Tens of thousands of Jews worldwide study in the Daf Yomi program,[1] and over 300,000[2] participate in the Siyum HaShas, an event celebrating the culmination of the cycle of learning.
When he arrives in America, he enters a beis medrash in New York and finds Jews learning the very same daf that he studied on that day, and he gladly joins them.
However, the idea was greeted enthusiastically by the nearly 600 delegates at the Congress, including many Torah leaders from Europe and America, who accepted it as a universal obligation for all Jews.
To show support for the idea, the Gerrer rebbe, Avraham Mordechai Alter, learned the first daf of Berachot in public on that day.
Each day, each person who studied Daf Yomi was asked to set aside a grosh (a Polish penny), and at the end of the tractate, to donate the sum to the yeshiva.
[2] The 12th Siyum HaShas in America was held on August 1, 2012, at the MetLife Stadium at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in New Jersey, which has capacity for over 90,000 attendees.
[32] They also take place in the United States Senate, Wall Street board rooms,[33] and on the Long Island Rail Road, in the last car of two commuter trains departing Far Rockaway at 7:51 am and 8:15 am, respectively, for Manhattan.
[39] The Schottenstein Edition of the Babylonian Talmud, an English-language translation and interpretation published in 73 volumes between 1990 and 2004 by ArtScroll,[40] has been credited with significantly increasing the number of English speakers participating in the Daf Yomi program.
[45] The Dafyomi Advancement Forum, founded by Kollel Iyun Hadaf in 1996, is a free resource center offering English-language translations, outlines, charts, analyses and lectures on every daf, as well as answers to any question by email.
[17][46] Meoros HaDaf HaYomi, founded in 1999, disseminates a weekly Daf Yomi study sheet in both Hebrew and English via email and regular mail.
This organization also trains Daf Yomi teachers in its battei medrash (study halls) in Bnei Brak and Jerusalem.
[48] Additional resources to assist those endeavoring to complete the cycle for the first time are a range of audiotapes, online websites, and iPods preloaded with lectures covering every page of the Talmud.
For example, Michelle Cohen, an Orthodox scholar, teaches Daf Yomi to women in her home and through a podcast in English and Hebrew.
[52] In 1980 Simcha Bunim Alter introduced Yerushalmi Yomi, a daily schedule for completing the entire Jerusalem Talmud.
[53] Dirshu introduced Mishnah Berurah Yomi, a daily learning plan which completes the entire work by Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan in seven years.