1.
I remember the first time. The first fallen soldier in this war, whose family told me how much the Daf Yomi occupied a place in his world. How much he fought for the Daf. Since then, I have unfortunately received so many more stories about so many fallen soldiers who learned the Daf, but the first was Maj. Gen. (res.) Yossi Hershkowitz, the late.
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The revered principal of the Ort Pelech Boys' School in Jerusalem, a father of five, went into the reserves at the age of 44, and was one of the first to fall in the battles in Gaza.
After waiting in line for long minutes at the funeral home in the Katamon neighborhood that stretched all the way to the street, I went inside. I planned to say, "May this place comfort you" and make way for those who came after me, who had come from Israel and the world, but then Yaakov and Ruhama, Yossi's impressive parents, started telling me about the Daf Yomi in Yossi's world.
2.
It all started about five years ago, in the summer of 2019, when Yossi's brother-in-law, Eitan Ashkenazi, also an educator who teaches at Himelfarb School, graduated from high school for the first time in his life.
""A few months before that," Eitan told me, "we attended the graduation of Anglo-Saxon friends from Merhavia. It was a very, very elaborate event. Truly grand and magnificent. Then came the graduation of my Shas. By the way, it wasn't the graduation of Shas on the date of all the students, because I joined the round not at the beginning, in Tractate Berchot, but in Tractate Archin. When we got to this tractate again, we thought at home about how to celebrate the graduation of my Shas.
On the one hand, you say, what, I'll make noise and ring bells because I finished? Not pleasant. On the other hand, we saw at the time with our friends what effect such an event has. After all, when there's the Jerusalem Marathon, everyone runs and buys special shirts, and has an entire festival, so I'll finish the Shas and put some burekas on the table? It was important to us to put Torah study at the center. So we had an elaborate event in the hall. With invitations, and with catering and with musicians, and even souvenir magnets that said 'Man, ascend to the top, ascend.' And we invited a lot of people, both friends and family and my students from Himelfarb.
And truly, at the end of this Shas, the seeds of several people who have since entered the daily Daf Yomi rotation were sown. Yossi also joined then thanks to that ending to the story. I remember that he subscribed to the Chabad booklet 'Davar Malchut', because it was convenient for him to learn the annotated Gemara of 'Oz Vehadar' from a booklet that he could take anywhere. He kept the Daf, in unusual times, despite all the things he was busy with as a school principal.".
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And his wife Efrat, Yossi's sister, added: "In addition to Yossi, my father and our son, Tzur, also joined the study cycle thanks to that graduation. And Yossi was very excited about it. From the connection of three generations to one study. He told our father that he dreamed of graduating from Shas for three generations: grandfather, son and grandson. And it wasn't easy to stick to it. He didn't have time to study, but all day long he walked around with 'Davar Malchut' everywhere, and made the effort. Even during the war. When he was picked up on Simchat Torah, he took that week's 'Davar Malchut' with him.
""A few weeks later, when Uri, his brother-in-law, who fought with him in Gaza, went out to circumcise his son, he asked Yossi what he could bring from home, what he needed. Yossi asked him to bring him socks and tsitzits for all the guys and the next two booklets of 'Davar Malchut', which arrived in the mail after he had already gone to war, so that he would have enough for the next few weeks.".
I wondered if it was appropriate to tell her now with a smile that her brother-in-law was actually rewriting - or: upgrading - one of the most well-known war songs. His sacred version is: "Send me 'Davar Malchut' and tsitsits, fighting like lions...".
I didn't say. And Efrat continued: "That was the last shipment we sent him. It reached him in Gaza on Thursday, and the next day, Friday, the 26th of Cheshvan, he was killed. On the seventh day, when we received all his equipment from the army, the booklets that Yossi would no longer have time to study in also returned. But if someone is willing to continue the study from where Yossi left off, for the upliftment of the soul of Yosef Chaim ben Yaakov and for the success of the people of Israel, that would be a very big thing for us, because that was really his dream.".
3.
Since that shiva at the Hershkowitz family home, I have heard many more stories. The most recent was last Shabbat night at the Ramada Hotel in Jerusalem. My wife and I had the privilege of participating in a 'Shabbat of Power' organized by the 'Menucha Yishua' organization of Mandy Koenig, a Biala Hasid from Modi'in Illit, who currently dedicates his life to organizing Shabbats of Strength for the families of IDF martyrs.
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Our job was to bring Shabbat joy to families. I don't need to tell you how difficult it is to enter, and on Shabbat night, into an entire hall filled with families who have just been bereaved in recent weeks. You can imagine for yourself. But what you can't imagine is how difficult it is to leave a hall like that and return to your routine.
