On Thursday evening, bochurim of Mesivta Lubavitch Toronto sat down for a three-course banquet at Chabad Niagara Falls’ event hall to celebrate the completion of the entire Likutei Sichos by Shliach Pinchas Osdoba and four volumes by 25 bochurim.
This past Thursday evening, the bochurim of Mesivta Lubavitch Toronto wrapped up their end-of-summer grand trip in Niagara Falls, sitting down for a three-course banquet at Chabad Niagara Falls’ beautiful event hall.
But this wasn’t just any end-of-year banquet. This event was commemorating two astounding achievements of bochurim and Shluchim in yeshiva.
Shliach Pinchas Osdoba opened the program by marking an enormous milestone – a Siyum on the entire Likkutei Sichos! Completed after steady learning throughout his 8 years in yeshiva, he urged bochurim to take the inspiration and commit to reaching that same milestone themselves.
This was the second year in a row that the Mesivta ended off their year with a Siyum on Likkutei Sichos, following the Siyum last year by Avraham Volfman. Indeed, in the course of the Seder Sichos program over their 3 years in Toronto, many bochurim will walk out having completed at least 10 full volumes of Likkutei Sichos, well on their way to eventually making their very own Siyum.
The siyum also celebrated the completion of Likkutei Sichos chalokim Chof through Chof Gimmel by over 25 bochurim. The group completed the 4 chalokim of Likkutei Sichos as part of a grand mivtza arranged by the talmidim hashluchim throughout the year l’ilui nishmas Dovid Moshe ben Efraim. Throughout the mivtza the bochurim learned the sichos on the parsha each week and filled out weekly shailos lchazara, completing all together close to 4000 sichos.
A special hagralah was made for those involved in the mivtza for 2 dollars from the Rebbe the zoche bgoral were hatomin Nissi Yarmush and hatomin Tzvi Kleyman.
After the Siyum, the bochurim broke out in spontaneous dancing, celebrating the monumental achievement. The program then continued with Pinchas Osdoba introducing a number of bochurim who were tested on the entire Maseches Bava Basra. After spending months completing the entire Mesechta, 12 bochurim went the extra mile by reviewing the Mesechta in its entirety, some even more than once, in preparation for the extensive test.
Ultimately, 9 bochurim successfully passed the test, taken the day before, and were presented with their certificates by the banquet. The nine Mesaymim were: Zalman Karpilovsky, Hillel Lang, Sholom Lieberman, Schneur Marmulszteyn, Mendel Rosenberg, Shmuel Wenger, Levi Vechter, Aryeh Yarmush and Eli Zaltzman. Shmuel Wenger then shared a Hadran from the Rebbe on the Mesechta in connection to the Siyum.
Afterwards, the bochurim had the treat to hear from renowned educator and lecturer Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, the guest speaker of the evening. Rabbi Greenberg, in his inimitable and humorous fashion, drew upon the magnitude of the two Siyumim that were just made, showing the connection between them and our final avodah of greeting Moshiach.
At the end of the banquet, Shliach Avraham Volfman revealed a special memento that each bochur would be able to take with him from the Siyum – a unique booklet designed to track one’s progress within Likkutei Sichos, making the prospect of finishing much more realistic and accessible.
Another special teshura was also prepared, by talmid Eli Brenenson, collecting a number of unique references and stories from the Rebbe in association with Maseches Bava Basra.
May we merit to witness the ultimate Siyum on the Galus, and in the words of the Rebbe (quoted in the aforementioned teshura): “אין זהר שטייט אז ב”ב איז דאס דער סיום פון דעם גלות. נו, זאל זיין דער ב”ב פון הגלות!”
To download the Likkutei Sichos progress booklet, click here.
To download the Bava Basra teshura, click here.
זייער שיין איר זאל ג’יין מחיל אל חיל! א דוגמא חיה פון יגעת ומצאת