Daf Yomi, 2 years down, 5.5 to go

Happy Birthday to my baby who turned 7 years old yesterday which also happens to be the anniversary of when we started Daf Yomi.

When I started the Daf Yomi, you can read past posts from last year at the 1st anniversary, I wondered if I would stick with it.

It is hard to spend about 45 minutes a day, on average, doing something for yourself. No PR side, no monetary side, no work benefits, just pure learning for the sake of learning.

What have I been learning? Here is a simple breakdown of the last 2 years:

We are still in what is referred to as Sefer Moed, Wikipedia has a nice breakdown here.
Along the way the last 2 years we finished the Tractate of Berachot which discussed blessings and other daily life aspects.

Then we did Shabbat which discussed Shabbat and all types of aspects which led to Eruvin which is about spaces and the ability to carry on Shabbat.

We then moved onto Pesachim this year which deals with laws and customs of Passover, among other holidays.

Next up was Shekalim which discussed giving half a shekel to count people and for the upkeep of the temple or Beit Hamikdash.This is the only Tractate not found in the Babylonian Talmud and is only in the Jerusalem Talmud but is included in the Daf Yomi.

Followed by Yoma which discusses Yom Kippur and the Cohen temple services.

After Yoma was Sukka which makes sense as the holiday follows only a few days behind Yom Kippur.

The next one was Beitza which is not about eggs per se, but more about cooking and general laws of holidays and cooking.

After this was Rosh Hashana, while you would think it should be before Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashana deals with not just the new year, but the new year for trees, for kings, for planting and other similar events.

Then came Taanit which discusses fast days, why we have them, what we can and can't do on them. Given Tisha B'Av, one of the only 2 major fast days is Tuesday night and Wednesday it was nice to complete it recently.

We currently are on Megilla which discusses all things related to Purim, Torah readings and how many people to call up and how many sentences to read.

Knowing all of this is helpful, yet does not make me, or anyone else, better to answer questions or provide guidance. I prefer to think of it as background details that I may have forgotten or never learned. After all in school we were lucky to finish a chapter of any Tractate during the school year, let alone an entire one.

So onward I go to another year.

1 Year Completed, 6.5 To Go

When I was in college and heard about this I tried to do it then. I tried a few years later with my roommates post college, but could not get into it. In some ways, technology has helped me to accomplish this goal, which is probably not the intended result you may think it is.

Imagine if you actually read every page of a 3,000 page wiki how long would it take you? Now nearly double that number and you get an idea where I am going.

Last year on August 3rd, 2012, the 13th cycle of the worldwide studying of the Talmud, known as Daf Yomi, began with Brachot, which means blessings. I started this as a deal with my kids since we were home schooling them last year. I figured if they had to learn on their own so to speak, so did I. Not to imply I do not learn regularly, I do, not every day at that time, but on a weekly basis I have been for years.

The novel idea of Jews in all parts of the world studying the same daf, or page front and back, each day, with the goal of completing the entire Talmud, was put forth at the First World Congress of the World Agudath Israel in Vienna on 16 August 1923 by Rabbi Meir Shapiro, then Rav ofSanok, Poland, and future rosh yeshiva, Head of School,  of Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin.(from Wikipedia)

Picture the effort required to go through all 2,711 pages, in fact 5,422 since it is front and back of a page we cover, to the known Babylonian Talmud. There are two versions of the Gemara or Talmud. One version was compiled by scholars of Israel, primarily of the academies of Tiberias and Caesarea, which was published between about 350-400 CE.("yirushalmi") The other version by scholars of Babylonia, primarily of the academies of Sura, Pumbedita, and Mata Mehasia, which was published about 500 CE.("Bavli") By convention, a reference to the "Gemara" or "Talmud," without further qualification, refers to the Babylonian version. (from Wikipedia)

Naturally it is not all exciting or interesting to modern man, especially when discussing topics of ceremonies no longer in usage since the Temples in Jerusalem were destroyed. However, one learns quite a bit about economics, law, finance, human relations, spirits (both medicinal and supernatural), farming, families, governments, management and of course holidays and details for the Jewish religion.

Doing this does not make one a Rabbi, although if one had more time, in parallel, one could obtain ordination by the end. Learning more details about common accepted ideas or topics and finding out where other references come from has been enlightening, to say the least. 

Technology which is generally outlawed on Shabbat and other holidays has provided more people the benefit of learning, not just the Daf Yomi but every day things as well. One can listen to podcasts from teachers, read translations in their own languages, Skype with people across the world and still have everyone learning the same page on the same day. This is nothing new, but for me and others that travel for work, it has made it much easier. Last year I was able to be in Raleigh, London, Las Vegas, New York to name a few places I benefited from the internet and the technology available.

Here's to 6.5 more years!