“The collective sound of fathers and sons, grandfathers and grandsons, brothers and friends, all learning together is still buzzing in my ear,” said one participant as the evening winded down. At Yeshiva Heichal HaTorah this past Wednesday night, a rich and raucous kol Torah emanated from the sanctuary as hundreds gathered for a “Mishnathon,” accepting the challenge posed by Rav Aryeh Stechler, rosh yeshiva and dean: “Complete all of Shas Mishnayos in one hour.”

The entire corpus of Mishna—encompassing 525 chapters, 4224 mishnayos—was fully reserved by the evening’s beginning participants. After opening remarks by Rabbi Y.Y. Jacobson, rosh yeshiva of theyeshiva.net, in which he underscored the fundamental importance of studying the Mishna, the learning began.

“I wasn’t sure we were going to pull this off,” Rav Stechler admitted. “People have so many obligations at the end of the school year and their time is very limited. But the community stepped up, proving once again that the Bergen county kehillah takes seriously its commitment to Torah and to the chinuch of its youth.”

The Mishnathon assigned two perakim of mishnayos to each pair of chavrusahs. In what was billed as one of the largest gatherings of communal Torah learning ever in Bergen County, the assembled delved into their assignments. Within an hour they were done. Rav Aharon Kahn, rosh yeshiva at RIETS, then gave concluding remarks and blessings to the crowd.

After the Hadran was said, singing and dancing commenced in the main ballroom, led by the legendary Eitan Katz. The dancing was followed by a delicious barbeque dinner.

“I came with my son thinking we would ‘pitch in’ to help make the siyum,” said one attendee. “But in truth it was Heichal that pitched in to give me and my son an inspiring evening of learning, achdus, music and dancing.”