Grapevine: The siyum is not over

There are at least two more mega events celebrating Siyum Hashas this week.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
Jewish students studying 521 (photo credit: Reuters)
Jewish students studying 521
(photo credit: Reuters)
The Siyum Hashas – the celebration of the completion of the seven-and-a-half-year cycle of daily Talmud study of the six orders of the Talmud – is not yet over. Although the major event in Jerusalem was held this week at Teddy Stadium with the participation of heads of many haredi dynasties, there are at least two more mega events of this kind scheduled for Sunday and Thursday. Both events are in English. The first, at the Jerusalem International Convention Center, will feature Rabbi Aharon Feldman as the keynote speaker, and in the women’s section the main speaker will be Rabbanit Yemima Mizrachi.
The second event, at the Jerusalem Great Synagogue, will include among the participants Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, Rabbi Dovid Miller, Rabbi Dovid Gottlieb, and Rabbi Shmuel Hershler. Guests will be treated to the glorious singing of Cantor Chaim Adler accompanied by the Great Synagogue choir.
■ HISTORY BUFFS will have to wait a while for the resumption of lectures by the Israel Branch of the Jewish Historical Society of England. The organization, which meets at Beit Avi Chai, had its last meeting for the season last week.
To anyone just looking for a lecture to attend, “The 1263 Disputation of Barcelona” did not sound like a particularly sexy topic. But the eloquent Prof. Haim (Harvey) Hames, a Cambridge PhD who heads the general history department at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, made the subject far more enthralling than the title suggested and produced a wealth of documentation to show that the 1263 Disputation of Barcelona, at which Rabbi Moshe ben Nahman (Ramban) made a courageous stand as the Jewish spokesman, was more likely devised to combat Christian heresy than to convert “unbelieving” Jews.
At the society’s annual general meeting, which preceded the lecture, Dr. Kenneth Collins succeeded Dr. Leonard Roselaar as secretary and David Young took over from Bernard Goldblum as treasurer. In recognition of their many years of devoted service, Roselaar and Goldblum each received a surprise gift from their colleagues, with re-elected branch chairman Dr. Gabriel Sivan making the presentations and the large audience vigorously applauding.
There was still one position left vacant and after the chairman read out a mock advertisement for the post of publicity officer, Laini Feffer surprised everyone by volunteering to assume that position. The victim of a traffic accident in London many years ago, she regularly attends JHSE lectures at Beit Avi Chai, where wheelchair access is provided.
■ TOWARD THE end of Beit Avi Chai’s seven-hour Tisha Be’av session, director Dani Danieli came on stage to ask people to raise their hands if they had sat through the whole day’s program and to raise them again if they had been to previous Tisha Be’av events at Beit Avi Chai, to raise them yet again if they were from out of town and to raise them for the last time if they had been to every Tisha Be’av event at Beit Avi Chai. Even he was surprised by the results – though he was chastised by the Tel Avivians, who complained about not being able to make reservations and having to conform with a first-come, first-served policy.
Some Jerusalemites were standing in line for two hours ahead of the event. Most people who got a seat arrived an hour early. But the Tel Avivians pointed out that even if they had left Tel Aviv in plenty of time to get to Jerusalem an hour or so before the doors to the auditorium opened, they had no control of the highway and didn’t know how much traffic congestion there might be, which could delay their arrival by anything up to an hour. If their seats were reserved they wouldn’t have had to worry, they said.