Everyone completed the same Shas, right? Yedidya Meir's column

Not only the social protesters have to feel ashamed by the tiny demonstration on Motzaei Shabbos, but Idan Reichel too. The whole year he's a successful artist who sells tickets for shows and crams halls, and here, when he gives a show all for free in the middle of Tel Aviv, and after an aggressive media campaign towards the planned event – the masses just didn't bother to show up. And whoever did bother to come, almost hit up others there. One social activist ruined the demonstration of another activist, while the third activist shouted at the new social activist, Yair Lapid, that he's not at all a social activist, so he should go away.

All in all, what's nice about the protest of summer of 2012 is the creativity. If it didn't work out about the cost of living, and again it didn't work out about enlisting the hareidim, and after even the heroic deed of Moshe Silman was forgotten, the activists offered us a marketing deal on Motzaei Shabbos, a real "two for the price of 1": "Come demonstrate against the "Dossim", and get social justice for free!". But what works at Rami Levi and Osher Ad, doesn't probably work in social struggles, and all for the best.

Many rather more meaningful events, with many more participants, took place last week – the celebrations of Siyum Hashas in Israel and around the world. I followed every moment at the Teddy stadium, Yad Eliyahu, amphitheatre at Givat Hatachmoshet, Binanei Ha'umah and also live from the huge stadium in the USA.
For me, it was a real opportunity: I always watch demonstrations
and gatherings from the side, and I never manage to identify fully with the idea. And here, one evening after the other demonstrations, displays that I'm all for them – took place. Who sees the great salute for learning, for the ancient text, the "pilpul", the Jewish wisdom, and stays at home? Who watches the presidency stages on which the big stars – the elders of the generation aged 70-80-90 – are sitting, and isn't moved?

Maybe it's a little petty to compare ourselves the whole time to the rest of society, to think the whole time what "they" say and do, but I noticed that even in the wording of the 'Hadran' - doesn't stop talking about "they" – they run for idle matters, they run and don’t get reward, they run to hell. This week it was really in place: the whole world is following the cult of the body at the Olympics, and the Jewish world is marking a celebration of mind and learning. "They" test in how many seconds one can run 100 meters, and our eyes are raised to elders who get up very slowly, step by step, to the stage of honor.

And let there be no mistakes: it's not that I finished the Shas. Where from. Just like the famous story about the Yeshiva bochur who danced with great excitement on Simchas Torah, and the Rosh Yeshiva went up to him and said: "For what you've learned, you've danced enough" – you can certainly say the same of me. I've celebrated many more Siyumim than I've learned. But I'm not ashamed. It seems to me that many like me hitched a ride on the series of exciting events which took place over the last few days.

Normally, after one fondly remembers the elders and their life experience and wisdom, it's a custom to mourn about the situation of the youth. But in this historical week, I noticed that perhaps the situation is not so serious. There's still hope. I got this impression on Sunday evening, when I had the merit of being master of ceremonies at the Siyum Hashas of the Zionistic Religious Jewry (there's something confusing about the headings of all these gatherings: "Siyum Hashas of the Zionistic religious Jewry, 'Siyum Hashas of Agudath Yisroel", "Siyum Hashas of Sha"s" – the Shas is the same Shas, right? There's no Shas of the Zionistic Religious Jewry, and Shas of Agudath Yisroel, just the gatherings are different).

More or less in the middle of the evening, I invited up to the stage six youngsters who finished the entire Shas. Remember the names, because the Torah world will certainly hear of them again: Raziel Pinchas Tal, Yisrael Meir Sabato (the son of the Rav and Sofer), Ezra Levtov, Eitan Sher, Shachal Lomp and Ari Shlekman. Shlekman is the youngest of the group, and it could be that he actually breaks a Guinness record: he is going up to 12th grade in the Yeshiva High School of Machon Lev in Jerusalem i.e., he hasn't done his matriculation yet, but he's already finished the Shas. The workings of the Zionist Religious Jewry.

One after the other they went up to the stage to the audience's clapping and the playing of the orchestra, and one of them asked me, perplexed: "Just a minute, what do I have to do now?" There are those for whom it's easier to finish the entire Shas than to stand for one minute in front of the stage lights. This was another peak in an evening full of peaks and excitements. A minute before, Harav Avraham Zuckerman who's 96 years old, from Kfar Haro'eh, came up to finish the Shas, and he wasn't alone. Together with him , his son in law, Harav Mordechai Greenberg, Rosh Yeshivas Kerem Be'yavne, his grandson and his great grandson, came to say the Siyum. Four generations in one family who learned and finished the Shas together.

