I figured, I’d already done daf yomi for two and a half cycles; now it was time to move on. So I dropped the shiur and joined the kollel instead.
The next evening, I helped start a new daf yomi shiur in my shul, Congregation Yeshuos Chaim in Flatbush. It wasn’t easy juggling this along with family responsibilities and simchahs, but, riding the wave of inspiration, I decided to give it a go. And I kept going, night after night. Then the summer arrived, and our maggid shiur went away. That could have been the end of my daf yomi career, but instead I heard from my friend Reb Yossi Gleiberman about a morning shiur at K’hal Zichron Mordechai. Even though it was on the other end of Flatbush and it meant not being home in the morning to help with the children, I incorporated it into my morning routine and kept going. That was when my commitment to daf yomi became official.
This was nearly three daf yomi cycles ago, and though our maggidei shiur have changed throughout the years — our current one is Rabbi Gleiberman — the core chevreh in the shiur is still the same. It’s hard to describe the level of closeness and camaraderie that you develop when you learn with the same group of guys every single morning for over 20 years. We share each other’s simchahs, help each other in times of challenge, and enjoy a really close-knit bond. There’s nothing like it.
And yet, three and a half years ago, I very nearly gave this all up.
At the time, one of my fellow daf yomi members was considering joining a morning kollel, and he was looking for a chavrusa. He asked me if I was interested in trying it out. I decided that I really wanted to grab this opportunity to learn more in depth. I figured, I’d already done daf yomi for two and a half cycles; now it was time to move on. So I dropped the shiur and joined the kollel instead.
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