HaRav Meir Shapira zt"l
The celebrations of the Siyum HaShas have become an auxiliary tradition to that idea conceived by HaRav Meir Shapira at the Knessia Gedola of 5683 (1923). Those siyumim which have become a "Simchas Torah for the Oral Torah" are an outstanding expression commemorating the status which Jewry boasts regarding "[the One Who] gave us the Torah of truth and instill in us eternal life." There is no other nation which is united by an acquisition of wisdom.
HaRav Meir Shapira compared the concept to "a ship's plank" which comes the way of one whose ship was wrecked at sea. He grasps onto that board as he fights the waves, as Dovid Hamelech testifies, "All of Your breakers and waves passed over me."
That year of 5683 followed soon after WWI, when the world rested upon the wreaths of its victory over Germany. No one then envisioned the putsch of the chief executioner, Hitler ym"sh, and the harsh years following it or the climatic brutal animalistic outbursts of the years of wrath of the Second World War.
The Jewish world celebrated the third Siyum HaShas towards the end of WWII. This round seemed to have had a break in the continuum because of the terrible war where the Jewish people were pushed around like a ship at sea.
But wonder of wonders! It rose up from the dust and ashes with its Talmud in hand... in the bunkers and pits, Jews discovered their ability to preserve the study of the Daf Hayomi. The newspaper "Haboker" of 5702, in the very midst of the war, reports that Jewish soldiers from a Jewish brigade asked Rabbi Herzog to send them gemaras so that they could study the Daf Hayomi.
This is the "ship's plank" accompanying the Jewish people throughout all the generations. The days of wrath have passed and the Western world has remained with its sword, dripping with the blood of the murdered ones. But the eternal Jew has risen up with his Talmud-study, unvanquished. The atomic researcher, Alvin Radkowsky, who, even while ensconced in the hidden laboratories of America, always kept his gemara at hand so that at any reprieve in time, he would be able to complete his daily Daf Hayomi. He once even noted that HaRav Meir Shapiro's revolutionary idea was no less brilliant than the discovery of the atom.
The President of Agudath Israel of America, Rabbi Moshe Sher, was amazed at how, at the very time that Germany was developing arms that would destroy millions, including the Jewish people, a Jew would devote himself to his work to counter the German efforts, a Jew who drew his strength and might from the page of gemara. "The Jew defeated his enemies through the everlasting page of the Talmud," Rabbi Sher marveled.
It was the first prime minister who once said in a moment of honest appraisal that the Jewish people brought the page of gemara along with them throughout the generations, together with the Mishna and halochos. And what shall we bequeath to our children? Tomatoes from Ein Harod?
It is heartwarming that today, even after decades of coercion and hatred against religion, the Jewish people rejoices with its Torah. "Who chose us from all the nations and gave us a Torah of truth, and Who implanted in us eternal life."
It is a day of rejoicing for you, the Jewish people throughout the entire world.
