A historic encounter between Rabbi Yolles and the founder of Daf Yomi, Rav Meir Shapiro
At first glance, the inscription on Rav Ephraim Eliezer HaKohein Yolles’s Har Hazeisim headstone seems standard, referring to his titles as “gaon av beis din of Philadelphia’’ and Sambor Rav, the latter inherited from his father Rav Sholom and grandfather Rav Uri. It also makes mention of his sefer Divrei Ephraim Eliezer. But it’s the final line on the lengthy epitaph that catches the eye: “Eighth Daf Yomi cycle, Zevachim 95.” There is a story behind that last cryptic line, which dates back to a historic encounter between Rabbi Yolles and the founder of Daf Yomi, Rav Meir Shapiro.
Rabbi Ephraim Yolles was born in 1894 in Sambor, Galicia. In 1921, Sambor chassidim in New York invited him to serve as their leader, so Rabbi Yolles and his wife Binah immigrated to the United States. He was ultimately asked by Philadelphia’s Chief Rabbi Bernard (Dov Aryeh) Levinthal to lead the Kerem Israel shul in the Strawberry Mansion neighborhood. Shortly after his arrival, Rabbi Yolles was chosen as chief rabbi of Strawberry Mansion’s organization of Orthodox synagogues, and later presided over the Philadelphia beis din and kashrus agency.
In 1923 Rabbi Yolles received a letter from his father describing his experience at the Knessiah Gedolah of Agudas Yisrael in Vienna. “One young rabbi captivated everyone with his eloquence and brilliance,” he wrote. It was Rabbi Meir Shapiro, who electrified the gathering with a novel proposal, suggesting that Jews around the world study the same daf of Gemara every day:
What a great thing! A Jew travels travels for 15 days to America, and each day he learns the daf. When he arrives, he enters a beis medrash in New York and finds Jews studying the very same daf, and he gladly joins them. Another Jew leaves the States and travels to Brazil, and he goes to the beis medrash, where he finds everyone learning the same daf he himself learned that day. Could there be a greater unity of hearts than this?
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