Talmud Yerushalmi Finally Gets Its Crown 

This milestone holds great meaning for me on a personal level. I have been giving a Yerushalmi shiur for the last nine years, following 17 years of giving a Daf Yomi shiur. Though it was difficult at first, I have found it to be a wonderful limud and have enjoyed it immensely. For seven years, I gave the Yerushalmi shiurim on an irregular basis. Two years ago, I established a regular schedule of three shiurim a week in which we covered seven blatt.

The foray into Talmud Yerushalmi presented many questions. Where should I start? How many pages are there? What commentaries are there? How long is the cycle I should follow? Who can I turn to if I have a question?

At that stage, the only cycle for learning Yerushalmi was the one instituted by the Lev Simchah of Gur: four years, following the page numbers of the Vilna edition. (References to Yerushalmi, however, always cite perek and halachah, unlike references to Bavli, which are tied to page numbers.) The cycle came about after the Lev Simchah gave a speech in 5740 that referred to the same story of Rabi Akiva being saved by holding on to a board of a boat (Yevamos 121a) that Rav Meir Shapiro cited when he started the Daf Yomi program for Bavli. The Lev Simchah pointed out that daf shel sefinah — “board of a boat” — has the same gematria as Talmud Yerushalmi.

Together with a group of six others, we began a daily shiur in Yerushalmi using the ArtScroll edition, whose pages are less daunting than the Vilna edition. It was the beginning of a journey into the unknown, but one that I certainly don’t regret.