On Simchas Torah, dozens of chassidim around the world celebrated the completion of their study of the entire Torah Ohr and Likutei Torah. The cycle took 3 years, during which they covered every page from Bereishis to Vzos Habracha, Shir Hashirim, and Hosafos. Now, many of them, as well as hundreds more, are starting the new cycle of study,

The program for completing Torah Ohr and Likutei Torah in 3 years is the brainchild of Rabbi Avraham Katz, a mashpia and author from Postville, Iowa.

Rabbi Katz observed that while many Anash wished to finish the chassidishe parsha on a weekly basis, most could not possibly keep up. He therefore created a schedule in which each year one learns about a third of the maamarim for the Parsha, Yom Tov, Shir Hashirim and Megilas Ester – making the goal of learning all of Torah Ohr and Likutei Torah in reach of the average person.

The advantages of this program are manyfold:

1- It takes away the guesswork of picking which maamar to learn every week/yom tov.

2- When Yom Tov comes, you will learn at least one maamar per Yom Tov and at least one maamar per Parsha in every kevius of the year, both in Eretz Yisroel and in Chutz La’aretz.

3- This system covers every single maamar in Torah Or and Likutei Torah, including the entire Shir Hashirim, Megilas Ester, and all of the Hosafos.

4- Every week, with only a handful of exceptions per year, the maamarim are between 2-4 daf long, usually 2-3 maamarim a week, around 20 minutes a day commitment.

5- When you have a specific goal of completing the entire sefer in a specific framework, it makes it much easier to stay focused on learning the maamarim every week.

6- If many people are all learning the same maamarim, it will make it easier to find a chavrusa to learn those maamarim with you, or to start a local shiur learning the maamarim together as a group.

7- With the Moreh Shiur and the “Checklist” you will be able to easily track which maamarim you do already and which you need to do, and if you miss certain weeks or certain maamarim you will be able to easily keep track of them to learn them on a different occasion, or the following year etc.

For this new cycle, several innovations have been added:

1- PDFs of the weekly maamarim as arranged according to the 3-year cycle, available for download.

2- In these PDFs, the weekly quota is broken up into 7 pieces, to create an optional daily quota which is helpful for many people to stay on track with completing the maamarim every week.

3- There is a sign-up option to have these PDFs emailed to you weekly, free of charge.

4- A “Checklist” of all of the maamarim in Likutei Torah and Torah Or, to help track progress in learning the maamarim and to ensure that if you miss some maamarim you can learn them on a different occasion.

5- A “Resource” page with links to shiurim on the entire Likutei Torah and many other resources to assist in studying Likutei Torah.

6- A website where you can access all of the above and download the Moreh Shiur: www.LikuteiTorah3Years.com

Join today at www.LikuteiTorah3Years.com

An idea is being explored to offer a (paid) service to have the weekly PDFs printed out and mailed to anyone in the USA. Stay tuned for updates regarding this. If you are interested in this idea, please send me an email with the phrase “mailing 3-year cycle maamarim” to [email protected]