Siyum Hashas: Second Thoughts

I have previously posted on my misgivings about our younger son's high school's attendance at the Siyum Hashas. I was concerned that they would simply be bored and would get nothing out of it.

I was partially right but I was totally wrong. The more I think about it, the more I think it was the right thing for the school to have done.

A couple of years from now our son will not have remembered one word that was said at the siyum. He also will have forgotten about how bored he was. The only things he will remember, and he will remember them for the rest of his life, are how 20,000 Jews got together to give kavod to the Torah; mincha; singing Ani Ma'amin; and the rikud after the siyum. On second, thought, I'm very glad he went.

(Since I can't help but pile on, this is yet another reason this article, suggesting a boycott of the siyum, was so astonishingly wrongheaded and misguided. Think of how many people were inspired to take on additional learning (daf yomi and other things) simply by being surrounded by those who finished the daf yomi cycle.)