LIRR strike won’t stop daf yomi

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With the threat of a Long Island Rail Road strike as early as Sunday, the Five Towns followers of the two daf yomi shiurim (Talmud page-a-day class) on the Far Rockaway line are sorting out their study options.

Elizer Cohen, a long time maggid shiur (lecturer) and student on the daf yomi LIRR circuit, pointed out that there are plenty of alternative shiurim in the Five Towns and Manhattan, and suggested that the mobile shiurim will continue as alternate transit options materialize.

He said that many riders will skip the commute altogether, using technology to work remotely.

Three maggiday shiur ­— Cohen, Sholom Fried and Yossi Klein — alternate on the 7:50 am out of Far Rockaway, with 15 to 25 riders participating. The 8:10 am, with five to 12 learners, is taught mainly by Rabbi Menachem Adler, who works for the OU Kashrus division, and, one day a week, Cohen. The class is held in the front of the last car.

Some options will be to attend shiurim in the community, some given by the maggiday shiur in the morning.

“I give a 7:20 am shiur at Chabad and I am willing to do an 8 or 8:15 pm at Shaarei (Tefilah), Agudah of Long Island, or Shor Yoshuv” with a good location with “plenty of parking,” Cohen said.

He pointed out that many B&H employees participate and B&H is considering hiring buses for the duration of the strike. “We may give the shiur on the bus,” he said. “We can try the A train and see how that works out.”

He said that Rabbi Adler “is looking into the possibility of giving the shiur on the ferry from Beach 108th Street.”

The commuter daf is held Mondays through Fridays, following the daf yomi schedule, so the learners have to do the Saturday and Sunday pages on their own or with a different shiur. Legal holidays also put a crimp in their schedule since their train heads to Atlantic Terminal instead of Penn Station, requiring a transfer at Jamaica (opting to continue to Atlantic Ave. and take the subway to Manhattan from there, since transferring at Jamaica does not assure them of a spot to teach and learn).

The concept of daf yomi originated with Rabbi Meir Shapiro, introduced at the First World Congress of the Agudath Israel in 1923. It continues today with thousands of Jews learning the same two-sided page of Talmud all over the world. It enables Jews to learn all of the Talmud over a period of seven years and forges unity, where someone can join a daf yomi shiur anywhere in the world and literally be on the same page.

Cohen noted that many join the LIRR daf because it’s convenient and they wouldn’t learn the daf normally. Some guests join in, others listen in. Sometimes Cohen takes the train just to give the shiur and turns around to catch the train back. Rabbi Pesach Lerner used to do the same “many times.” The shiur begins at Woodmere and lasts about 40 minutes. “The railroad helps and gives us more time if we need it,” laughed Cohen, hinting at the occasional transit delay.

They are currently in their fourth cycle of the Talmud and just completed Taanis with a celebratory siyum (completion celebration). Cohen said they always invite the non-Jews who are nearby as well as the LIRR staff to the siyum.

Cohen was once stopped on the street by a non-Jew who asked if he is the one who gives the “shiur on the train.” The man said that he comes and listens to the class when he gets on at Jamaica. Cohen noted that the man works in the jewelry business and knew a little Hebrew.

One conductor always asks what they are up to.

Said Cohen, “Torah will go on, either way.”