In 1980, at the Knessia Gedolah, the Mo’etzes Gedolei HaTorah ‎adopted the initiative of the Gerrer Rebbe, the Lev Simcha zt”l, and instituted a Daf Yomi cycle‎ of Talmud Yerushalmi. Although many people started studying with this new cycle, due to the difficult language and style of the Yerushalmi, it has largely remained a closed book to most people.

Then, 25 years later, the pioneering Rabbi Meir Zlotowitz zt”l, the visionary Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein, the trailblazing Mesorah Heritage Foundation, the brilliant team of scholars and editors that produced the Schottenstein Editions of Talmud Bavli, and many generous dedicators joined to seize the opportunity to unlock Talmud Yerushalmi and make it available to every Jew desiring its vast riches.

So it was that the historic editions of the Schottenstein Talmud Yerushalmi in Hebrew and English came into being after over sixteen years of intense scholarship. And now that this treasure is available for all people, thousands are ready to enthusiastically begin the 11th cycle of Talmud Yerushalmi’s Daf Yomi on November 14th/כ חשון.

ArtScroll will be providing the following resources in support of those learning Daf Yomi Yerushalmi:

• Yerushalmi Daf Yomi calendars, laying out the days of a 5-1/2-year Yerushalmi Daf Yomi cycle based on the Oz V’hadar page layout as used in the Schottenstein Edition.

• A pocket calendar for Seder Zeraim is being distributed for free, sponsored by Joseph H. and Miriam F. Weiss.
• A https://www.artscroll.com/Books/9781422632512.html full-size, beautifully designed, hard-cover calendar for the entire Daf Yomi cycle is available for a nominal fee. Visit artscroll.com/yerushalmi for information.

• Due to increased demand, ArtScroll has released a compact size (7×10) of the Hebrew and English Schottenstein Yerushalmi, similar to the compact size Schottenstein Talmud Bavli, which is so popular among Talmud learners across the globe.

• The compact size Yerushalmi Tractate Berachos Volume 1, in Hebrew or English, is being offered for an introductory price of $19.99 in honor of the start of the new cycle. The new Daf Yomi size volumes will be published in conjunction with this new cycle. Sign up for a standing order to receive every volume in time for the Daf Yomi cycle, with free shipping, here.
• In addition, thru November 23rd, all Hebrew and English Yerushalmi volumes and sets are 30% off. The full 51-volume English set is $1,679 (instead of $2,399) and the full Hebrew set is $1,470 (instead of $2,099). Visit artscroll.com/yerushalmi for more information.

• In honor of the new cycle, the ArtScroll Digital Library/Wasserman Digital Initiative will be offering a free download of Tractate Berachos of the Schottenstein Edition Yerushalmi, in Hebrew and English, dedicated by the Yesh Foundation. Download at artscroll.com/app. The app features a full Yerushalmi Daf Yomi calendar and a useful Yerushalmi Daf Yomi learning planner.

Ki Heim Chayeinu is offering shiurim and resources at dafyerushalmi.com and Dirshu will be offering monthly tests and stipends. The OU’s AllDaf app is likewise offering shiurim, resources and special features for this new cycle. Visit alldaf.org/yerushalmi for more information.

Rabbi Zlotowitz predicted that the Schottenstein Yerushalmi will go down in history as ArtScroll/Mesorah’s greatest achievement. Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l remarked that because Talmud Yerushalmi has historically been a “limud yasom,” an “orphaned area of Torah study,” those who learn Talmud Yerushalmi earn a great zechus.

Visit ArtScroll.com to order your volumes and calendars now >

History of Talmud Yerushalmi 

Talmud Yerushalmi and Talmud Bavli were contemporaries. Both were being created at the same time, the Bavli in Babylonia and the Yerushalmi in northern Eretz Yisrael – but there was a big difference between them. Jews of Bavel were relatively free and rarely persecuted. Their communities flourished, and so did their great Torah academies. When the distinguished sages – the Amoraim of Bavel – determined that the Talmudic period was ending, Ravina and Rav Ashi organized and edited the hundreds of years of scholarship into the Babylonian Talmud, the Talmud that has been studied by Jews everywhere to this day.

Not so the Talmud Yerushalmi. Eretz Yisrael was under the crushing, brutal, despotic rule of the Roman Empire, which is why the sages of the Talmud moved to the relative obscurity of the north. But even there, they were persecuted so mercilessly that the academies were forced to close and the sages dispersed in about 450 C.E. The scholarship of the North could not be properly edited and most of the handwritten manuscripts were destroyed. Remarkably and sadly, Rashi – the premier commentator – never saw the Talmud Yerushalmi!

But Hashem has pledged that the Torah would never be forgotten – and so the Yerushalmi survived and nearly all the manuscripts were discovered. But, thanks to Roman Jew-hatred and cruelty, many of the texts were riddled with errors and the material was often not well organized and difficult to follow. As a result, for nearly sixteen centuries, only accomplished scholars were able to decipher and understand this priceless, seminal companion to the Talmud Bavli. It was like a great repository of gold and jewels locked in a safe without a known combination.

Already, many thousands of people all over the world have begun the serious and satisfying study of Yerushalmi, something that would have been unthinkable for them just a few years ago. As we approach the beginning of the 11th cycle of Yerushalmi Daf Yomi, many thousands more will be joining them. Hatzlachah to all!