Dirshu To Hold Massive Chizuk Event In Panama Uniting The Entire Torah Observant Community
Attended by Rav Eli Mansour, Rav Dovid Hofstedter, Messages from Leading Gedolim From Eretz Yisrael
By Chaim Gold
R’ Naftali Kempeh singing at a previous Dirshu World Siyum
“Lama Nigara—Why not us?!” That was the message to Dirshu earlier this year from the Torah community of Panama! The thriving Torah community in Panama is home to wonderful mosdos of Torah, schools, yeshivos, kolelim, and shuls. Yes, the Torah community and the shuls in this South American haven for Yiddishkeit are thriving, but prominent community members felt that something was missing.
They watched other communities with whom they were connected such as Argentina, Mexico, and Brazil holding massive Dirshu events resulting in thousands of Yidden from those communities joining Dirshu’s programs and bringing a learning schedule of accountable limud haTorah into their lives.
They were tempted. They also wanted more.
Members of the Panama community therefore reached out to Dirshu’s Nasi, Rav Dovid Hofstedter and other senior members of hanhalas Dirshu, asking, “Why not us?”
Now their question is being answered in the form of the upcoming “Maamad Ahavas HaTorah” that will be held this coming 8 Adar/February 25 at the large About Attie Auditorium in Panama City.
The massive ma’amad of chizuk will feature a siyum on Masechta Pesachim that is being learned in the Dirshu Amud HaYomi program, but it will be much more than a siyum. It will be a kinnus of chizuk, a kinus of ahavas haTorah, and a kinus of kabbolas haTorah!
Members of the Panama community led by their rabbanim that represent the entire cross-section of the Torah observant population in Panama, will come and show their desire to join one of Dirshu’s popular programs followed by what promises to be an explosion of new Dirshu shiurim in shuls and mekomos haTorahthroughout the community. Shiurim on Amud HaYomi, Daf HaYomi B’Halacha, Kinyan HaTorah, and KinyanChochma will be started and new testing sites opened.
The event will feature special international guests including Rav Eli Mansour, shlita, Rav of the Edmond J. Safra Synagogue in Brooklyn, Rav Dovid Hofstedter, shlita, Nasi of Dirshu, and many local rabbanim.
A highlight of the event will be the singular video messages recorded especially for the event by leading Gedolei Torah from Eretz Yisrael. Special messages tailormade for the Panama community will be given over by HaGaon HaRav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, shlita, Rosh Yeshiva of the Slabodka Yeshiva, HaGaon HaRav Avraham Salim, shlita, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Me’or HaTorah, HaGaon HaRav Dovid Cohen, shlita, Rosh Yeshiva of the Chevron Yeshiva, and HaGaon HaRav Shlomo Yedidya Zafrani, shlita, Av Beis Din, Kesser Torah and RoshYeshivas Sifsei Chaim.
These Gedolim will broadcast individualized messages just for this event with timely messages for the community and expressing their joy over the fact that the Dirshu revolution is now coming to Panama.
As in all Dirshu events, the Torah inspiration will be for all the senses. In addition to the powerful derashos, there will be heartfelt, deeply moving and inspiring musical accompaniment with a beautiful orchestra led by R’ Naftali Kempeh, who is coming from Eretz Yisrael especially for the event.
Dirshu will also hold a massive “yerid hasefarim”, a sale making available all sefarim published by Dirshu such as its popular Dirshu Mishnah Berurah, Shulchan Aruch, Chofetz Chaim, and countless other sefarim that have enriched the spiritual lives of hundreds of thousands of Yidden.
All this will be just a part of the festivities that will transform the Panama Jewish community into a community of Dirshu Yidden!
Indeed, the impact of Dirshu on the communities of South America has been colossal!
In the past two years alone, thousands of Yidden throughout South America have joined Dirshu programs. Whether in Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, or Mexico City, hundreds of Dirshu shiurim have opened. The shiurim on Masechta Pesachim have caught on like wildfire. The slower pace of the Amud HaYomi has empowered so many community members to truly be koveia ittim l’Torah in a way that they walk away with true Torah knowledge. The Dirshu testing centers have been full.
Even the difficult and heretofore minimally studied complex halachos of Eruvin in Dirshu’s Daf HaYomi B’Halacha program are now being learned and grasped in shiurim and chaburas within these communities.
“Who would have believed that here in a community so far from the nerve centers of Torah in EretzYisrael and America,” one community member marveled, “even the complex halachos of Eruvin are being learned by hundreds! It is a true Torah revolution! A uniquely Dirshu revolution!”
In Panama, where the vast majority of the community is comprised of Sefardic Jews, there is tremendous anticipation as they look forward to hearing Rav Eli Mansour, a dynamic speaker and Rav who has a profound impact on audiences all over the world.
The community is also very honored to be welcoming Dirshu’s Nasi, Rav Dovid Hofstedter, who has spearheaded a movement of accountable Torah learning that has transformed all of Klal Yisrael in six continents and in every significant Jewish community across the globe. Rav Hofstedter, who himself delivers daily shiurimin Daf HaYomi Bavli, Amud HaYomi, and Daf HaYomi B’Halacha, and is the author of the multi-volume sefarimDorash Dovid, will be bringing a special message to the Panama Community.
Perhaps the words said by one of the senior Gedolei Hador, Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, best encapsulates what this event will accomplish for Panama Jewry. When Rav Moshe Hillel heard about Dirshu’s plan for a major chizuk event in Panama, he exclaimed, “I have seen what Dirshu’s program to strengthen the learning of Torah, whether it is Gemara or halacha, has done for the Jews of Eretz Yisrael and America. They have added so much to the spiritual lives of those who are part of Dirshu and who have upgraded their Torah learning in a profound way. I am certain that joining Dirshu’s programs will likewise tremendously elevate the level of Torah learning in Panama.”
