“Upon entering the Spinka Shul in Boro Park, I couldn’t believe my eyes! The large beis midrash was packed. Upstairs, downstairs, wherever one looked…people were waiting patiently on line to get their tests, others were taking tests standing, leaning on shelves of sefarim shranks, and then I saw something that was so deeply moving that it brought tears to my eyes. A father, a yungerman, and his not-yet-bar mitzvah son walked into the test site, holding hands, heading together to take their first test on Masechta Brachos!” Those were the emotional words of Rabbi Chaim Blum, menahel of the Bnos Haddasah school, who was at the Boro Park testing site. This scene repeated itself in Dirshu centers throughout the United States, Canada and Europe.
In Eretz Yisrael, Rabbi Shlomo Rozenstein, a senior member of Dirshu’s hanhala, described an absolutely surreal scene. In the hundreds of testing sites spread throughout the length and breadth of Eretz Yisrael, tens of thousands, yes, many tens of thousands of Yidden came to take the first test in the 14th machzor of Daf Yomi, comprising the first 30 blatt Gemara in Shas.
Both Rabbi Ahron Gobioff, Dirshu’s North American director, and Rabbi Rozenstein in Eretz Yisrael made a profoundly moving admission. “We underestimated the gadlus and grandeur of klal Yisrael!”
Rabbi Gobioff related, “We printed copious amounts of tests before the test, distributing them to proctors who would preside over the testing sites throughout the country. We decided in advance that rather than risk running out of tests, we should print extras and have leftover, untaken tests at the end. Still,” both Rabbi Gobioff and Rabbi Rozenstein exclaimed, “we could not believe how many people came pouring into the testing sites to take that first test. Despite having prepared all those ‘extras,’ at many locations both in America and in Eretz Yisrael, in some locations Dirshu had to print hundreds of extra tests while the testing was taking place to meet the tremendous demand!
In America, the testing sites opened at 7 p.m. By the actual time of opening, very large crowds were already gathered, whether it was the Spinka Shul in Boro Park, the Yeshiva Ketana beis midrash in Lakewood and Yeshiva Bais Dovid in Monsey or any of the other tens of testing sites throughout North America. Rabbi Motti Zinsky, Dirshu’s proctor in Monsey, related, “I have been a Dirshu proctor for 15 years,” Rabbi Zinsky continued, “and this is the third haschalas haShas that I am proctoring. I can say that this time we had more than seven times the number of test takers than we had at the beginning of the last machzor of Shas!”
Rabbi Zinsky also explained that the only singular demographic that the test takers represented was that they were a microcosm of all klal Yisrael. “There were chassidim, yeshiva types, Sefardim and Ashkenazim, bochurim, yungeleit and even children under bar mitzvah, and kollel yungeleit and baalei battim…”
Rabbi Zinsky related, “The whole evening was deeply moving, but I remember one matter-of-fact comment from a baal habayis that impacted me tremendously. Generally, the test is scheduled for Sundays, but this time it was on a Thursday. One baal habayis, a person who works very hard to make a living, came in to take the test and nonchalantly commented, ‘I took the entire day off of work and spent that time chazering so that I could properly prepare for the test.’”
The experience at the Lakewood testing site in Yeshiva Ketana’s spacious beis midrash was almost identical. This writer was zoche to be at the Lakewood testing site. It was unbelievable: The spacious Yeshiva Ketana beis midrash suddenly didn’t seem so spacious as hundreds of people converged together. It seemed that they were echoing the words of the Gemara that talks about Matan Torah when the Bnei Yisrael said, “Ritzonenu liros es Malkeinu, we went to see our King!” The sheer volume of Yidden who have joined Dirshu, who have become “Dirshu Yidden” with the start of this machzor, is really a full-throated shout from klal Yisrael echoing what the Yidden said at Matan Torah, “Ritzonenu liros es Malkeinu! We want to become the closest possible to Hashem! We know that the best possible way to ‘see Him,’ to get close to Him, is by attaching ourselves to His Torah in a way that we will remain attached every day!”
Rabbi Gobioff perhaps put it best when he said, “As we were planning the World Siyumim, our banner was to consistently focus on raising the Torah landscape. Seeing how many new learners have joined Mishpachas Dirshu is the most gratifying culmination of the simchas haTorah of the siyumim that we could have possibly experienced.”
HaGaon HaRav Chaim Feinstein, shlita, Rosh Yeshivas Ateres Shlomo, put it succinctly when he came into a testing site in Bnei Brak. So moved by what he saw, Rav Feinstein exclaimed, “I see here something reminiscent of the Kabbalas HaTorah meichodosh, mamesh like ma’amad Har Sinai, I see something reminiscent of a renewed Kabbalas haTorah, literally like ma’amad Har Sinai!”
In Yerushalayim, gaonim such as HaGaon HaRav Yisrael Gans, shlita, rosh yeshiva at Yeshiva Kol Torah, Hagaon HaRav Naftali Nussbaum, rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Chayei Moshe, and Rav Shamai Kehos Gross, dayan and rosh yeshiva at the Belzer Yeshiva, visited testing sites and were similarly overwhelmed with simcha. Indeed, there were well over 200 testing sites throughout the length and breadth of Eretz Yisrael.
A fascinating prelude to the new machzor of tests was experienced both in the Lakewood and Monsey sites as Rabbi Gobioff from Lakewood and Rabbi Zinsky from Monsey told this writer almost identical occurrences from both locations.
It was actually at the final test on the last machzor of Shas. There are true Torah heroes, courageous Dirshu Yidden who actually took the last Kinyan Torah cumulative test on the entire Shas! The test had many hundreds of questions from Brachos through Niddah. It was a test on some 2,000 blatt Gemara!!
“At the Lakewood site,” Rabbi Gobioff related, “many Yidden came with their children simply to observe this phenomenal sight of people being tested on the entire Shas. Their fathers brought them to these talmidei chachamim and asked these Yidden whose hearts and minds were saturated with the entire Shas to bentch them, to give brachos to them and to their children!”
Rabbi Zinsky from Monsey commented, “I was totally flabbergasted when I saw a rebbe from a prominent cheder in Monsey arrive at the testing site with his entire class! He wanted his talmidim to see that this wasn’t just a dream; this was really happening! He wanted them to watch as Yidden from their own communities were actually being tested on all of Shas at once! The class lined up and asked for brachos from those heroic, remarkable Dirshu Yidden.”
The first Dirshu test in this machzor was the ultimate testament to the tens upon tens of thousands of Yidden who made such a commitment to Torah, saying, “I can’t leave. I can’t leave learning Torah, I can’t forsake my obligation to learning Torah! ‘Ki lekach tov nasati lachem, Torasi al taazovu’!”
You can still join Dirshu! The next test on Maseches Brachos will be held on Sunday, 12 Adar/March 8. Soon thereafter there is another opportunity to become a Dirshu Yid by joining for beginning with Maseches Shabbos. Now is the time!
