Reply To: Why daf yomi

See, it was all funny back in April 2013 that I was doing the daf during shachris. But now it’s August 2020 and I’m finishing my first cycle as a Daf Yomi Jew, this Monday, i”yh.

I started doing it during shachris daily, for a while I was doing it mostly catch-up on shabbos (so I guess more like 7 blatt a week than a daf a day), for a couple of years I was doing it during my daily commute, and during covid I’ve been doing it on a call at midnight with a couple of friends.

Full disclosure: It’s not a siyum on shas bec I missed some here and there. I didn’t even bother writing down when I skipped, because it was never going to matter (when I said hadran on eruvin, back in June 2013, I can assure you that I did not expect it to be b’alma hadein). But if you miss some, it doesn’t mean you’re off the program, as long as you pick it back up.

A week and half after we finished menachos, a fellow in my shul made a siyum and it was his first siyum on a mesechta. You think I’m nuts? This guy started the daf with menachos. He said at the kiddush that he had started when he saw me make a siyum on zevachim, and a few weeks in, his wife sees him learning and says whadaya doing. He says I’m doing the daf. She says is that today’s page? No, i’m 11 days behind. She says that’s not daf yomi, daf yomi is a daf a day. And this fellow says that’s why I’m making a siyum today because I’m still exactly 11 days behind.

That’s the trick-if you miss a day, the trick is that the next day you don’t try to do two blatt. You just stay a day behind until one day you have extra time and it’s easy to catch up. I’ve spent months behind by just a couple of blatt.

I came out of CRetirement to post this. I hope someone here will be inspired to pick up an eruvin on Tuesday, and join the PBA-machzor. You don’t need to finish shas, it’s just one page at a time, and deciding to learn eruvin isn’t a promise to do it forever. And i”yh we’ll bump this thread again on January 12, 2028 when we’re making a siyum on shas.