Part II
In the first part, HaRav Ehrentreu noted that we have just
finished a collective study of the major work of our Oral
Torah. What makes the Oral Torah unique? It says that Hashem
held a mountain over Klal Yisroel and threatened them
if they did not accept the Torah, even though they had
already accepted the Torah by saying na'aseh venishma.
One approach is that Hashem made this coercive threat to
ensure that they did not retract after witnessing Hashem's
great fire. The Maharal says that overturning the mountain
was a way of demonstrating to Klal Yisroel the supreme
importance of Torah and the impossibility of existing without
it. The Medrash Tanchumah in parshas Noach says
that the additional threat was needed to ensure their
acceptance of the Oral Torah because its study involves great
toil and it is vary large. HaRav Wolbe in Alei Shur
says that the basis for this huge effort is love, since one
who loves another wants to find out every small detail about
his beloved. The general principles of the mitzvos were
conveyed at Har Sinai in the Written Torah, but the
methods of expounding the Torah and the halachos that
were given directly to Moshe were conveyed orally.
In describing the world immediately prior to Moshiach, the
gemora describes a general disintegration of economic
life, society, family life, morality and political life. The
Maharal says that such a complete and widespread decay
prepares for the future in the time of Moshiach. In the days
of Moshiach there will be a new type of existence;
Hashem yisborach's unity will be openly revealed and
evil will vanish. That world can only appear after everything
that our existing world order depends upon is lost.
Into a New World
HaRav Wolbe continues by explaining what our role must be at
such a time. "Chazal term talmidei chachomim
`builders' (Shabbos 114) — not builders of the
physical world, which is already built but of a new world.
The world at present contains sin, evil and death, three
things with which Torah is irreconcilable. Torah is meant to
build a new world without those phenomena — a world
where the veil concealing Hashem's Presence is swept away.
"The builders of the new world of the End of Days, in which
Hashem's Presence is revealed, understand the progress of the
generations and the general collapse that takes place during
the generation preceding Moshiach. These builders are
the talmidei chachomim who toil in Torah and seek
mercy from the Source of Torah. Even in our times they know,
as they have always known, that all we have to lean on is our
Father in Heaven.
"We are not living in a world of chance and happenstance. The
Arbiter of history is running the world and nowhere are
talmidei chachomim afraid of the events that
characterize our times, only of the truth's disappearance.
They toil in Torah and pray that the remaining sparks of
truth will stay with them even during this fearsome period.
Bearing in mind the promise that `I am with the latter
generations' they go forward without any doubt or uncertainty
towards the arrival of the Redeemer . . ."
The gaon, HaRav Meir Shapiro zt'l was Heaven's
emissary to make Klal Yisroel partners in building
this new world. He had the wonderful idea of a daily
daf of gemora being learned that has led tens
of thousands of Yidden to complete the study of
Shas and join Hashem's forces, becoming bnei
yeshiva who toil over Torah and make it their occupation.
The present writer is acquainted with many who have changed
their way of life and their outlook as a result of having
joined a shiur on daf yomi. Now, with the
completion of the eleventh cycle and the beginning of the
twelfth, we hope that many who until now have not merited
benefiting from Torah's light will become participants, thus
becoming builders of the new world of the revelation of
Hashem yisborach's glory.
The hour That Defines the Man
Rav Chaim Feinstein (rosh yeshivas Beis Yehuda, son of Rav
Yechiel Michel zt'l and grandson of the Brisker Rov
zt'l) enthusiastically lauds those who learn the Daf
Yomi. He cites the gemora (Chagigah 5) that mentions
that Rav Idi would travel for three months to reach the
beis hamedrash, spend one day learning there and then
take another three months returning home. Rashi explains that
he would leave home after Pesach and be back to gladden his
wife on Succos. When Rav Idi heard how people were calling
him 'the one day ben yeshiva' he was taken aback and
applied the posuk, "I am my colleagues' laughing
stock," (Iyov 12:4) to himself, dismayed that his
learning was not being valued properly.
Rabbi Yochonon however, went into the beis hamedrash
and declared, "The posuk (Yeshayohu 58:2) says, `They
will seek Me every day and want knowledge of My ways . . .'
Does one seek Hashem only during the day and not at night?
This tells us that anyone who learns Torah, even for just one
day a year is considered as having learned the entire
year."
Consider the title that the bnei yeshiva gave Rav Idi,
`the one day ben yeshiva.' The term ben yeshiva
denotes the attainment of a certain level. Not everyone who
steps into a beis hamedrash — though that is
certainly a great thing to do in any case — can be
termed a ben yeshiva. Although they acknowledged that
Rav Idi attained the level of a ben yeshiva, they said
it was only for the day he was there and that the rest of the
year he wasn't a ben yeshiva.
