The below mentioned Internet Parsha Sheet recently featured an article from the Yated about the Siyum HaShas. Although I was a bit thrown off by the author's description of the upper sectiion (nosebleed) seats in the Garden as the "ninth floor", the article accurately captured the true magnificence of the event. I will except the article over the next few days. Here is part 1:
From: Yated USA [mailto:yatedusa@yated.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2005 Subject: YATED USA WEEKLY 03-11-05
PROUD TO BE A YID — IMPRESSIONS OF THE ELEVENTH SIYUM HASHAS
BY C.B. WEINFELD 13 March 11, 2005
I stood on the ninth floor, behind the mechitza, frozen in place, watching the scene unfold before my eyes. To my right, a young girl murmured. “This is not normal. This is not normal. I can’t believe this. Pinch me. Is this for real?” I wanted to shush her, to tell her that she was disturbing the poignancy of the moment, but thought better of it. Perhaps she was giving voice to the thought that hovered in our minds as we stood, hearts tingling with a powerful joy, watching the floors below us vibrate and shake with intensity as twenty thousand pairs of feet danced.
What had prompted this dancing, this united expression of soaring joy, a simcha and d’veikus so powerful, it cannot be put in words? As the expression goes, “For those who were there, words are not necessary, for those who weren’t, words will not suffice.”
Rav Chaim Stein, one of the embers plucked from the fire, a talmid from amohl, who had begun learning the Daf Yomi nine cycles ago, when the citadels of Torah learning were in Lita, Hungary, and Poland, had just finished reciting the hadran. In a voice choked with tears and emotion, Rav Chaim spoke in Mama Loshon, as he completed the last sugya in Maseches Niddah. “Kol Hashoneh Halachos B’chol Yom,” one who learns halachos every single day, “Muvtach Lo Shehu ben Olam Haboh.” Is guaranteed to be a ben olam haboh. Why bechol yom? Said the Rosh Yeshiva, “These words have a direct connection to Daf Yomi, to learning every single day, even when it is difficult sometimes…even with great mesiras nefesh. And that applies to all of us, Yeder Eintziger, to every single Yid.”
The Rosh Yeshiva of Telz vividly recalled the second Siyum Hashas in 1938, the completion of the second machzor of Daf Yomi, during which Rav Elchonon Wasserman, who was later murdered by the Nazis in the Ninth Fort, emotionally addressed a crowd of 20,000 Yidden gathered in Lublin. At the same time, a new wing of Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin was dedicated. Rav Menachem Ziemba, the kodosh of Warsaw, delivered a powerful drasha, and the Rebbes of Boyan, Tchebin, Sadigur and Sochatchov attended.
“We already felt the faint stirrings of the puraniyus, the evil that was looming above our heads,” said Rav Chaim, “Chazal say the yisurim of Ikvesa D’mshicha will be so great, they davened that they should not have to experience it. So, too, we hope and daven that the suffering of Ikvesa D’mshicha, the chevlei Moshiach, have already passed.”
There was nary a dry eye in the crowd as Rav Chaim continued, his voice choked with emotion, “By the Asara Harugei Malchus, when they burned (Rav Chanina Ben Teradyon with a Sefer Torah wrapped around him,) the parchment burned, while the Osiyos flew up to Shomayim. During the Churban Europe, when they destroyed all the yeshivos, only the physical buildings were destroyed—the spiritual koach remains with us until today.”
“The essence of Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin lives on, with the koach of the Daf Yomi, and this has contributed to the tremendous revival of Torah among Klal Yisroel today. While the Kedoshim went to their deaths, Shema Yisroel on their lips, their mesiras nefesh remains with us. We, the survivors, have an achrayus to rebuild, to be mechanech, to impart Torah to the next generation.”
Next: The Dancing
