“Halacha is the ikkar,” were the words of HaGaon HaRav Dovid Feinstein, shlita, rosh yeshiva of Mesivta Tiferes Yerushalayim and one of the senior poskim of our generation, when asked what his father Rav Moshe would have said about a daily Halacha learning program such as the Daf HaYomi B’Halacha. In a meeting with senior members of Dirshu’s hanhala led by Dirshu’s nasi, Rav Dovid Hofstedter, Rav Feinstein encouraged all lomdim to “get a geshmak” in the daily limud of Halacha, “whether with a chabura, a chavrusa or learning on one’s own.”
The meeting with Rav Dovid Feinstein came in advance of the Dirshu Daf HaYomi B’Halacha program’s beginning of hilchos Shabbos as they embark on Chelek Gimmel of the Mishnah Berurah.
In the Mishnah Berurah’s famous hakdama to hilchos Shabbos, he cites Rav Yonason Eibschutz from his sefer Ya’aros Devash, wherein he points out that it is impossible to avoid transgressing the laws of Shabbos every Shabbos unless one properly and comprehensively learns the halachos. So many of us know that our knowledge of hilchos Shabbos could be better. The Daf HaYomi B’Halacha program is the answer. As Rav Dovid Feinstein remarked last week, even if at times one cannot come up with a definitive psak on one’s own, when one learns hilchos Shabbos in the Mishnah Berurah, at least he will know that he has encountered a shailah and will be able to ask.
This coming 17 Tammuz/July 11 that goal will actually be within reach. 17 Tammuz is the day that Dirshu’s Daf HaYomi B’Halacha will begin Chelek Gimmel of Mishnah Berurah, the learning of hilchos Shabbos. With the investment of as little as a half hour per day, motivated individuals will be able to systematically learn hilchos Shabbos, and over the course of about a year and a half complete the entire Chelek Gimmel of Mishnah Berurah!
For one who really wants to become familiar with hilchos Shabbos, Daf HaYomi B’Halacha is a unique program in which one can systematically learn the entire spectrum of hilchos Shabbos according to the Mishnah Berurah. In addition, in the biurim u’musafim section of the Mahaduras Dirshu Mishnah Berurah, you will encounter virtually all the rulings of the poskim, spanning the last two generations up until the present time, on important Shabbos questions wrought by the technological innovations that have sprung up since the writing of the Mishnah Berurah more than a century ago.
Those who have been learning Daf HaYomi B’Halacha since the beginning of the present machzor have attested to the fact that their entire day has been transformed by the learning of Halacha as they are constantly engaged in practical scenarios where they draw on their knowledge of daily halacha for guidance. Others attest to the tremendous siyata d’Shmaya that learning Halacha brings with it.
An extraordinary story of personal siyata d’Shmaya was recently related by one of the lomdei Dirshu. Not long ago, Dirshu received a call from Rabbi Chaim Perkowski of Los Angeles, who shared the following story: “My father, Rabbi Eli Perkowski, may he be well, attends the nightly Daf HaYomi B’Halacha shiur of Rav Yochanan Henig, rosh kollel of the Chassidishe Kollel of Los Angeles. On Monday, May 22, my father was walking in the street when he was viciously attacked by what appeared to be a homeless man from the area. He was beaten brutally and mercilessly. The entire incident was filmed by surveillance cameras and soon went viral, making its way around the entire world. We received phone calls, emails and good wishes from horrified Yidden literally from across the entire world. Baruch Hashem, my father is doing well, although he is still experiencing some pain.
What is remarkable about the entire story is what transpired the night of the attack. With great mesiras nefesh, my father made his way to the shiur, and exactly on that very day they were learning the halachos of Birchas Hagomel. The halacha learned that day was the halacha that says one should bentch gomel preferably within three days of being saved from a life-threatening incident. The Mishnah Berurah also says it is preferable to bentch gomel in front of a sefer Torah. If, however, the incident transpires on a Monday morning after kriyas haTorah in a way that it will be more than three days until Thursday’s kriyas haTorah, the Mishnah Berurah explains that a person should not wait for kriyas haTorah, but rather he should gather 10 men and make the bracha of gomel in front of them without waiting for leining. That was exactly the scenario facing my father, as the attack transpired on Monday morning. That night at the shiur, my father got up and feelingly recited Birchas Hagomel after the shiur! The maggid shiur was so moved by the timing of events that he urged my father to publicize this great siyata d’Shmaya that was akin to a Divine smile.
Lomdei Daf HaYomi B’Halacha are now on the cusp of completing Chelek Beis of Mishnah Berurah. The tens of thousands of test takers as well as the tens of thousands of other lomdim and Daf HaYomi B’Halacha shiur goers have attested to the fact that their observance and knowledge of all the myriad halachos in the first two volumes of Mishnah Berurah have immeasurably enriched their lives.
Siyumim on Chelek Beis will be held all over the world. This year, the central European siyum will be held in Antwerp, Belgium, and will be graced and addressed by HaGaon Dayan Binyamin Eckstein, shlita of London, Dirshu’s European director, and Rav Dovid Hofstedter, Dirshu’s nasi.
The Daf HaYomi B’Halacha learning program of halacha and mussar features two tracks. The first track includes learning an amud of Mishnah Berurah daily, together with the biurim and musafaim in the Dirshu edition of the Mishnah Berurah. There is also a daily portion of mussar from the sefarim of the Chofetz Chaim. The second track consists of everything in the first track plus the Biur Halacha and Shaar Hatzion.
Whereas some of the Dirshu programs cater to those who are able to devote a considerable part of their day to learning, the Daf HaYomi B’Halacha program is for everyone.
One prominent rosh yeshiva, upon his visit to a Dirshu testing site, observed hundreds of people diligently taking tests on halacha and mussar, and exclaimed, “Can one imagine what simcha there is in shamayim?! Can one imagine the nachas that the heilige Chofetz Chaim and the heilige Rav Yisroel Salanter, founder of the mussar movement, must be having when they look down and see thousands of people from all walks of life learning halacha and mussar? The tens of thousands of lomdei Daf HaYomi B’Halacha comprise an army—an army of soldiers declaring, ‘My day will be one in which I encounter Hashem Yisborach every second!’”
To join now in North America, please call, 888-5-Dirshu or e-mail, [email protected].
By Chaim Gold
