With great excitement and simcha shel mitzvah, a new sefer torah was written and brought in to the beis medrash of Ateres Shlomo at Kiryat Hayeshiva in Rishon Letziyon in memory of  beloved talmid Shlomo Gershoni zt’l in honor of his first yartzait. In addition to the hachnosas sefer torah, the talmidim of the yeshiva made a siyum hashas which they had learned over the past year le’ilui nishmaso.

The event began with the siyum kesivas osios at the home of Rabbi Bucharis in the neighborhood of Nachalat Yehuda in Rishon Letziyon, adjacent to Kiryat Hayeshiva. There the rabbis of the Yeshiva and members of the Gershoni family were honored with writing the last letters of the sefer torah. A few days before the event, letters of the sefer torah were written in the Yeshiva by many hundreds of talmidim.

At the conclusion of the writing, excited singing and dancing began which lasted for a long time lechoved hatorah, while at the same time, over a thousand talmidim of the yeshiva began marching from the yeshiva towards the sefer torah. Many buses also arrived from different parts of the country, including hundreds of yeshiva graduates and friends of the yeshiva who came to rejoice in honor of the Torah.

Early in the day the police blocked off nearby roads and streets in preparation for the procession which was accompanied with singing and dancing throughout the city heading towards the Yeshiva’s beis medrash. The mighty singing could be heard far and wide, with many of the residents of the city and nearby neighborhoods joining the circles of joy in honor of the Torah.

The Sefer Torah was placed into the Aron kodesh in the yeshiva accompanied by the recital of pesukim of tehilim, followed by a festive seudas Mitzvah leachvodo shel Torah in the dining room  led by the Roshei and Rabonei hayeshiva with the participation of over a thousand talmidim and hundreds of graduates and family members.

The event began with the siyum hashas le’ilui nishmas the choshuv talmid Shlomo zt’l which was followed by a siyum mishnayos shas by the talmidim. After that the talmidim made an additional siyum on maseches Kidushin that was learned at the special “Sidrei HaAtikte” in which the bochrim do chazoro on the masechtos they learned the year before. After that the kaddish was said and then the dancing lechvodo shel Torah began and lasted for a long time.

The Rosh Yeshiva Hagaon Reb Sholom Ber Sorotzkin shlit”a spoke emotionally in memory of the diligence and excellence of Shlomo zatzal. “All his days of life, in a special way, he strove to increase his avodas Hashem without giving up”. The Rosh Yeshiva added that we must learn and take upon ourselves kabbalos le’ilui nishmaso and to increase more and more learning beiyun yedias hatorah and working on avodas Hashem as Chazal said about Bezalel, “שלפי שמסר נפשו על בניית ארון הברית יותר משאר חכמי ישראל זכה ונקראת על שמו”.

The grandfather of Shlomo zt’l, Rav Tzvi Veber shlit’a spoke about the shkius hatorah of is grandson and thanked the yeshiva for taking good care beruchniyus and gashmiyus of his grandson zt’l and of all of the talmidim of the yeshiva.

Rav Moshe Nachshoni shlit’a, one of the Rabbonim of Rishon Letziyon thanked the Rosh Yeshiva Reb Sholom Ber for bringing to the city the yeshiva with over a thousand live sifrei torah. The Rav said that since the yeshiva came, there are a thousand baalei teshuvah because of the kedusha that the yeshiva spreads to all of the city.

The event culminated with simchas hatorah and kabolos and chizuk le’ilui nishmas Shlomo Gershoni, zt’l. The event began at the end of seider beis in the yeshiva and ended with the beginning of seder gimel as the talmidim went straight to the beis medrash to learn.