This Sunday night, Dirshu’s World Siyum took place at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. The evening celebrated Dirshu participants’ completion of the learning of the seven and half-year cycle of Talmud. A monumental achievement, this is one that requires structure, discipline, and the sort of motivation that Dirshu’s programming affords its participants. Although I myself did not attend the ceremony in person, I was still enthralled by what I saw on the event’s livestream.
I don’t believe that the Prudential Center has ever hosted an environment as electrifying as the one that the largest Torah organization in the world managed to create. The arena that normally hosts the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League was filled with fathers embracing their children, jointly celebrating this amazing accomplishment of having completed such a substantial amount of learning. I was struck by the sort of joy exhibited on the faces of the fathers holding their sons. The joy in the room was palatable. It was a raw form of happiness — with each man grabbing the arm of his fellow man, dancing and celebrating in unison.
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