After many years of diligent studying, Ephraim Lerner, a talmid at Morristown’s Yeshivas Tomchei Temimim in New Jersey, completed the study of the entire shas at a grand siyum celebration on Monday, Adar 25, with 300 friends, classmates, shluchim, yeshivah staff and family in attendance.

Speakers at the siyum included Rabbi Chaim Schapiro, the menahel of the yeshivah, and Rabbi Moshe Herson, head shliach of New Jersey. They both spoke of a letter from the Lubavitcher Rebbe ZATZAL where he wrote about celebrating such an accomplishment with joy.

The highlight of the evening was when Ephraim’s grandfather, Reb Chaim Lerner, who flew in from Las Vegas to attend the event, presented Rabbi Herson with a dollar he had received from the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Ephraim’s grandfather related that when Ephraim’s father was studying in the same yeshiva in Morristown, the Rebbe gave him a dollar for the continued success of his learning.

The siyum concluded with spontaneous dancing after Ephraim repeated a hadran of the Rebbe and a meaningful farbrengen with Ephraim’s uncle, Rabbi Eli Cohen, a shliach in Toronto, which lasted late into the night.

The significance of the date, marking the 118th birthday of Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka and a few weeks before the Rebbe’s birthday, lent an added spirit to the occasion.