Rav Berel Povarsky Extols Dirshu Kinyan Yerushalmi Program as Lomdim Complete Mesechta Demai 

A great milestone transpired this past Shabbos Parshas Mattos-Maasei. The Daf Yomi Yerushalmi just concluded Masechta Demai, a great spiritual feat for anyone. However, for lomdei Dirshu it is especially significant, as more than 2,000 elite lomdei Torah have taken tests on the entire Masechta Demai.

Even more, every one of those 2,000 lomdei Torah in Dirshu’s Kinyan Yerushalmi program, are continuing, embarking on the complex and obscure Masechta Kilayim, one of the more difficult masechtos.

Dirshu’s new Kinyan Yerushalmi program on Daf HaYomi Yerushalmi launched this past 20 Cheshvan/November 14, in conjunction with the beginning of the 11th cycle of Daf HaYomi Yerushalmi, has taken the community of earnest lomdei Torah by storm.

The new program has proven a great attraction for serious talmidei chachomim, many of whom have been learning and been tested for years in Dirshu’s Kinyan Torah, Daf HaYomi Bavli programs.

Last month, Rav Dovid Hofstedter, Nasi of Dirshu, together with senior members of Dirshu’s hanhala visited the venerated senior Rosh Yeshiva of Ponovezh, HaGaon HaRav Berel Povarsky, shlita, at his home in Bnei Brak to receive his bracha as the Dirshu’s Yerushalmi program embarks on Masechta Kilayim.

Rav Berel related that it is very important for mature lomdei Torah to learn Yerushalmi. Very often there are things mentioned in Yerushalmi that are also mentioned 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, “Many years ago, I was sitting in the Brisker Rav’s home in Yerushalayim, learning Masechta Bechoros. 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.”