Marking the completion of the second machzor of Daf HaYomi B’Halacha and the beginning of the third machzor.

“What better eis ratzon, what more opportune time, can we find to go to the Chofetz Chaim’s kever to daven? Now we are on the cusp of completing the entire Mishnah Berurah in the Dirshu Daf HaYomi B’Halacha program. This is the second seven-year cycle of the Mishnah Berurah completed by Dirshu. We are also completing the mussar component of the Daf HaYomi B’Halacha program where all the Chofetz Chaim’s sefarim on mussar have been learned, including Chofetz Chaim, Shemiras Halashon, Ahavas Chesed, Chovas Hashemirah, Zechor L’Miriam, Sefas Tamim and so many more. What better time to daven, thanking him for the zechus of learning his sefarim and, even more importantly, begging that in his zechus hundreds of thousands more Yidden shall merit to undertake to learn Daf HaYomi B’Halacha and mussar daily, thereby bringing Hashem into their lives, every day at every hour?!”

“Now, who should lead such an august trip on behalf of klal Yisrael? Certainly, gedolei Yisrael from across the spectrum! And that,” said Rabbi Avigdor Bernstein, a senior member of Dirshu’s hanhala in Eretz Yisrael, “is the impetus behind a historic trip to Radin and Vilna later this winter for the weekend of Shabbos Parshas Yisro.”

The trip will be attended by senior gedolei Yisrael and gedolei haposkim as well as Daf HaYomi B’Halacha maggidei shiur from all over the world. A very distinguished delegation will attend from Eretz Yisrael along with prominent rabbanim from England, France and Belgium, as well as from the United States and Canada.

Some of the gedolim who are slated to attend are HaGaon HaRav Dovid Cohen, shlita, rosh yeshivas Chevron, HaGaon HaRav Shimon Galei, shlita, HaGaon HaRav Aryeh Zilberstein, shlita, rav and rosh kollel of Ger in Bnei Brak, HaGaon HaRav Yitzchok Kolodetsky, shlita, son-in-law of HaGaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky, shlita, HaGaon HaRav Yitzchok Shlomo Shechter, shlita, senior dayan of Sanz, HaGaon HaRav Sariel Rosenberg, shlita, av beis din Bnei Brak, HaGaon HaRav Boruch Sternbuch, shlita, rav of Vizhnitz, Modiin Illit, shlita, HaGaon HaRav Nissan Kaplan, shlita, rosh yeshivas Daas Aharon, HaGaon HaRav Binyomin Finkel, shlita, mashgiach of Mir, HaGaon HaRav Avraham Salim, shlita, rosh yeshivas Me’or Hatorah and tens more rabbanim from Eretz Yisrael, Europe and North America.

The Highlight: Outpouring of Tefillah At the Kever of the Chofetz Chaim

The highlight of the visit promises to be the powerful tefillah gathering on Thursday at the Chofetz Chaim’s kever where the gedolei Yisrael and the entire assemblage will pour out their hearts in tefillah on behalf of klal Yisrael and beg Hashem that in the Chofetz Chaim’s merit more and more Yidden shall incorporate daily halacha into their lives. Living with Hashem on a daily basis, hour by hour, is the greatest way to invoke rachamim, to invoke Hashem’s love on behalf of His children. The Chofetz Chaim himself was the greatest mitzapeh l’yeshua of his generation. His sefarim are permeated with the ideal that Moshiach’s arrival is just around the corner. The delegation of gedolim will storm the heavens at this makom kadosh that we may all merit hisgalus Moshiach tzidkeinu, b’karov!

Visiting Vilna and Kovno

The trip to Radin is by no means the only highlight. There will be a historic Shabbos spent in Vilna, where the elevated atmosphere is sure to reverberate throughout the frum world. The group will daven at the kever of the Vilna Gaon, as well as at the kever of the famed ger tzedek of Vilna, Avrohom Ben Avrohom Potocki, the kever of HaGaon HaRav Boruch Ber Leibowitz, rosh yeshivas Kamenitz, and the kever of HaGaon HaRav Chaim Ozer Grodzesnky as well as other historic sites in Vilna.

In addition, a large group will journey to Kovno/Slabodka where they will visit the “Ninth Fort” where HaGaon HaRav Elchonon Wasserman and other gedolim were murdered al kiddush Hashem, as well as the building of the famed Slabodka Yeshiva.

Perpetuating the Past to Inspire the Future!

“The purpose of the trip is to gain inspiration from the past, from the legacy of the Chofetz Chaim and the great Torah centers of Lita, but,” Rabbi Shlomo Rozenstein, Dirshu’s director of public relations, stresses, “it is even more about taking that inspiration from the past and applying it to the future. We all feel a connection to the Chofetz Chaim, especially those who learn his sefarim. That connection must be cultivated on behalf of many more members of klal Yisrael. The numerous gedolim who are coming are taking time from their ultra-busy, packed schedules to come more because of the future than the past.

“One of the gedolei Hador told me, ‘I want many tens of thousands more people to begin learning Daf HaYomi B’Halacha. It is imperative that every Yid—whether kollel yungeleit carving out time between sedarim, baalei batim finding time at night or during the early morning, or maggidei shiur setting up shiurim in their communities—learn the halachos of daily living every day. Otherwise, how will he know what to do? How will he be able to keep Shabbos properly or even the halachos of davening, of tefillin? Halacha permeates our lives and should dictate our every moment, but we cannot fulfill the halacha properly unless we learn it! Even if, after that learning, one has not gained sufficient clarity to pasken on everything, at least they will know when and how to ask a shailah!’”

‘We Are Here!’

Who can forget the previous visit of a Dirshu delegation to the kever of the Chofetz Chaim when HaGaon HaRav Chizkiyahu Yosef Mishkovsky, shlita, mashgiach of Yeshiva Orchos Torah, said, “We are on the blood-soaked soil of Europe where European Jewry and its great Torah centers were decimated. The Ponevezher rav, Rav Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, once visited Rome and asked to be taken to the Arch of Titus that pays tribute to the Roman emperor who destroyed the Beis Hamikdash. The rav walked in front of the Arch, straightened his frock and exclaimed with great emotion, ‘Titus, Titus, you thought you conquered the entire world. You destroyed the Beis Hamikdash and made a churban. Where are you today, Titus? Your remains have been scattered all over the oceans. There is nothing left of you. And we, the grandchildren of those whom you wanted to destroy, where are we? Look at the beautiful Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, look at the hundreds of bachurim learning Torah! Titus, we are here; where are you?!’”

Rav Mishkovsky continued, “Many decades after the end of the Holocaust, the Torah world is blossoming and growing, the Chofetz Chaim’s sefarim are being learned throughout the world by unprecedented numbers of people. We are here!”

“We are here, at the kever of the Chofetz Chaim, davening for klal Yisrael,” Rav Mishkovsky concluded passionately. “We are asking for so much in his zechus, but we must realize that he is also asking something of us! The Chofetz Chaim is asking us and all of klal Yisrael to heed what comes out of our mouths. If we accept upon ourselves to be careful in these areas and to learn daily halacha in the Mishnah Berurah written by the Chofetz Chaim to benefit klal Yisrael and empower them to properly keep halacha, we can surely make a nachas ruach for Hashem that will hopefully be the harbinger of the geulah.”

By Chaim Gold