This past Motzei Shabbat the Englewood community hosted its first community Siyum Hashas. The event featured inspiring presentations, delicious food and striking displays of achdut and ahavat Yisrael. Nine months ago, members of the community had a dream to organize a community-wide learning of Shas in honor of the Daf Yomi Siyum Hashas. They split up Shas into about 150 sections, created a Google Doc, and inspired, asked and nudged community members to sign up to learn sections. Eventually the spreadsheet was 100% full, every daf in Shas was learned. The entire community took part. The members of the Moriah middle school had a night of learning with their parents and they merited to finish Masechet Taanit; the seventh graders of Yeshivat Ben Porat Yosef learned Masechet Rosh Hashanah; Yeshiva Ohr Simcha and Yeshiva Heichal Hatorah took multiple sections as well. At the siyum, the rabbi of each shul spoke and we had a delicious dinner from The Wandering Que. When we gathered at Kehilat Kesher for the siyum celebration, we felt the power of Jewish unity and communal bonding.

The siyum was dedicated by Cookie and David Fishel in memory of their daughter Katie Fishel ע“ה. Katie passed away last year at age 20. Katie always wanted to help strengthen the sense of community everywhere she was. She had a true passion to make shidduchim, and most of all to make people happy. Katie had a great sense of humor, and one could not help but smile in her presence. Her father, David Fishel, learned the last section of Niddah and recited the hadran.

In honor of the siyum I learned the sixth perek in Masechet Bava Kamma. I enjoyed learning my section very much. One of the things I felt was amazing about learning for this particular siyum was that while I was learning I felt I was not learning it myself, rather I felt I was learning it as a team with the community. For me, the most moving part of the evening was when David Fishel spoke and dedicated the siyum to all the children and young adults of the community who passed away without children. I feel blessed to be part of this community that can unite in such a meaningful way. I can’t wait for the second Englewood community Siyum Hashas.

By Eli Reichman, YBH Passaic seventh grader

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