12 | JANUARY 23 • 2020 

Farber teens relish studying 
Talmud; three attended
fi
 rst women’
s Siyum HaShas 
in Jerusalem. 

CORRIE COLF 
STAFF WRITER

Jews in the D

A

t the beginning of January, Jews 
around the world marked the com-
pletion of a cycle of Daf Yomi, the 
page-a-day study of the 2,711 pages of the 
Talmud, with a Siyum HaShas, a celebration 
held at the end of each 7-year-5-month cycle. 
This year’
s completion had special signifi-
cance. On Sunday, Jan. 5, Hadran, an organi-
zation founded by women who study Talmud 
together, held the first women’
s Siyum HaShas 
in Jerusalem.
Historically, Talmud study has been spe-
cifically for men, but women scholars — like 
Rabbanit Michelle Farber, co-founder of 
Hadran — have been trying to change the 
paradigm and bring Talmudic knowledge to 
women. 
This year’
s siyum brought thousands 
of women Talmud learners to Jerusalem. 
Among them were three teen girls from 
the Modern Orthodox Farber Hebrew Day 
School in Southfield, who had the opportu-
nity to travel around Israel for the week and 
shadow their role models.
Cara Lopatin, 16, Yaffa Klausner, 15, and 

Sima Stein, 16, were the only U.S. high school 
students to accept Hadran’
s invitation to 
attend the siyum. The girls, including Shira 
Schon, 16, who did not attend the siyum in 
Jerusalem, have been involved with Hadran’
s 
adopt-a-daf program and are the only female 
students studying Gemara (the 
rabbinic writings of the Talmud) 
at Farber — with the same inten-
sity as the boys. 
“It was a really special feeling 
knowing we were pretty much 
the youngest people there,
” 
Lopatin said. “It allowed us to 
demonstrate to others that young girls are 
learning Gemara and it also really showed 
our devotion to our learning.
”
The trip allowed the girls to listen to prom-
inent women in the Jewish community and to 
learn from them personally. 
“While we were there, we had the opportu-
nity to learn from Rabbanit Sally Mayer and 
Rabbanit Michelle Farber,
” Stein said. “We 
have one female Gemara teacher at school; 
this provided us with more opportunities to 

Shira Schon

PHOTOS COURTESY FARBER HEBREW DAY SCHOOL

continued on page 14

Equal
Opportunity

on the cover