Rav Yochonon introduced the idea that Rav Idi's practice
earned him the title of a year round ben yeshiva,
apparently meaning that this level is attained by someone
who devotes all his efforts towards learning and can do no
more. Getting to the beis hamedrash occupied Rav Idi
for three months, as did getting home. Conversely, someone
who is able to learn every day and does not learn for one day
probably doesn't deserve the title of being a year round
ben yeshiva. A person who channels all his efforts
during the year into a single day's learning is a year-round
ben yeshiva.
Rabbenu Chananel notes that on the day he learns, he learns
Torah for its own sake, as one is supposed to learn. The
merit of one such day's learning makes a person a year-round
ben yeshiva.
What's Your Job?
Quoting the mussar scholars, HaRav Michel Feinstein
would describe how all the houses in the hamlets of Eastern
Europe where Jews lived used to be built of wood with roofs
of straw. A single stray spark could reduce an entire town to
ashes and this happened on more than one occasion, leaving
the townsfolk in dire peril, without shelter or belongings.
There would be a Yid whose job it was to patrol the
town during the night and make sure that no fires broke out.
One person is describing this Yid's work to another
and is highly impressed. "What a tzaddik!" he
exclaims, "He protects the entire town from destitution and
danger."
"Yes," the second one agrees, "he must be a lamed-
vovnik! Such kindness! Such righteous deeds!"
"But he gets paid a few pennies for patrolling," the first
one points out.
"Oh, then he's just an ordinary watchman," says his
companion.
The baalei mussar point out that a single task can
raise one to the sublime level of the thirty-six hidden
tzaddikim whose merits sustain the world, or can
render one a simple night watchman. It all depends on a
person's intentions.
If a watchman truly means to practice kindness towards the
townsfolk then, even if he takes a salary that enables him to
support his family, he is a tzaddik and a kind person.
If he sees his job merely as a way of earning money, then he
truly is an ordinary watchman. It all depends on his
intentions — "Hashem wants a person's heart."
The same applies to those who learn the daf yomi. A
person can attend a shiur for an hour a day and then
go away, or he can take the shiur and use it as a way
to become a ben yeshiva all the time, as Rav Idi did.
A householder can go to work in order to support his family
while organizing his entire day around his daf shiur,
moving around all his other arrangements so that he doesn't
miss his shiur.
Such precious Yidden, the main part of whose life is
the daf shiur, are really day-long bnei
yeshiva. In fact they're lifelong bnei yeshiva
because there are no holidays from daf yomi and no
breaks for bein hazmanim. In the merit of daf yomi
such a person becomes a ben yeshiva all year
round. This idea appears in the Maharsha ( Chagigah
ibid.) who writes that even while Rav Idi was traveling,
he was considered as desiring knowledge of Hashem's ways.
A Daily Offering
There is another great virtue to learning daf yomi
— its regularity. I heard HaRav Wosner say that the
tomid offering is called "My offering,
My bread" (Bamidbar 28:2) i.e. My special
offering — even though it only consisted of one sheep
in the morning and another towards evening because it was
offered every single day. Everything that is regular, every
day, has this quality.
HaRav Michel Feinstein said that this is one of the
distinctions between a tzaddik and a rosho. The
first perek of Tehillim says, "Happy is the man
who doesn't follow the counsel of the wicked . . . He will be
like a tree planted by streams of water . . . Not so are the
reshoim, for they are like the chaff that the wind
blows around . . ." The tzaddik is firmly planted like
a tree, whereas the rosho is like chaff. He has no
regularity — one day yes, one day no. Regularity is a
hallmark of a tzaddik. It's a quality that is very
highly rated in Heaven. By learning a daf each day one
attains this level.
This idea also appears in the Rambam (Hilchos Talmud Torah
1:8): "Every Jew is obligated to study Torah, whether he
is poor or wealthy etc. he must fix a time for Torah study
both by day and by night, as it says, `and you shall dwell on
it by day and night'..." The Rambam writes, "he must fix a
time" not just "he must learn."
One further special praise of daf yomi's regularity is
the devotion that it engenders, attending day in day out, in
summer and winter, on weekdays and on Shabbosos and
Yomim Tovim. If one misses a daf, one is
lacking wholeness (though if one has missed an individual
daf it's no reason to stop learning daf yomi).
In the merit of their regularity may those who learn daf
yomi be "like trees planted by streams of water" —
"water means only Torah."
HaRav Eliyahu Moshe Ehrentreu delivers several daf
yomi shiurim in Petach Tikva each day.
