It is a milestone. A colossal milestone that deserves to be celebrated. On 26 Cheshvan/November 27, thousands of Yidden the world over will be making a siyum on Seder Zeraim in Talmud Yerushalmi in Dirshu’s Kinyan Yerushalmi Daf HaYomi learning program. Regardless of where they live – in Bnei Brak or New York, Antwerp or London, Pinsk, Russia, or Sydney, Australia – they are united in this unique, challenging limud. 

The siyum on Seder Zeraim brings with it extra simcha, because Seder Zeraim is a seder that is not in Talmud Bavli. In Talmud Bavli, the only masechta that we have in Seder Zeraim is Masechta Brachos, while in Yerushalmi, Seder Zeraim includes all the other masechtos that elucidate in detail all the land-based mitzvos. Now, after almost two years of learning beginning in the month of Cheshvan, the seder has been completed. 

Dirshu’s new Kinyan Yerushalmi, launched on 20 Cheshvan two years ago in conjunction with the beginning of the11th cycle of Daf HaYomi Yerushalmi, has taken the community of earnest lomdei Torah by storm. 

Participants take monthly tests and are rewarded for good results. In addition to being tested on the Gemara, the participants are also tested on the peirush of Rav Chaim Kanievsky on the Yerushalmi.

It is no secret that the Sar HaTorah, HaGaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky, zt”l, urged lomdim to learn Talmud Yerushalmi and to become familiar with that chelek of Torah that for various reasons had been somewhat neglected by lomdim in the past. 

Not long ago, when Rav Berel Povarsky was told about the progress in the Kinyan Yerushalmi program, he highlighted how important it is for mature lomdei Torah to learn Yerushalmi. “Very often there are things mentioned in Yerushalmi that are in the Bavli and aside from the obligation to know all of Torah she’baal peh, they also shed light on many seemingly unresolvable difficulties in the Bavli.” 

Rav Berel then reminisced about an incident that transpired some seventy years earlier to illustrate his point. “Many years ago, I was learning Masechta Bechoros in the Brisker Rav’s home in Yerushalayim. I ran into a very difficult Rashi that seemed to contradict a halacha. When I asked the Brisker Rav my question, he countered by asking if I had an answer, if I had created my own chiddush to resolve the difficulty. I told him my approach. The Rav listened and when I finished, he replied, ‘Very good. What you said is a good approach, but,’ he added, ‘in truth, I have a better approach. I found a Yerushalmi that shows that the question is not a question at all!’”

“I learned from this,” Rav Berel explained, “that it is very important to know the Yerushalmi because it can often resolve difficulties that one has in the Bavli. My question was not too difficult for the Brisker Rav because he knew the entire Yerushalmi. A true talmid chochom must also know Yerushalmi.”