Community Magazine August 2017

52 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE tell us what is wrong and right, they tell us what the halacha is, what is permitted and what is prohibited. Knowing what to do, having proper borders, promotes peace in the world. Conversely, being confused, not knowing what to do, creates all kinds of strife. Shalom, peace, means everything has its proper place. Pinchas put things back in place with his zealotry. He delineated the borders and that leads to the ultimate peace.” Rav Hofstedter passionately exclaimed, “Learning daily halacha promotes peace. It brings peace between us and Gd and brings peace between one Jew and another. That is why it is such a zechut for us to be here at the Rav’s home and receive his encouragement and blessing as we embark on the laws of Shabbat. May Hashem continues to bless the Rav and may he continue to increase peace in the word!” Rabbi Cohen’s Total Immersion in Torah One of the things that amazed the leaders of Dirshu was HaRav Cohen’s profound love of Torah. Rabbi Shlomo Rozenstein, Dirshu’s Director of Public Relations, related; “When a large gathering such as this is held at a private home, it is generally necessary to temporarily move tables and chairs and take out furniture to accommodate the crowd. The entire time that all of this ‘interior decorating’ was taking place, the Rav was sitting at his desk, his face to the wall, totally immersed in his studies and oblivious to the tumult around him. We saw Rav Cohen embody such diligence, and such greatness.” The Maggid Shiur’s Responsibility In his remarks, HaRav Cohen also gave guidance to the more than 1500 Dirshu Daf HaYomi B’Halacha maggidei shiur who are delivering classes on the daily page of halacha in over 26 countries around the world. “A great responsibility rests upon each maggid shiur ,” he said. “Their task isn’t just to teach the material, but to make the learning beloved in the minds and hearts of each person who attends. It is his task to make sure that those in his class come with love and enthusiasm, not just because they feel obligated to be there. It is for this reason that every person giving a class must invest serious preparation before the shiur so that they have the knowledge to make the learning enjoyable and stimulating for their attendees.” HaRav Cohen then digressed to talk about the Sefer Mishnah Berurah itself. He said that the Chafetz Chaim merited something that few great Rabbis did. His Mishnah Berurah has become the foundational sefer on halacha that is studied by almost the entire body of world Jewry - Ashkenazim and Sephardim alike. Even though we Sephardim sometimes rule differently on halachic matters, in accordance with Maran , The Bet Yosef, nevertheless, we still must learn the Mishnah Berurah because it opens up our minds to the underpinnings of halacha . Only afterwards should one look in the sefarim of the Sephardic giants to see if we rule differently. The Merit of Utilizing Time Properly HaRav Cohen asked, “Why did the Chafetz Chaim merit this? Because of the way he utilized every second of his day and never wasted time. At the end of the year he could delineate just fifteen minutes throughout the year that he was not sure if he could have possibly utilized more productively. We of course, are not at that level, but we must learn from the Chafetz Chaim to utilize our time for Torah study.” HaRav Cohen concluded by calling on Jews the world over to join the Daf HaYomi B’Halacha program. “A person must learn halacha every day!” he proclaimed. “If not, how will he know how to conduct himself?!” To join Daf HaYomi B’Halacha or to access a shiur near you in North America, please call 888-5-Dirshu or e-mail, mm@dirshunj.org .