Daf Yomi: The 35 minute Daf

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Thought for Today: Too Frum

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I have been teaching the Daf for nearly 40 years. I get up at 3:30 am to prep and share the Shiur at 5:30.

The Shiur keeps things short and simple and you can expect to also learn more about real-life learnings from the Talmud (with some baseball knowledge as well).

If you are just starting the Daf or thinking of joining, I highly recommend you spend 2 minutes reading below.

Initiated by Rav Meir Shapiro back in 1923, the completion of each cycle has included more and more participants every cycle, so that today perhaps 100,000 or more Jews around the world have actually studied all 2,711 Dapim during this cycle.  This milestone is truly remarkable in the annals of world projects.  It is a tribute to Rav Shapiro that his initiative has continued to grow almost a century after it began.  Being involved with Daf Hayomi for over forty years myself, here are some of my observations regarding this important and life-changing project:

1. Anyone can partake, scholar or otherwise. No background education is necessary to study Torah. 

2. Don’t be reticent to start out of fear of not being able to commit to completing 7 and ½ years of Cycle 14, beginning this coming Sunday.  Even studying one day is better than not at all. Even coming late to a shiur is worthwhile; you can learn something from every line of the Talmud. 

3. There is no need to start at the beginning of a tractate.  Any day that you study, either online, in person, on the phone, or on your own with a translated Talmud, you will derive spiritual and intellectual benefit. 

4. Rav Sabato explains that the Daf Hayomi has three great qualities: completion - if you can make it through 7.5 years; regularity - you are forced to do something every day; and partnership – the great feeling of partaking in project together with tens of thousands of others.  

5. It is important to study the current day’s Daf on that day, because the Siyata Dishmaya, Heavenly aid, for multitudes is greater than for the individual, just as prayer in a quorum of ten brings the Shchina (Heavenly Countenance) to us. If you fall behind, still try to learn the scheduled day’s Daf on that day.

6. Some feel that a Daf per day is too fast and superficial to absorb all intricacies of the Talmud, and they are better off studying the Talmud more slowly and in greater depth.  But will they be studying every day with the same drive that the Daf Hayomi forces upon us, with no breaks for Shabbat, fast days, weddings, Bar Mitzvah’s, and other commitments that take up our time?  

7. Someone once boasted to a rabbi that he had gone through the entire Shas. The rabbi replied, “but has Shas gone through you?” Try to apply something you learn each day into your practical daily life.

8. Don’t be discouraged if you can’t keep it up or can’t attend each day.  Do your best, and you will gain from every word you absorb.  Think of this:  if you don’t do Daf Hayomi, how will you be spending your time instead?  You will never regret studying Daf Hayomi, but you may regret not trying.  

9. Do this for yourself, not to gain approbation or appreciation from others. Then you will never be disappointed. 

10. I can be reached at ephraim.schreibman@gmail.com. Good luck and happy learning!