Rabbi Moshe Schwed is the director of All Daf, the Orthodox Union’s app and website that curates Daf Yomi content
This masechta is known to be challenging for many learners. The joke goes “Ba’ah Shabbos ba’ah menuchah”— the crowds that join daf yomi at the first masechta, Berachos, drop out at the second one, Maseches Shabbos, which is a more complicated gemara. But the truth is even more learners are intimidated by the complexity of Eiruvin. Unfortunately, many now consider quitting despite having stuck with Daf Yomi for eight months. But All Daf has your back, we’re producing a series called “Bringing Eiruvin to Life” so people can embrace the challenge of the gemara.
There are so many, I really can’t pick a favorite! Where should I start? We have video of Rabbi Chaim Jachter, a leader Eiruvin posek from Teaneck, pointing out all the particulars as he walks along the perimeter of a community eruv, including sources from the gemara and poskim. Rabbi Shlomo Francis and Rabbi Yonason Glenner from Chicago, coauthors of The Laws of Eruv, are preparing interactive shiurim using smartboard technology to portray the concepts of the gemara through a contemporary-style shiur. Users are excited to understand Eiruvin like never before, to learn it with clarity for the first time, as one of them told me.
Definitely the footage of Rabbi Micha Shotkin, a renowned eruv architect and builder in Passaic. He demonstrates the challenges and intricacies involved in community Eiruvin and the technical concepts needed for kosher eruv construction. Moshe Shindler, the producer we hired, had three videographers manning three cameras and a drone for the aerial shots. There were times they were all filming Rabbi Shotkin in the bucket lift of his cutting-edge truck. Of course, there were multiple takes of each concept — and this was in 95-plus degree weather on busy roads, which meant we had to keep the crew’s safety in mind the whole time. There was also a lot of animation post-production to further explain the concepts he shows.
About 15 years ago, Rabbi Moshe Elefant, the COO of OU Kosher, began recording an English language daf yomi shiur for the OU website. Over the years, the web content grew with the addition of Rabbi Shalom Rosner’s daf yomi shiur, as well as others. The feedback the OU got was that users appreciated the availability of these shiurim, which enabled them to build a virtual rebbi-talmid relationship that literally changed their lives. One user encouraged us to take this to the next level with a digital platform. The plan was to launch this with the Siyum HaShas in January 2020, and I was brought on in August 2018 to bring it to reality. I spearheaded our team of designers, developers, and marketing experts, focusing on content and user engagement. It took 16 months to make it happen.
Create a free account to keep reading.
