thoughts on siyum ha'shas.

Toras Hashem Temima - The Torah of G-d is "whole"

As you all probably know, the siyum ha'shas took place this week in Madison Square Garden. While I did not have the privelege of attending this inspiring event, I do feel compelled to give over my thoughts to you...

In discussing what took place in MSG with people who attended, everyone used the same word...""unbelievable". But what is really so unbelievable about what took place? I'm sure many of us have experienced moments at the kotel in which we are dancing among many jews or davening with an intense level of concentration. Surely, these experiences have provided an equally uplifting glimpse of what our people are really all about. At MSG, I have also had some memorable experiences. I was there to see Simon and Garfunkel play "sound of silence" while 20,000 people sat in absolute silence. I was there to sing " better man" with every other person in the crowd, together in unison. Both of these experiences made my skin prickle up and put that weird lump in the back of my throat. But what is so unique and unbelivable about an experience like the siyum ha'shas, is that it meshes 2 very different type of experiences into one complete picture. It is the picture of what our role is supposed to be in this world, and it is a picture that we should constantly be thinking about and focusing on.

To explain and elaborate, understand that MSG is usually used for the mundane. Whether it be a sporting event, concert, or something else, the Garden is not a place that is associated with "kodesh", but rather with "chol". So, when we as Jews, are able to take a place that is solely used for "chol", and completely change and uplift its purpose to something utterly "kodesh", well...we have accomplished what this world is really all about. You see, there is this mistaken premise that our whole religion is built on trying to get a reward in the next world. This is certainly important, but we tend to lose focus on this world as well. Our religion gives us the best possible life HERE AND NOW. Imagine a week that didn't have a Shabbos meal with your family and/or friends. How empty would you feel, if Shabbos was replaced with Saturday. We would all get to live "sunday" twice, and that thought makes me sick.

So the idea is to be able to take things in this world and elevate them to something more than purely physical. And that concept occurs in every aspect of our religion, and occured on a very grand-scale at the siyum ha'shas. B/c it occured in such a magnified way, people found it unbelieveble. The singing after the siyum, was a meshing of davening at the kotel and singing "betterman". Davening with 20,000 jews made people cry and think like they haven't done in a long time. And this is why the Torah, and our religion, is Temimah or whole or complete. No one is gonna deny that we have a body and a soul. And no one is gonna deny that we often try and satisfy the needs of our body. But it is the rare and amazing event that comes and satisfies both at once. It is the davening and singing with 20,000 jews that somehow breaks us down to tears, b/c we are whole, and everything is being satisfied at once. And don't you just wish that feeling would never end? But somehow it creeps away from us, time and time again. If you were at the siyum, I envy you, b/c you now have a visual of 20,000 jews coming together to show exactly what this religion is about. Being M'kadesh the Chol. Thats it. Don't forget what it looks like. Don't forget how unbelievable it is. Don't forget how it makes you feel whole in this world.,