Yidden Across the Globe Learning Amud HaYomi With Dedication And Depth They Never Thought Possible

Amud HaYomi Set to Complete Masechta Pesachim Before Pesach

By Chaim Gold

HaRav Dovid Cohen addressing the Amud HaYomi Siyum on Masechta Brachos in Vienna

Sometimes the beauty of a revolution is that it becomes so mainstream that you don’t even realize that a complete transformation has taken place! This aptly describes the transformation in Klal Yisrael as a result of Dirshu’s increasingly popular Amud HaYomi program that has, baruch Hashem, tens of thousands and perhaps hundreds of thousands of lomdim all over the globe, learning the daily amud with a dedication and depth that they never thought possible.

The Amud HaYomi program which was launched two years ago in Vienna at the Sofiensäle Hall, the same hall in the same city where the Daf HaYomi had been established at the Knessiah Gedolah one hundred years previously, is now almost completing its fourth major masechta, Maseches Pesachim.

Currently, there are more than a thousand Amud HaYomi shiurim across the globe from Brooklyn to Be’er Sheva, Melbourne to Lakewood, Antwerp to Mexico City… wherever you go, Yidden are learning the AmudHaYomi, attending shiurim on Amud HaYomi, and enjoying the slower paced limud that enables them to digest, review, and truly gain a kinyan in the amud.

In fact, an amazing opportunity is available for anyone who has not yet joined. On Sunday, 14 Shevat/ February 1, the Amud HaYomi will begin Perek Arvei Pesachim, the perek that contains all the geshmakeGemaras about the seder night. If you start Arvei Pesachim with the program, you will finish before Pesach! What an amazing opportunity to truly “live” the seder.

When one learns the Gemaras about a mitzvah, it transforms the way one fulfills the mitzvah and the way that one transmits that mitzvah to his children or grandchildren. This especially applies to the seder. The sedernight is the night of chinuch, the night when Hashem endows each Yid with the ability to truly inculcate the foundations of our emunah into his children and grandchildren. When this is done after a couple months of intensively learning all the mitzvos that we perform on the seder night, the segulah of that exalted night is so much more potent!

Another perk is that Masechta Shekalim comes right after Masechta Pesachim. The Mishnah teaches us that in the beginning of Chodesh Nissan, the new shekalim were brought. Thus, it is an opportune time to learn about the mitzvah of bringing the shekalim exactly during the time when the shekalim were brought. Chazalteach us that learning about a mitzvah is a substitute for performing the mitzvah during our times when the mitzvah cannot be performed due to the fact that we don’t have the Beis Hamikdash.

HaGaon HaRav Avraham Salim, shlita, Rosh Yeshivas Me’or HaTorah and one of the senior and most prominent Sephardic roshei yeshiva in Eretz Yisrael, recently said, “We live in a generation in which we see that, baruch Hashem, there is a thirst for Torah! Not only is that thirst evident in those who spend their entire day immersed in learning, but it is also evident when observing the rest of Klal Yisrael. In recent years, I visited numerous countries outside of Eretz Yisrael and wherever I go, I see baalei battim deeply engaged in learning! Similarly, we see this in the way that the Amud HaYomi has become so popular. The slower pace of learning truly connects Jews to Torah. The fact that they can understand what they learn at a deeper level intensifies their bond with Torah in a profound way.”

Perhaps HaGaon HaRav Dovid Cohen, shlita, Rosh Yeshivas Chevron, best encapsulated why the AmudHaYomi became so popular in such a short span of time, by giving hashkafic insight into its entire purpose. Rav Cohen recalled how, when the foundational meetings were held to establish the Amud HaYomi, “I shared an important thought. Rav Meir Shapiro had tremendous zechuyos when he established the Daf HaYomi. Many people have, baruch Hashem, completed the entire Shas through learning with the Daf HaYomi and that is wonderful. Nevertheless, the fact is that for those who learn the daf in a half hour or 45 minutes, it is nearly impossible to learn it properly. When Rav Meir Shapiro established the Daf HaYomi in Poland, Yidden after a day of work or before the workday started, spent not a half hour learning, but hours learning the daf. They were able to review and truly achieve a havana in the sugyos they were learning.”

“We must understand,” Rav Cohen explained, “Daf HaYomi is not like the limud of chok! If a person does the Daf HaYomi in a half hour, that is not the Daf HaYomi of Rav Meir Shapiro. Rav Meir Shapiro envisioned Yidden throughout the world being able to talk together in learning that day’s daf. He dreamt that they would be so well versed in the daf that they could discuss it and argue over it with fellow Yidden wherever they were. If someone can learn the daf and know it in accordance with that august vision of Rav Meir Shapiro, that is wonderful! Tavo alav berachah! The question is, what happens if a person learns the daf without really understanding it? Rav Elyashiv told me that learning without understanding is worth very little. It is better to learn less but to really understand. Thus, if the Amud HaYomi will ensure that a person can learn less but understand, then this is not minimizing the daf!” Rav Cohen thundered, “It is strengthening the entire purpose of the Daf HaYomi. The Amud HaYomi is NOT minimizing the daf by cutting it in half into an amud! It is clear as light that the Amud HaYomi is strengthening the yesod upon which Rav Meir Shapiro built the Daf HaYomi!”

Indeed, HaGaon HaRav Yitzchok Sorotzkin, shlita, has encouraged lomdim to undertake Amud HaYomisaying, “HaGaon HaRav Moshe Shmuel Shapiro, zt’l, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Be’er Yaakov, would often bemoan the fact that avreichim do not have a wide ranging bekius in Shas. He would advise avreichim to take time during bein hasedarim or night seder to learn an amud yomi. My father, Rav Boruch Sorotzkin, zt’l, also had an amud yomi seder every afternoon.”

Another way that Dirshu is facilitating a greater understanding and depth when learning the AmudHaYomi is with its monthly, marvelous kuntress called Iyun Ha’Amud compiled by great talmidei chachomim. These kuntreissim have been extremely well received by the lomdim. The kuntress really gathers so much of the important “reyd” on the sugya in the Rishonim and Acharonim and adds so much to the geshmak. It also includes the pages of the Gemara, explanations and supplements, marei mekomos, and practical applications of the halachah.

One member of the Dirshu team put it succinctly when he said, “Everyone knows that already now, in January, the women are busy thinking about Pesach. Perhaps we men should echo that special zerizus and zehirus and start to prepare for Pesach by embarking on the limud of Arvei Pesachim beginning Sunday, 14 Shevat/ February 1.

The message of Dirshu is to upgrade your limud haTorah in any way possible. That is the raison d’etre of Dirshu. Even if you have not joined yet, now is the time to join the Amud HaYomi. You will see that if you do, your life will never be the same!

To join the Amud HaYomi and to complete Arvei Pesachim by this coming Pesach, contact Dirshu at [email protected] or at 1-888-5Dirshu.