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JANUARY 12, 2017 | The Jewish Home
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HaGaon HaRav Berel Povarsky, Shlita to Grace Dirshu Convention Numerous Other Gedolim to Attend and Address Lomdei Dirshu massive tent on the premises. The tent will also serve to accommodate the burgeoning crowds so that they can hear the shiurim of Rav Povarsky, Rav Steinmentz and numerous other gedolim in a dignified manner as befitting a maamad of kavod haTorah.
By Chaim Gold
H
aGaon HaRav Berel Povarsky, shlita, Rosh Yeshiva of the Ponevezh Yeshiva, will be coming especially from Eretz Yisroel to attend the Dirshu Convention where he will deliver a shiur klali after davening on Shabbos morning and then, on motzoei Shabbos, will make the Hadran and give a keynote address at the melave malka siyum on Masechta Bava Metziah. The Convention, to be held this coming Shabbos Parshas Shemos, 22-24 Teves/ January 20-22, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Stamford, Connecticut, is entitled Shabbos Chizuk L’lomedei Torah. In truth, its name truly encapsulates and defines what the Shabbos is all about. The Shabbos is to pay tribute and give chizuk to the myriad lomdei Torah and their wives who, day in, day out, week after week, month after month, throughout the year, Shabbosim, yomim tovim, easy times, hard times … are dedicated to learning Torah and taking regular tests to ensure retention.
Climax will be Keynote Motzoei Shabbos Melave Malka Siyum Numerous gedolei Yisrael will grace the convention and deliver addresses paying tribute to the lomdei Torah comprising the worldwide mishpachas Dirshu. The climax of the Shabbos will be motzoei Shabbos’s keynote session where a siyum on Masechta Bava Metzia will be made. At the siyum, addresses will be given by HaGaon HaRav Berel Povarsky, shlita, Dayan Yonasan Abraham, shlita, a member of the London Beis Din and Rav of the Toras Chaim Shul in Hendon, North West London, HaGaon HaRav Binyomin Eisenberger, shlita, Rav of Kehal Heichal Hatefillah in Boro
HaRav Berel Povarsky addressing the 2012 Dirshu Convention
Park, and Rav Dovid Hofstedter, Nasi Dirshu. Even though the hotel is completely sold out for Shabbos, the Motzoei Shabbos Siyum and keynote session Melave Malka will be open to the general public. Bus transportation will be provided but RSVP is required by calling 1-888-5 Dirshu, ext. 153 or RSVP@dirshunj.org. Throughout the Shabbos, other gedolim will give addresses, among them, HaGaon HaRav Reuven Feinstein, shlita, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva of Staten Island; HaGaon HaRav Aharon Feldman, shlita, Rosh Yeshiva of Ner Yisrael, Baltimore; HaGaon HaRav Yechiel Michel Steinmetz, shlita, Skverer Dayan of Boro Park; HaGaon HaRav Yitzchok Sorotzkin, shlita, Rosh Yeshiva of Mesivta of Lakewood; HaGaon HaRav Dovid Schustal, shlita, Rosh Yeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha, Lakewood; and HaGaon HaRav Dovid Olewski, shlita, Rosh Yeshivas Ger. Hailing a Joint Effort There will also be a comprehensive women’s program catered especially to the wives of the lomdei Dirshu. Indeed, every person present at the convention is a person who has shown deep dedication to limud haTorah. The men show that dedication by learn-
ing, chazering every day, day in and day out, and taking monthly tests over a protracted amount of time. Similarly, every Dirshu wife has displayed mesiras nefesh for her husband’s learning and spiritual ascent by enabling him to devote tremendous amounts of time to learning the daily material and then repeatedly reviewing so that he will know the material sufficiently to earn an exemplary mark on the test. This often does not come easily. It frequently means sacrificing the help of a husband in the most hectic of times, such as the morning rush to school or the evening bedtime crunch. That is why Dirshu siyumim and Shabbos conventions always have an important place for Dirshu wives, true partners in the Torah success of their husbands. “Earning Olam Habaah with Phenomenal Olam Hazeh!” One of the highlights of previous conventions has been the unique shailos and teshuvos session held on Friday night after the seudah with the Skverer Dayan, Rav Yechiel Michel Steinmetz, shlita. Questions that span literally the entire gamut of halacha are moderated and posed by Rav Eliezer Ralbag, shlita, to the dayan who, with his encyclopedic knowledge
and good cheer, answers them all comprehensively and often with a good dose of added humor as well. At the previous Dirshu Shabbos Chizuk L’lomdei Torah, it was Rav Steinmetz who encapsulated what he saw as the uniqueness of the Dirshu convention saying, “A unique koach of Dirshu is that it not only gives a person Olam Habaah, it also gives a person phenomenal Olam Hazeh! Where else can you have a convention where after a moving oneg Shabbos, followed by going to sleep at 1:00 a.m., the next morning at 5:00 a.m., one hears a resounding kol Torah in the beis medrash? Where do you have a convention where after the seudah on Shabbos afternoon, the ‘taanug’ of sleeping on Shabbos is replaced by the even greater pleasure of learning and chazering another blatt Gemara and another seif in Shulchan Aruch?!” Rav Steinmetz will be introduced by another distinguished international guest, HaGaon Dayan Binyomin Eckstein, shlita, Dayan in the London kehillah and the yoshev rosh of Dirshu in Europe. Inasmuch as the Convention is a sold out event, in order to ensure the proper kavod for davening and learning, Dirshu plans to erect a
“The Shabbos When Totty and Mommy Went to Learn How to Learn More Torah!” After the last Dirshu convention, Dirshu received numerous letters from lomdei Torah and their wives, expressing their feelings about how limud haTorah with a plan has transformed their lives. One woman wrote, “I would like to share what Dirshu and the Shabbos mean to us. There is no way we can ever express the depth of our gratitude. While my husband, a kollel yungerman, always admired his father who is a great masmid, he didn’t think he was capable of doing the same. At the first Dirshu Shabbos when my husband saw yungeleit just like him becoming Shas Yidden and being tested on the entire Shas, he came home determined to do the same! Since that Shabbos every moment in our life has become a treasure, life is a rush of excitement! “Another amud, another Daf… Baruch Hashem, my husband makes a siyum so often that my two-year-old confuses the word siyum and Shabbos seudah. A seudah with a siyum is such a thrill as the children march into the dining room with a special dish while singing a niggun in honor of the siyum…. Although I never imagined I would leave my children behind for a Shabbos, this Shabbos is different. My children treasure the memory of ‘The Shabbos that Totty and Mommy went to learn how to learn more Torah!’”