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Sammy lived in a strange world. From the moment one entered adulthood, the government placed a special belt on them, one that was impossible to remove. This belt served to keep everyone in order. If someone defied a law, or misbehaved, the belt immediately administered an electric shock. The worse the offense, the stronger the shock. Everyone’s private lives were monitored closely, so there was no escaping punishment.

Gedolei Yisrael Express Joy and Excitement Over New Program

This past Rosh Chodesh Iyar, history was made in Klal Yisrael, as the Dirshu Chaburas Shas iyun kal program was launched beginning with masechta Bava Kama. This program enables avreichim to become proficient in the entire Shas with a wide-ranging knowledge of Gemara, Rashi, Tosafos and the primary Rishonim and Acharonim b’iyun. The program covers an amud a day / 2½ blatt per week, placing avreichim on a trajectory where they can complete Shas with iyun kal, in a matter of twenty years!

“I wish I would have had such a kinnus when I was a bachur transitioning from yeshiva ketana to yeshiva gedolah,” Rabbi Avigdor Bernstein, one of the senior members of Hanhalas Dirshu, said wistfully.

Imagine you wake up one morning with $86,400 in your bank account. You can’t invest or save this money, and whatever is left over at the end of the day disappears. What would you do with your $86,400? Would you leave a single penny unspent? Of course not!

There is a widespread problem that plagues humanity, leaving us lonely and disconnected. Many people live their lives in a state of ego – a state of mind in which people view themselves as isolated beings inside their own bodies, their own minds, their own worlds, alone and independent. The consequences of this state of mind are obvious: Since everyone else in the world is separate from us, we will feel disconnected from them; we will also likely feel the need to compete with them – to beat them – in order to gain self-worth, in order to convince ourselves that we’re good enough. This often means pushing others down just to feel like we’re better than them. We might even hate certain people or even go so far as to hurt them, because they don’t make us feel good or perhaps because they challenge our own self-worth. But most of all, this state of consciousness leaves us lonely, abandoned, and empty. (This state of ego also makes us feel independent and separate from Hashem, resulting in the ultimate feeling of spiritual emptiness.) However, there is another option.

In addition to gaining sage advice from the Gedolim of Eretz Yisrael, the thousands of bachurim at the kinnus merited to hear words of chizuk and guidance from senior American roshei yeshiva as well. They heard from the zekan roshei yeshiva in America, HaGaon HaRav Shmuel Kamenetsky, shlita, who delivered an audio recording specifically for this event, and from HaGaon HaRav Yitzchok Sorotzkin, shlita, who gave over divrei chizuk via video.