And when the Hadran finished, all the Rabbonim of the Zionistic religious public – from Harav Lichtenstein to Harav Zalman Melamed, from Harav Yehoshua Shapira to Harav Shlomo Riskin – burst out in a mutual dance. They all held hands in a big circle and sang "Nagil Venasis Bezot Hatorah ki Hi Lanu Oz Ve'orah". The entire hall danced with them in this Simchas Torah or perhaps in the joy of unity.

A few hours later, Harav Zvi Lau who accompanied his father Harav Yisrael Meir Lau, to the huge Siyum Hashas in the USA, told me about a similar feeling which he picked up there as well. One of the guards at the huge stadium Mettlife in New Jersey, told him he's seen many events in the hall, but this is really a special event. Harav Zvi Lau answered: "Yes, this is really a special event. You are used to see here in this stadium only 50% of the crowd cheering, when the other half is down. This evening is not so. Everyone is a winner."

And with all due respect to the huge events, one has to remember that actually the joy of Siyum Hashas is first of all a very private event. A landmark of a man who worked and persevered for seven and a half years, day by day, winter and summer, on Yontef and Shabbos, without a crowd cheering him and without the Mona Rosenblum orchestra. A man who didn't stop until he got to the last page, to "Tana debei Eliyahu, kol Hashoneh Halachos bechol Yom muvtach lo shehu ben Olam Haba". And all for what? At the end of this long period, one doesn't get a degree, no job, no stipend. Really Torah lishma. Thousands of such private family Siyumim were held over the last days around the Jewish world, without us reading about them in the papers (by the way, did you know there are also surprise Siyumim? Someone told me that his family has been secretly planning surprise dinner for a month, for his grandfather who finished the Shas. I tried to imagine how it will go. Maybe the grandfather will walk into a dark shull, and suddenly the lights will go on, and they will stand there with a big kugel in their hands and shout "Surprise! Rafram Bar Papa!")

But to end with, let's take a peek into one home, one such private family. This week, in the mailboxes of one of the religious settlements, a document was handed out with the heading "A letter from a woman who finished the Shas". This is not someone from Bruriah or Matan Midrasha, but a resident of the settlement whose husband finished the rounds of the Daf Hayomi, and wanted to share her feelings with the residents as his "ezer kenegdo", so that they too will consider joining. "About eight years ago", writes the anonymous woman, "I came across for who-knows-what time the expression "The world stands on three things: Torah, Avodah, and Gmilus Chassadim". When I started thinking suddenly about the first pillar on which we stand, I felt how the family's equilibrium is getting unsettled. We are standing on two pillars only. Right, the children learn in educational frameworks, and on the Shabbos table my husband says something, or asks them about what they learned, but can we say that Torah is a central topic in our home? Not really.

"It flew out of my memory, and then there was a parents' meeting, and there was an incident of our son with his friends, and a few bad words which I was surprised to hear from him, and I understood that we have to do something, because there's some vacuum here. We decided that that's it: without declarations, without far reaching changes, something constant has to join the routine. I wanted my husband to join the Daf Hayomi, but I also feared it will be hard for him, or it will be hard for me. We concluded he'll try the first masechet. A trial for two months. He told me that it's a relatively easy masechet, Masechet Brachot, and afterwards comes Masechet Shabbat, which is harder, "and then we'll see".

And today? Today my husband is completing the Shas! After many ups and downs and a few times we almost broke down, Hashem helped and we reached the finishing line. This is a Siyum which is also a start, because there's no doubt about it - he's starting again. Sorry, I made a mistake: we are starting again. Yes, me and the children are completing the Shas today. Without us, it wouldn't have happened. To say that it's always easy? No. Sometimes it was on my account and the children's account. Sometimes it's limiting when you have to travel, but on second thought, actually this hardship gives us a different quality of life. Since my husband has been going to the Daf Hayomi, Torah is in the background the whole time. Talks like "Has Aba come back from the Shiur yet?" "What interesting idea there was in the Shiur today" or even "The Shiur was hard for me today, I was tired" – all this gives the content at home. The influence on the children is great. Seven and a half years later, the first pillar on which the world stands, is not neglected. The world is more stable, and our home is more stable".

At the end of the column

This is the Beis Midrash of the Boyan-Rozhin chassidus at the entrance of Jerusalem. If the wagtail bird announces the beginning of autumn, then for me the first sign that the Days of Awe are arriving, is this construction. They build it every year, in order to extend the Beis Midrash for the large Tefillos of the Chagim, for the many Chassidim who come from Israel and abroad to daven with the Rebbe, and after Simchas Torah they break down this whole construction, until next year. For some reason, they started the works earlier this year, and scared me suddenly, in the middle of the summer vacation.

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!