My Dear Students, Colleagues and Friends,

These tumultuous days have revealed much about our community and values. We stand together in support of one another with great care and concern for our neighbors, friends and fellow citizens, while turning to Hashem for healing and comfort. Our Torah values guide us and direct us to highlight the preciousness of life, to emphasize the importance of faith and prayer and to reach out to others in kindness and compassion. In a word, it’s love. Love for Hashem and love for all of His children. Every pasuk, every mishnah, every daf is infused with this spirit. This is the Torah we have been privileged to receive and this is the Torah we teach.

It is for this reason that an essential element of our response in these challenging times is Torah study.

Together, we want to complete all of Tanach, Mishnah and Shas Bavli by Rosh Chodesh Iyar, as the letters of the month of Iyar  (אייר) form the acronym אני יי רופאך.

We invite our entire community to join in this effort––our students and alumni, day schools and high schools, partner seminaries and yeshivot, shuls and rabbanim, parents and friends throughout the world.

On the day that we shift all of our classrooms to distance learning, we launch this initiative that unites us in one common purpose. Connect with your chavrutah online, study with your children or devote time in your quiet moments. Join today with this link  and become a part of this special siyum.

During a time characterized by isolation and quarantine, our collective learning will bind us together and serve as a merit to help heal a wounded world.

Warmest wishes,

Ari Berman

President, Yeshiva University