The following is from the “Jersey Journal“:
More than 90,000 Orthodox Jews are expected to celebrate their completion of the Talmud after 7 years of “page-a-day” studying with a huge gathering tonight at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford.
The gathering is expected to be so big that the state Department of Transportation is advising commuters to avoid Routes 3, 120 and 17 near the Meadowlands from this afternoon into the early morning hours of tomorrow.
“This is a major event and I think that seeing the celebration will convince others to join in our studies,” according to Rabbi Gedaliah Weinberger of New York, chairman of the Daf Yomi Commission, which is hosting the celebration.
“The completion of this program is not simply about being united. I believe that the Talmud is the ideal vehicle to understand Judaism.”
Today marks the end of the 12th Siyum HaShas, a cycle that is required to complete the Talmud through the Daf Yomi program. Orthodox men must read one page of the Talmud each day to complete the 2,711-page document in 7 years.
“The program was started in 1923 by Rabbi Meir Shapiro of Poland,” Weinberger told The Jersey Journal yesterday. “The program had very few people still participating after the Holocaust, but tomorrow will be a historic day for Jewish people.”
The MetLife celebration will be broadcast live in 80 cities and 14 countries.
The DOT advises that traffic is expected to build during the afternoon and remain heavy through the rush hour as attendees travel to the stadium for the 7 p.m. event.
The DOT is also opening up lanes through at least 2 a.m. tomorrow along Routes 3, 120 and 17 that would normally be closed for construction.
(Source: The Jersey Journal)
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4 Responses
Paranoia is setting in. They will have only a few thousand more attendees than a typical Football game. Other than the crowd being mostly mi’sheluni, I don’t see the big deal. People who live in north jersey deal with this almost 20 times a year!
Would anyone have a telephone number for a live hookup to the Siyum HaShas at the Met Stadium calling in from NEW YORK?????????
I have relatives that left Brooklyn at 4:30 and still have not arrived to the Siyum. They are still sitting in Traffic at the time of this posting. So yes it is a big deal.
It was 10,000 more people than a football game, but unlike a football most of the crowd came at once which bottlenecked the traffic. Even the cops told us that for games the crowd comes in waves, some even come 5 hours early to tailgate.
BH everything worked out though!