I'm not claiming that the atmosphere there was happy and light. Absolutely not. But how much meaning and how much strength you get from meeting these people. These people in particular.
When the Shabbat fun ended, Dori and Shira Dishon from Jerusalem, the parents of Sergeant Eitan Dishon, a fighter in Sayeret Givati, who fell in battle in the northern Gaza Strip, approached me. "You write a lot in the column for Daf Yomi, so you might be interested in hearing about our son's connection to Daf Yomi." Thus began the conversation, which went on and on.
Special people. He works in the military industry, a lieutenant colonel in the reserves, who is still serving these days, she is a doctor of biology who works as a researcher in the police forensics laboratory. People of faith and humor, which is a combination that always strengthens me. Eitan, who studied at the Neve Shmuel Yeshiva in Efrat (in the same class with Yehonatan Samo and Eitan Dov Rosenzweig, who fell in the war), continued at the Hesder Yeshiva in Kiryat Shmona. Last summer he received an offer to take a company commander course, but decided to pass when he discovered that it fell during the Elul period at the yeshiva.
His mother told me how, on one of his leave days from the army, he came in uniform to visit her at work at the national headquarters, and she was of course very proud and introduced him to everyone: "This is my son, and he serves in the Givati Patrol." And he said to her with a smile: "Mom, in a few months I'll finish the army and return to the Seder. Will you still look at me like that when I come to visit, a yeshiva boy from Kiryat Shmona? You know, this is my son and he's studying Torah?".
4.
During the conversation, they told me that they had talked about his special connection to Daf Yomi at the funeral. So on Saturday night I went to YouTube to watch the obituaries on Mount Herzl. Again, it's hard to start watching, but it's hard to stop. How powerful. What magnanimity. What lofty talk. And all with such modesty, without any pathos.
""Eitan, thank you for the certainty," said the mother, Shira. "Thank you for the strength you give us to continue in these difficult days. I will carry this gentle 'firmness' in my heart, and so, with God's help, I hope to be able to add some strength and light to our family and also to our dear people.".
She concluded the eulogy with a verse from chapter 59 of Psalms: "This is a verse in which my name and my father's name appear. And the one who says this psalm is Eitan the Citizen. We called you this because we wanted this truth to be at our feet. And it goes like this: 'Instructed by Eitan the Citizen: The mercy of the Lord, the world is rich. From generation to generation your faith is in my mouth.' Love always, mother.".
Then, in the father's obituary, I heard the story on the Daf Yomi. "Eitan, my eldest son, you lie here before me. You were holy in your life and so in your death. Love your family, love your brothers, love people - and above all, love the Torah. How much you loved studying Torah. How much you loved the yeshiva. Every free moment goes to the yeshiva. You left last week for a 48-hour refresher course, the time is divided half for the family and half for the yeshiva. For studying, for gathering strength.
""Thank you, my son, for managing to get me to study Daf Yomi over the past year. Every evening - a phone call from Eitan. He doesn't waste a second. Let's study. Wait, I answer, how are you? How's it going? How's the yeshiva? And you answer: Thank God, everything is fine. Come on, let's get started. We're studying Tractate Kiddushin. We're dealing with the most basic and powerful issue in the Jewish people: starting a family. We didn't finish the Tractate... I feel sorry for you, my beloved son. Rest in peace. I thank you, living and existing king, for giving me such a son.".
5.
Like the Hershkowitz family, the Dishon family also received their son's orphaned gemara from the IDF a few days after the funeral: a blue Schottenstein booklet in the special edition for soldiers, found in a leopard, stained with his blood.
This coming Thursday, hundreds of thousands of Jews around the world will successfully and successfully complete Tractate Baba Kama. We have studied the daily Daf Yomi for 118 days. We feel every day that the study is part of a shared 'iron fist'. We connect it to the news pulse. We dedicate the page to the treatment of a wounded person, or to the resurrection of the soul of a fallen person. It was not easy for everyone. I know many who were unable to persevere in these turbulent days, who accumulated "debts". And this is completely understandable. But it seems to me that everyone wants to continue, everyone is waiting to return to the comforting routine of study.
And, painfully, there are warriors who will no longer finish, here in this world, the Tractate of Baba Kama. May God avenge their blood.
But on Friday, Tractate Baba Metzia will begin in the Daf Yomi cycle. New students will join the circle, fill the void, continue the study of Torah. We will not be disappointed, Daf Yomi. Not in the law, not in the law.
