As the Siyum HaShas approaches I want to recall for readers something that came to light after the last siyum in 2005. I quote here the words of Rabbi Josh Spinner of the Beit Midrash ofBerlin written in May 2005 concerning the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe that had then just opened inBerlin. The memorial consists of 2 711 concrete rectangular pillars or stelae with heights varying from less than a meter to four meters. Rabbi Spinner wrote:
I attended the opening of the Berlin Memorial yesterday and asked the architect Peter Eisenman whether indeed the number 2 711 was incidental. He responded that it was not only incidental but accidental. The number of columns intended at the site was much higher but was reduced due to various considerations. He was shocked and amazed when I told him that the number of pages in the Talmud is none other than precisely 2 711. He asked for verification. I rushed to the business center of a nearby hotel and printed out several articles about the recent Siyum Hashas and gave them to Eisenman.…
Some five kilometers away from the Berlin Memorial in a corner of the Beis Midrash of our Yeshiva late in the evening after night Seder (study session) and Maariv (evening services) a small group joined the new cycle of Daf Yomi a few weeks ago. This is the first Daf Yomi chabura in Berlin in… well we all know in at least how many years.
The numerical correspondence is of course astounding enough. But I also came across an essay by Roann Barris aVirginiaprofessor of art history in which Professor Barris notes several particular features of these stelae:
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