26 Siyumim Celebrated in Yeshivas Tomchei Temimim Vienna

Vienna came out in all its glory to salute the impressive achievements of students of the Tomchei Temimim Yeshiva in Vienna who finished no less than 26 mesechtos of Gemara!

The young men learn Maseches Bava Basra and Avoda Zara in their regular learning sessions. This grand siyum accomplishment was made with the time they found in between the sedarim – “borrowing” minutes from their recess. Line by line, page by page, they reached to this monumental goal.

There’s more: This learning is in addition to the schoolwide mivtzah Torah… It was purely voluntary. Each bachur in turn chose to add an hour of Torah learning lishmah – for the love of Torah. The inspiration surely came from the farbrengens where there was a discussion of the Rebbe’s deep desire for young men to be passionately engrossed in Torah learning.

The backdrop to all of this learning was the war raging in the Holy Land. The bochurim are saying Tehillim every day. While learning these masechtos they had in mind the pure souls who were killed al kiddush hashem and those still in need of a refuah shleimah.

Bochur by bochur, line by line, daf by daf – grew and multiplied into this breathtaking milestone. The entire Jewish community of Vienna, Austria, joined for a festive seudas mitzvah: Chassidim and misnagdim, Ashkenazic and Sephardic, Torah scholars and everyone else alike. As people streamed into the main hall of the yeshiva tables were set with a feast befitting this occasion.

The city’s rabbanim all, bar none, expressed their astonishment at this historical moment – pointing out how rare it is, indeed unlikely, to see such young bochurim, just 12 to 16 years old, completing masechtos of their own!

The event was highlighted by the presence of the Rebbe’s shluchim to Vienna. Foremost is the head shliach, Rabbi Yaakov Y. Biderman, shlita. As the Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Chaim Fieldsteel, shlita, put it: “Mine and theirs – are his”. This is all thanks to his decades of tireless dedication in this country. Gracing the event were also the Rebbe’s shluchim to Vienna: Rabbi Zalman Mendelsohn, shlita; Rabbi Shmuel Alperowitz, shlita; and Rabbi Zalman Eidelman, shlita.

Then came the speeches given by the esteemed rabbanim from across the spectrum including: Rabbi Yisrael Netanelov shlita, shliach and rav of the Beis HaLevy congregation; Rabbi Yaakov Weiser, shlita, head shochet of the kashrus authority of Vienna; Rabbi Alexander Asher Margolis shlita, presiding dayan of the Ohel Moshe congregation; Rabbi Moshe Eliezer Weiss shlita, presiding dayan of the Machziki Hadass congregation; Rabbi Benyamin Aminov shlita, rav of the Templegasse Bucharian congregation; Rabbi Yosef Menashe Pardes shlita, member of the Rabbinical beis din and rav of of the Mizrach congregation; Rabbi Aryeh Folger shlita, one of the distinguished rabbanim of Europe and former chief Rabbi of Vienna; Rabbi Yitzchak Niazov shlita, shliach, member of the Rabbinic beis din, and rav of the Beis David congregation; Rabbi Benyamin Sofiev shlita, shliach and rav of the Caucasus congregation; Rabbi Avraham Biderman shlita, shliach and rav of the Chabad House congregation; Rabbi Yeshaya Boaz shlita, shliach and rav of the Beis Avraham congregation; Rabbi Moshe Yisraelov shlita, rav of the “Yeshuveiv” congregatgion; Rabbi Moshe Stern shlita, Rosh Yeshiva of the Shaarei Ovadia Yeshiva; and still more.

Rabbi David Yehuda Leib Greenfeld shlita, presiding dayan of the Agudat Yisrael congregation; Rabbi Avraham Yona Schwartz shlita, presiding dayan of the Kehal Chassidim congregation; Rabbi Yaron Engelmeier shlita, chief Rabbi of Vienna; Rabbi Yaakov Chotoveli shlita, member of the Rabbinical beis din; and Rabbi Michael Pressburger shlita, rav of the Shipshuhl congregation, who were unable to participate in person and sent their heartfelt blessings.

Rabbi Shmuel Veisfische shlita, Rosh Kolel of Beis Halevy, served as the superb emcee of the evening. He highlighted the dedication and devotion of the mashpiim, magidei shiurim, the madrichim and the student-shluchim. Leading them is Rabbi Yaakov Neimark shlita, Rabbi Yisrael Chassin shlita, and Rabbi Zalman Raskin shlita. We want to offer our thanks to the menahel gashmi who gives of his time and dedicates himself to the Yeshiva’s success– Rabbi Chilik Maatuf shlita.

After the Rabbis concluded addressing the crowd we reached the high point of the night – One by one, our students stood up to conclude their masechta, for twenty-six total siyumim. Starting with Maseches Shabbos, we journeyed through Maseches Sanhedrin, and finished off with Maseches Horayo. Hearts skipped a beat and leaped – tears stole their way down before being wiped away, as twenty-six voices united in concluding with the tefillah and kaddish. Hadran Alach… music to our ears… and we listened raptly as the names of the perakim were announced: “Mi ShHechshich”, “Kol Israel YesH Lahem Chelek”, “Kohen Moshiach”, and on and on.

As if on cue, the waiters then came out with platters of meat and delicacies for each table, while the Rosh Yeshiva gave a hadran based on the Rebbe’s unique insights, seamlessly weaving in points from each of the students’ 26 siyumim into a breathtaking tapestry.

As is the great tradition, there is no better way to celebrate the conclusion of Torah learning than to begin… again. Taking this literally we began, in that very moment, to write a brand-new sefer Torah to be housed in the Yeshiva. In this way the Oral Torah locked hands with the Written Torah, making one complete whole.

The Yeshiva administration would like to extend its deepest gratitude to the anonymous donor of this new Torah, along with the loyal patrons of the Yeshiva, who include Rabbi Pinni Gadilov shlita, Rabbi Yaakov Uston shlita, and Rabbi Dovid Benyaminov shlita.

Peek into our study hall, the zal, the morning after and you will see the temimim cracking open the sefarim, in pairs or on their own, beginning the very next masechta. Torah is alive and well in Vienna.