While the memory of last week’s worldwide celebration of Siyum HaShas is still fresh in our minds let us go back in time to that unforgettable moment when Rav Meir Shapiro ztz”l presented his idea before the Knesiah HaGedolah of Agudath Israel in 1923. Let us launch a global learning program for baalei batim Rav Shapiro proposed. Starting with Maseches Brachos one daf of Gemara would be scheduled for each day of the year. Working men would commit themselves to learning just one daf every day and in seven years they would complete all of Shas! The proposal was applauded enthusiastically.

Looking back it is amazing to think that this giant and visionary could not present the idea as an official recommendation of the Agudah leadership. For reasons of its own the Agudah administration did not initially endorse the plan and Rav Shapiro had to propose it on his own as an individual.

The latest Siyum HaShas has shown us once again what one person can do. One man of unbounded vision one man with the broad horizons of a spiritual giant could ascend above the here and now passing over the heads of other great men — yet men bound by their accustomed routine who don’t see the endless field of hope for change that confers the ability to move mountains of complacent thought and deed.

There is no doubt about it. Rav Meir Shapiro completely changed the Jewish people’s attitude toward Torah. Until the inception of daf yomi Torah study was tucked away in a corner of Jewish life and only the few who craved it came and took it. The Jewish masses knew a smattering of Torah each according to his aptitude and desire. But to learn all of Shas? Who ever dreamed of such a thing?

Every Torah scholar who knew the whole Shas in those days was looked upon with awe as an elevated personage who had achieved the unachievable.

And then Rav Meir Shapiro came along and brought those Jewish masses into the circle of those who “finished Shas.” Of course there is a big difference between a great talmid chacham to whom the sugyos of Shas are brightly illuminated by the Rishonim Acharonim and prefaces and an ordinary Jew who has kept faithfully with the program and gained a basic understanding of what the sugyos are about — although in fact many achieve much more than that. Either way they are all encompassed in the circle. They are all part of this phenomenal movement to learn not just Gemara but Shas — one blatt at a time. Today no one looks in wide-eyed wonder at those special individuals who have “finished Shas ” because there are plenty of them. And every day the number is growing. Rav Meir Shapiro with his vision and enterprise foresaw all this before it even began. Through the institution of daf yomi he opened the door for all these everyday scholars empowering them to realize a seemingly impossible dream.

It really is a very simple idea. But only a forward-looking genius could have conceived it. Learning all of Shas is indeed a daunting prospect if you view it as a massive whole. This is what “Tafasta merubah lo tafasta” means — if you try to grasp too much you grasp nothing; conversely however “Tafasta muat tafasta.” Or as the saying goes “Little by little the bird builds its nest.” In small steady increments one can certainly master all of Shas. Just one daf a day. It doesn’t seem like much but if one keeps at it stubbornly steadfastly fighting momentary laziness day after day after day — it’s the opening to an entire new Torah experience. And on the whole once the habit is formed it is not as difficult to stick with it as one would initially think. Slowly but surely the dapim prakim and masechtos pile up stored away in the drawers of one’s soul until the great day of Siyum HaShas arrives celebrated throughout the Torah world.

This idea of achievement by small steady increments brings positive productive results in every area of life.

But Rav Meir Shapiro had his eyes on a higher goal. This man of vision who was plucked from this world in the prime of his life had more in mind than increasing the number of Jews learning Shas. Through this mighty endeavor he envisioned a tremendous impetus toward Jewish unity. In that original fiery speech in which he presented his idea at the Agudah World Convention Rav Meir asked his audience to imagine some Jews meeting on a train. The travelers are from different cities belong to different chassidic courts and don’t have much in common — but they learn daf yomi and that links them in a meaningful transcendent way giving rise to lively conversation knocking down barriers and spreading unity and brotherly love.

Today that vision comes to life everywhere. Just recently for example one of my mechutanim told me how he’d been on a flight from Gibraltar to London and met an old friend. They did a bit of friendly catching up and then my mechutan opened his Gemara to learn daf yomi. His friend did the same and before they knew it they were learning the daf together. All their worldly cares were forgotten as they took off together to the heights to the Heavenly halls of Abaye and Rava far above the course of the jet plane that carried them to their earthly destination. Their joy my mechutan told me was sublime. And similar encounters do indeed take place on trains speeding across cities or states or through virtual meetings on the Internet as well as on radio programs in locations all over the world wherever the sound of daf yomi learning is heard bringing Jews together from the ends of the earth. Even without meeting they share an experience; their hearts beat to a single rhythm the heartbeat of the daf. Rav Meir Shapiro’s vision of unity has succeeded beyond expectations and the family of daf yomi learners crosses all divisions of age community and affiliation.

Chassidim and Litvaks Sefardim and Ashkenazim chareidim and religious Zionists — in every camp people are learning daf yomi. And it’s no surprise to find shiurim in which a medley of black yarmulkes and kippot serugot are bent over the same daf engaged in discussion of the same Abaye and Rava their thoughts and souls mingling. The ideological divides that have so often caused friction between them — and still do — fade into oblivion as they learn together focusing on what is truly important to all of us as Jews.

Rav Meir Shapiro together with Agudath Israelwhich acceded to the wishes of the gedolei Yisrael and supported his initiative merited an inestimable achievement. By making limud hadaf accessible to all Jews far beyond the circles comprising the Agudah itself Agudath Israel gained the endless merit of being marbeh Torah b’Yisrael.

Food for Thought

Something that starts out small

can become great

And something that doesn’t start out small

will never achieve that greatness

(Rebbe Pinchas of Koritz)