OTHER VIEWS
The Secret Of The Jews
New York
he air was electric in Jewish
communities across the conti-
nent and around the world
for weeks before it happened.
"It" was the Daf Yomi Siyum
HaShas, which occurs but once every
seven years and took place on March 1
for the 11th time since the Talmud-
study program it celebrates was intro-
duced.
This most recent Siyum HaShas
(completion of the Talmud) brought
together more Jews than any other
event in contemporary times —
indeed, in recent history. The number
of participants in North America alone
was estimated at 120,000.
The Siyum HaShas lauds the
accomplishment of the tens of thou-
sands who have completed the study
T
Rabbi Shaft-an is director of public
affairs for Agudath Israel of America.
His e-mail address is
shafi-an@agudathisradorg. This piece
was distributed through Am Echad
Resources, an Orthodox teaching service.
of the entire Babylonian Talmud
through the Daf Yomi (Page-per-Day)
program conceived by Rabbi Meir
Shapiro, a yeshivah dean in pre-war
Lublin, Poland.
It was in 1923 at the First
International Congress of the Agudath
Israel World Movement that he pre-
sented his plan for a challenging and
unified study of the Talmud, and the
Siyum HaShas celebration has long
been organized and sponsored by
Agudath Israel of America, the organi-
zation I am privileged to serve.
Although the men, women and chil-
dren who attended the Siyum HaShas
were paying tribute to those who com-
pleted the Daf Yomi program, the
event might more properly be seen as
a celebration of Torah study itself, of
the Jewish ideal of laboring over, and
internalizing, the texts and wisdom of
our religious tradition.
It is, in its deepest sense, a celebra-
tion of the secret of Jewish persever-
ance — something, ironically, that was
well understood by some of our worst
enemies.
World War II, helped rejuve-
The Nazis, for instance,
nate Jewish life on these and
considered the Jews a race, but
other shores, rebuilding
at least some of them also rec-
Jewish communal and educa-
ognized what empowers and
tional institutions and foster-
preserves our people. Writing
ing traditional Jewish obser-
in 1930, Alfred Rosenberg,
vance in new lands. The scope
Hitler's chief ideologue, identi-
and enthusiasm of the Siyum
fied "the honorless character of
HaShas was undeniable evi-
RABB I AVI
the Jew" as "embodied in the
dence of that.
SHAF RAN
Talmud and in Shulchan Aruch
Those Nazis knew that
Spe cial
[the Code of Jewish Law]."
Comm entary Jewish religious life and Torah
Perhaps even more telling is a
study were the greatest threats
1940 directive issued by the
to the ultimate success of their
German Highest Security Office. It pro- genocidal plan, that our people's
hibits Jewish emigration from occupied
preservation and future depend on our
Poland on the grounds that an influx of fealty to the essence of our past.
Rabbiner, Talmud Lehrer
rabbis,
And so the Siyum HaShas, ostensi-
teachers of Talmud — and in fact jeder
bly the marking of a program's end
orthodoxe 0.5*4de
every Eastern
(and re-beginning), was also some-
European Orthodox Jew — could foster thing else: a declaration of victory, a
geistige Erneuerung spiritual renewal
defiant mass-embrace of what some of
— among American Jewry.
our more perspicacious enemies tried,
That fear, thank God, proved well
and failed, to stifle.
founded indeed; Torah-committed
The singing and dancing and
Jewish immigrants, although they
prayers that filled Madison Square
arrived for the most part only after
Garden, the Continental Airlines
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Building A Better Jewish Life
BRIAN W. BLONDY
Community Perspective
IVE
y protective bubble labeled
"suburban life" was about
to be popped by something
called Otzma. What was I getting
myself into? Why would I make myself
purposefully uncomfortable? It was
with great anticipation and a whole lot
of trepidation that I imparted on my
Otzma adventure in September of
2003. I entered with eyes wide open
and left having seen so much. I began
with a desire to experience and learn
and ended with a newfound love of my
people and our homeland.
My Otzma experience allowed me
to be woven into the fabric of Israeli
society. I was placed in positions
where I could make a difference. Me,
West Bloomfield resident Brian W
Blondy, 23, was an Otzma participant
in 2003-2004. He now attends the
Raphael Recanati International School-
Interdisciplinary Center, the Lauder
School of Government, Diplomacy and
Strategy, in Herzliya, Israel. He is seeking
an undergraduate degree in government
with a minor in diplomacy, national
security and strategy. He plans to work
with the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security after graduation in 2007.
the suburban kid from West
Bloomfield, teaching English, cleaning
up national parks, working with trou-
bled teens, facilitating a basketball
program for mentally disabled people
and helping at Yad Vashem, Israel's
national Holocaust museum.
Painting houses in Kiryat Malachi is
a great example of the impact I was
able to.make. Every Wednesday, some
of us were bused to this small develop-
ment town 15 minutes east of our base
in Ashkelon. It is a poor city filled with
low-income apartment buildings, hous-
ing some of Israel's poorest immigrants.
The buildings are old and weathered
from the sun and sand's daily blasting.
While we scraped away the old, we
applied layers of fresh white paint.
With each stroke, we helped lay the
foundation of hope for the residents.
Often the owners would stand in
the corner with their arms crossed,
watching these Americans paint. I
can't imagine how they felt or how my
family and friends would feel if they
could see me. What am I doing here?
This is not the path my parents or my
friends would have expected me to
take. But I was content and most of
all proud. While painting or teaching
or doing any one of the things I did
in Israel, I was incredibly proud of
what I was doing with my life. I real-
Brian Blond),
I in Israel
ized that what I was doing was exactly
the reason why I came to Israel.
In addition to the volunteering, the
friendships I made throughout the 10
months will last throughout my life.
The intensiveness of how we lived
together created a unique atmosphere
for us to really get to know one another.
I found myself learning all the time
from my fellow Otzmanikim. I have
never been associated with so many
incredible individuals for such an
extended period. Project Otzma attracts
a certain type of individual. To be
around such quality people for a year is
worth the price of admission in itself.