In his best-selling book “The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People”, author Stephen Covey identifies the setting of goals, and in particular mini-goals, as a key method of achieving successes in life.
When one reaches a goal in Torah Learning – completes a sefer, finishes a parsha or even masters the letters of the aleph beis – the Jewish thing to do is to make a siyum. A siyum (which literally means ‘finishing’) is akin to a graduation – a way of recognising the fulfilment of a significant goal. And of course, one can never really come to the end of one’s Jewish learning (there is always more to learn!) so in essence a siyum represents the marking of a mini-goal – another small step on the long road to achieving our full Jewish potential in life.
PaL is proud to be teaming up with our sister organisation in the USA, Partners in Torah, to celebrate the 12th Siyum HaShas in August 2012. The Siyum HaShas, which was inaugurated in 1923, represents the completion of the entire Babylonian Talmud, page by page, day by day, in a seven-year cycle. This year’s Siyum HaShas will be a historical event; a world-wide celebration of Jewish learning, and we would like to invite you to be part of it! All you need to do is choose a siyum-focused topic to learn with your PaL and aim to finish in time for August 2012. We will bring you details of the UK Siyum HaShas in due course – but in the meantime feel free to explore the dedicated website www.mysiyum.com for more information.
