If you wanted an inkling of what it means to have 1,500 walking, talking Shas and Shulchan Aruch yidden in one room, all you had to do was come to the Binyanei Haumah Hall the Monday after Yom Tov where you were able to watch the members of Dirshu’s Kinyan Shas Gemara program and Kinyan Halacha program taking the grand cumulative tests on Shas and Shulchan Aruch!

In the words of HaGaon HaRav Bunim Schreiber, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Nesiv Daas, who came to test the test takers and talk with some in learning, “I came to Pumbedisa!!”

Rav Schreiber was only one of numerous Gedolei Yisrael who came to participate, tested and talked in learning with the avreichim and they were all simply astonished. There is no other word to describe their amazement and simcha. The Gedolim who came included, HaGaon HaRav Dovid Cohen, shlita, Rosh Yeshivas Chevron, HaGaon HaRav Avraham Salim, shlita, Rosh Yeshivas Me’or HaTorah, HaGaon HaRav Chaim Feinstein, shlita, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Ateres Shlomo, the Biala Rebbe, shlita, HaGaon HaRav Chaim Mordechai Ausband, shlita, Rosh Yeshivas at Yeshiva Ateres Shlomo, HaGaon HaRav Binyomin Finkel, shlita, Mashgiach of Mir and others. Rav Dovid Hofstedter, shlita, Nasi of Dirshu, also addressed the crowd, tested and spoke in learning with the test takers.

1,500 Avreichim and the Sound of Silence… Broken Only by the Sound of Pens Writing!

In order to understand the sheer magnitude of what these elite test takers have accomplished, it is important to explain what the Kinyan Shas and Kinyan Halacha programs are and how the programs’ constant testing works.

The present Kinyan Shas program began in conjunction with the present machzor of the Daf HaYomi. In addition to taking tests on the thirty blatt learned every month in the Daf HaYomi, these elite yungeleit engage in constant chazara and take tests every six months after Sukkos and Pesach on all the material they learned in the machzor since Masechta Brachos. Thus, in the current test they were cumulatively tested on all of Shas from Masechta Brachos until Seder Kodoshim – that means Zeraim, Moed, Nashim and Nezikin!

In the Kinyan Halacha Shulchan Aruch B’Iyun program the avreichim are tested monthly but also take cumulative tests every six months on everything they have learned in the six-year cycle of Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim and Yoreh Deah.

That is how 1,500 test takers from the area of Yerushalayim gathered in Binyanei Haumah for a grueling, four-hour test on everything they have learned over the past six years.

The massive Teddy Hall was filled to capacity with every yungerman sitting at his own small table and chair. All you could see were men hunched over test papers with furrowed brows. Table after table, chair after chair, each one holding a living sefer Torah.

The only thing that broke the stillness was the entrance of the Gedolim accompanied by Rav Dovid Hofsteder. To see the look on the faces of the Gedolim as they saw so many avreichim whose heads were filled with a comprehensive knowledge of the lion’s share of Shas and Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim and Yoreh Deah was to see the sight of amazement and pure simchas haTorah.

Rav Dovid Cohen: “This Kinyan In Torah Is The Ultimate Simcha”

The Gedolim didn’t want to make an extended interruption during the long test but three of them, Rav Dovid Cohen, Rav Chaim Feinstein and Rav Dovid Hofstedter each delivered short words of bracha.

“Rav Cohen exclaimed, “There is no greater way to remain attached to Hashem than by leaning Torah, completing masechtos, and not just completing masechtos but doing it with a goal of knowing Shas, really knowing Shas to the extent that you can take a test on the entire Shas or the entire Shulchan Aruch at once!”

Rav Dovid Cohen then added that experience has shown that there is no better way to accomplish this exalted goal than through taking tests. Anyone who has taken these tests can attest to the fact that taking tests acts as a way of spurring us to lock in our knowledge. “This kinyan in Torah is the ultimate simcha that accompanies all of you throughout the year!”

With great passion, Rav Chaim Feinstein delivered a timely message, and gave his heartfelt bracha that the kabbolas ol Torah, the fact that the Torah learners have accepted upon themselves the yoke of Torah will absolve them of the yoke of malchus and Hashem will only decree gezeiros tovos on us.

Rav Dovid Hofstedter: Destruction, Rebirth and Rebuilding!

A deeply poignant address that resonated with the crowd was the one delivered by the Nasi of Dirshu, Rav Dovid Hofstedter, who placed the present moment into a historical context. Rav Hofstedter said, “We just heard from Rav Dovid Cohen, shlita, that our generation has merited something that previous generations didn’t: A large contingent of thousands of talmidei chachomim who know Shas and Shulchan Aruch to the extent that they can be tested on all of it at once. Amazing!

“I would like us to stop for a second and think about the moment in history in which we find ourselves. We are just eighty years after the churban of Europe, the Holocaust. The holocaust decimated Yiddishkeit. There was churban, Klal Yisrael after the holocaust was a spiritual wasteland. We don’t think about this enough! It is almost like a dream. Just think – in such a short historical period of time after the yeshivos and Chassidic centers were destroyed, we were able to see this amazing rebirth where we have thousands being tested on the entire Shas and Shulchan Aruch with hundreds of thousands of bnei yeshiva learning Torah, we have full battei medrash with avreichim and baalei battim throughout the world! After the war there were a handful of bnei Torah and talmidei chachomim, literally in the hundreds, spread out across the world… and now?!

Rav Hofstedter cautioned, “There are still great dangers and challenges to the Torah world. Now is the time to increase our effort to produce talmidei chachomim with mesiras nefesh! Be’ezras Hashem, this will invoke Hashem’s mercy so that we will be protected from those who seek to harm us!”

Gedolei Yisrael Astonished as they Test Avreichim

Another remarkable highlight of the event was the public test and speaking in learning with the Gedolim, Rav Bunim Schreiber, Rav Chaim Feinstein, Rav Chaim Mordechai Ausband, and Rav Dovid Hofstedter. A group of more than one-hundred-and-fifty test takers went into a sperate room where the Gedolim engaged with them in something that can only be described as a lightning speed journey through Shas and Shulchan Aruch that was almost done in code word fashion.

Before Rav Chaim Feinstein began asking questions, he said, “Who am I to stand in front of you and ask you questions?! You are all Gedolei Torah! What I saw inside was awesome! I saw the Shas alive! The Shulchan Aruch alive!”

It was an awesome sight! Rav Chaim, the great gaon was sparring in learning and being flabbergasted not only by the bekius but by the depth of understanding that these avreichim possessed.

Watching the subsequent back and forth with Rav Chaim Mordechai Ausband was also a sight to see.

Dirshu’s Rabbi Avigdor Bernstein explained that unless you were a baki in Shas and Shulchan Aruch it was nearly impossible to follow the “conversation”. It was a demonstration of the grand power of yedias Torah at its best!

“Ashreinu that in our generation we have witnessed such a thing! Ashrei Dirshu that they have been the emissaries of Heaven to help create such a Torah revolution.”