In January of 2020, the first international Siyum HaShas for women was held in Jerusalem organized by Hadran. Ma’ayan was proud to partner with Hadran to celebrate this historic day in Boston. In the weeks leading up to the event, the women of Greater Boston learned Masechet Rosh Hashana as part of an international effort to learn the entire Talmud ahead of the event, itself a celebration of two simultaneous siyums. The first honored the women who had studied Daf Yomi every single day for the past 7.5 years; the second invited women around the world to each “adopt a daf” and join in the completion together. Ma’ayan, on behalf of the ambitious women of Boston, took this a step further and adopted our own masechet. Between our Ma’ayan class, individual learners, a group of seven students from Maimonides School along with their teacher Dr. Yael Jaffe, and local shuls, we completed the entire masechet and celebrated our own siyum at the event. On the day of the siyum, we welcomed Rebbetzin Gilla Rosen to Boston and learned on the topic of “Thinking about Time: Conceptions of Time in Masechet Rosh Hashana” and joined the international siyum via livestream.
To watch the recordings of the shiurim from our local program scroll to the bottom.
But while Rabbanit Rosen’s words referred to a particular text, they captured, somehow, the spirit of today’s celebration. By dedicating time for learning daf yomi every day, the women who stood on that stage in Jerusalem shaped their time into something beautiful and awe-inspiring. They fused deeper meaning into their daily routines, and turned a large segment of their time on earth – an entire seven and a half years period! – into one extended exercise in constancy and illumination.
Rachel Sharansky Danziger