground, checking out the stadium in Petah Tikva in preparation for the upcoming siyum haShas. Bloi resignedly "approved" use of the stadium,  even though the owners are mechalel shabbos and the stadium normally operates on Shabbos, because the gedolim decided it should be there.

Caption away in the comments!
 
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