FR/5T Community To Celebrate Dirshu Siyum And Evening Of Celebration And Chizuk Next Sunday

By Chaim Gold

Event at White Shul to Feature Addresses by Leading Gedolim and Music by Boruch Levine

Rabbi Ahron Glatt

It is the talk of the town, or make it the Towns! All five of them and Far Rockaway. 

Dirshu is coming to Far Rockaway and the Five Towns. This coming Sunday, 16 Teves/January 4, will mark a historic milestone in Far Rockaway and the Five Towns which will host their first ever major Dirshu event, An Evening of Celebration and Chizuk.

The evening will start off with a gala siyum on Mishnah Berurah Chelek Gimmel that was recently completed in Dirshu’s Daf HaYomi B’Halacha daily Mishnah Berurah program. Perhaps more importantly, however, is that it will serve as an opportunity for the Far Rockaway and Five Towns communities to get a firsthand look at the Dirshu revolution that has transformed communities across the world, and to hear words of chizuk during the turbulent times in which Klal Yisrael finds itself from leading Gedolei Yisrael and inspiring speakers.

The event will be graced by numerous prominent rabbanim in Far Rockaway and the Five Towns and addressed by Gedolim such as HaGaon HaRav Reuven Feinstein, shlita, Rosh Yeshiva of the Yeshiva of Staten Island, HaGaon HaRav Shimon Galei, shlita, well known mashpia and mekubel whose brachos are sought by Yidden throughout the world. A keynote address will be given by Rav Moshe Tuvia Lieff, shlita, Rav of the Agudas Yisrael Beis Binyomin Shul in Flatbush who is a dynamic and compelling speaker.

An important, poignant personal message will be delivered by the Nasi of Dirshu, Rav Dovid Hofstedter, shlita, who is responsible for spearheading a Torah renaissance in Jewish communities across the globe. Whether it is Eretz Yisrael, North America, South America, Europe, Australia, or South Africa, Dirshu is there, encouraging daily, accountable Torah learning in an unprecedented way.

On Sunday, the Far Rockaway and Five Towns communities will see the revolution in action as they celebrate the event to be held at the White Shul with a beautiful seudah accompanied by singing and dancing led by R’ Baruch Levine.

Certainly, Dirshu is no stranger to Far Rockaway and the Five Towns. There are already numerous daily shiurim in both the Daf HaYomi B’Halacha and Amud HaYomi programs, but this coming Sunday offers an opportunity for so many more to join.

Rabbi Doctor Ahron Glatt, Associate Rabbi at the Young Israel of Woodmere, and a Daf HaYomi B’Halacha maggid shiur who has already said daily shiurim on the entire six volumes of the Mishnah Berurah,put it succinctly when he said, “Any celebration of Torah generates interest. When we celebrate the completion of a limud, it encourages more and more people to dedicate themselves to learning.

“Many years ago, I went to a siyum someone made on the Mishnah Yomis. I loved the idea and chose then to start learning Mishnah Yomis myself. Anytime a siyum is publicly celebrated it arouses a desire in others to emulate what the learners are doing. A siyum on Mishnah Berurah such as the one that Dirshu is making here in our neighborhood can pay eternal dividends. People are inspired to learn and their halachic observance improves. Then, others who see them and their halachic observance consider joining, thus a public siyumblossoms and blossoms bearing eternal fruit.”

Rabbi Shmuel Witkin, Rav of Kehillas Bnai Hayeshivos of North Woodmere, who delivers a daily Daf HaYomi B’Halacha shiur in his shul related, “There are no words to describe the transformative impact that being part of the Daf HaYomi B’Halacha shiur has had on the participants! We started saying the shiur publicly when the last machzor of Daf HaYomi B’Halacha learned hilchos Shabbos. Numerous members of our shiur are involved in industries that need to run twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Of course, there are halachically permissible ways to do this, but the awareness created by the shiur, and the practical matters that they have learned have made a tremendous difference in the way they conduct their business affairs.

“It has been absolutely amazing to see how awareness of halacha has been so heightened for those attending the shiur. I have seen how being part of this Dirshu program has really upgraded the ruchniyus of all participants, some of whom have even been taking Dirshu’s monthly tests.

“Another important benefit from learning the Daf HaYomi B’Halacha is simply the fact that the participants now know when to ask a shailah. Learning halacha empowers you to live with halacha and live with Hashem, Who gave these halachos, all day and every day.”

Rabbi Glatt echoes Rabbi Witkin’s words but his experience has not only been on a local scale but on a global scale. His daily shiur is featured on major platforms such as the OU’s All Daf, and Dirshu. He has listeners who learn with his shiur daily from all over the world. “The impact of Dirshu is just amazing! I get correspondence, of course, from those in America who listen to the shiur but also from people out in Australia, South Africa, and Europe. In fact, I was invited to speak at the Dirshu siyum in South Africa on the entire Mishnah Berurah because many of the people in that community were logging into my shiur on a daily basis.

“People come up to me in airplanes and at weddings and thank me, telling me that they listen to my shiur. When we first started saying the shiur, at the beginning of the last machzor and it was put online by the OU, the concept was something new. There weren’t too many shiurim like this being platformed on a daily basis. I try to condense the daily Daf into a twenty-minute shiur so it wouldn’t take up too much time from a person’s day. At the same time, my goal was that the listeners should come out with clarity. Baruch Hashem we now have over 1,800 shiurim on the Mishnah Berurah!”

“Today,” Rabbi Witkin explains, “we have begun Hilchos Eruvin and although the halachos are complex in some ways, the Dirshu Mishnah Berurah’s Biurim and Musafim give us so many practical examples to illustrate how the words of the Mishnah Berurah come alive. When they bring Rav Moshe Feinstein’s shita on the eruvin in our communities it is no longer abstract.”

According to Rabbi Meir Avracen, Dirshu’s Far Rockaway and Five Towns coordinator, the response from the community has been remarkable! So many people have RSVP’d that they are excited to come to the siyum. A wide array of rabbanim of shuls in the various neighborhoods have enthusiastically agreed to participate.

There is still time to RSVP and attend this historic event that will offer tremendous inspiration, a seudasmitzvah and contemporary messages from leading Gedolim complemented by beautiful singing and dancing led by R’ Baruch Levine.

This is an event you don’t want to miss! Please RSVP at DafHalacha.com/event or e-mail, [email protected]. or call 732-987-3948, ext. 112.