HaGaon HaRav Berel Povarsky, shlita, rosh yeshiva of the Ponevezh Yeshiva, will be coming especially from Eretz Yisrael to attend the Dirshu convention, where he will deliver a shiur klali after davening on Shabbos morning and then, on Motzei Shabbos, will make the Hadran and give a keynote address at the melave malka siyum on Maseches Bava Metziah. The convention, to be held this coming Shabbos Parshas Shemos, 22-24 Teves/ January 20-22, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Stamford, Connecticut, is titled “Shabbos Chizuk L’lomedei Torah.” The Shabbos is to pay tribute and give chizuk to the myriad lomdei Torah and their wives who, day in, day out, week after week, month after month, throughout the year, Shabbosim, Yomim Tovim, easy times, hard times… are dedicated to learning Torah and taking regular tests to ensure retention.
The climax of the Shabbos will be Motzei Shabbos’s keynote session where a siyum on Masechees Bava Metzia will be made. There will also be a comprehensive women’s program catered especially to the wives of the lomdei Dirshu. The men show their dedication by learning, chazering every day, day in and day out, and taking monthly tests over a protracted amount of time. Similarly, every Dirshu wife has displayed mesiras nefesh for her husband’s learning and spiritual ascent by enabling him to devote tremendous amounts of time to learning the daily material and then repeatedly reviewing so that he will know the material sufficiently to earn an exemplary mark on the test. This often does not come easily. It frequently means sacrificing the help of a husband in the most hectic of times, such as the morning rush to school or the evening bedtime crunch. That is why Dirshu siyumim and Shabbos conventions always have an important place for Dirshu wives, true partners in the Torah success of their husbands.
One of the highlights of previous conventions has been the unique shailos and teshuvos session held on Friday night after the seudah with the Skverer Dayan, Rav Yechiel Michel Steinmetz, shlita. Questions that span literally the entire gamut of Halacha are moderated and posed by Rav Eliezer Ralbag, shlita, to the dayan who, with his encyclopedic knowledge and good cheer, answers them all comprehensively, and often with a good dose of added humor as well.
At the previous Dirshu Shabbos Chizuk L’lomdei Torah, it was Rav Steinmetz who encapsulated what he saw as the uniqueness of the Dirshu convention, saying, “A unique koach of Dirshu is that it not only gives a person Olam Haba’ah, it also gives a person phenomenal Olam Hazeh!
After the last Dirshu convention, Dirshu received numerous letters from lomdei Torah and their wives, expressing their feelings about how limud haTorah with a plan has transformed their lives. One woman wrote: “…I would like to share what Dirshu and the Shabbos mean to us. There is no way we can ever express the depth of our gratitude. While my husband, a kollel yungerman, always admired his father who is a great masmid, he didn’t think he was capable of doing the same. At the first Dirshu Shabbos when my husband saw yungeleit just like him becoming Shas Yidden and being tested on the entire Shas, he came home determined to do the same! Since that Shabbos, every moment in our lives has become a treasure; life is a rush of excitement!
“Another amud, another Daf… Baruch Hashem, my husband makes a siyum so often that my 2-year-old confuses the word siyum and Shabbos seudah. A seudah with a siyum is such a thrill as the children march into the dining room with a special dish while singing a niggun in honor of the siyum…. Although I never imagined I would leave my children behind for a Shabbos, this Shabbos is different. My children treasure the memory of “The Shabbos that Totty and Mommy went to learn how to learn more Torah!”
Even though the hotel is completely sold out for Shabbos, the Motzei Shabbos siyum and keynote session melave malka will be open to the general public. Bus transportation will be provided but RSVP is required by calling 1-888-5 Dirshu, ext. 153 or [email protected].
By Chaim Gold
