February 24, 2005

OU’s Executive Rabbinic Kashrus Coordinator to Lead His Third Cycle:
Rabbi Moshe Elefant to Offer Daily Daf Yomi Shiur on OU Website Beginning March 2

Log On to www.ou.org,
Monday-Thursday, 12:30-1:15 p.m. Eastern Time;
Other Days Are Archived on Website

As the latest seven-and-one-half year Daf Yomi cycle of Talmud study begins anew on Wednesday, March 2, with Tractate Berachot, the Orthodox Union will present a daily shiur (lecture) on the day’s page, which will be carried live and on tape on the OURadio feature of the OU website, www.ou.org.

The shiur, to be conducted by Rabbi Moshe Elefant, Executive Rabbinic Coordinator of the OU Kosher Department, will be held Mondays through Thursdays from 12:30-1:15 p.m. at OU headquarters, and broadcast throughout the world on the web. The Friday through Sunday pages (and any day on which OU offices are closed) will be available on audio tape on OURadio; each shiur will be archived, so if a page is missed, the participant can easily retrieve it. In addition to OU staff, guests are invited to attend the shiur at the OU offices, 11 Broadway in New York City. (For security reasons, guests must register by emailing wolke@ou.org.)

Rabbi Elefant’s shiur will take its place among a wide variety of other opportunities for learning Torah on the OU website.

For Rabbi Elefant, this will be his third cycle leading a Daf Yomi shiur; rising at 4:00 a.m. he also gives it at 5:30 at a synagogue in the Boro Park section of Brooklyn, NY. His two or three hours of daily preparation occur before the shiur, after the morning service, and before he leaves for work. Then he puts in a full day at OU headquarters.

“Torah study is the core of our community,” Rabbi Elefant said. “I think offering the Daf Yomi shiur is a wonderful opportunity for the OU to facilitate the learning of Torah. For most people, never missing a Daf Yomi is a real challenge. Now, if for some reason you miss a day, it will be waiting for you on the OU website.”

Even those participating in other Daf Yomi groups will benefit from tuning in to Rabbi Elefant – either live or archived.

“Rabbi Elefant is a man of many skills, not the least of which is his Talmudic erudition,” declared OU Executive Vice President Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, who himself has taught three complete cycles and now teaches it part time. “Students attending Rabbi Elefant’s Daf Yomi lessons will benefit from his scholarship, original insights, and masterful powers of presentation.”

Daf Yomi goes beyond Torah learning, Rabbi Weinreb explained. “Besides the obvious educational advantages of Daf Yomi,” he said, “it accomplishes a sense of unity and togetherness among Jews, with everyone studying the same material every day. A Jew in New York or in Columbus, Ohio; or in Jerusalem, London, Buenos Aires or Gibraltar will be on the same page – literally – every day for the entire cycle, and wherever they are, they can learn from Rabbi Elefant. Daf Yomi is of inestimable value in uniting the Jewish people.”

With its web broadcast of the cycle, Rabbi Weinreb declared, the OU is doing its part to foster this unity.

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The Orthodox Union, now in its second century of service to the Jewish community of North America and beyond, is a world leader in community and synagogue services, adult education, youth work through NCSY, political action through the IPA, and advocacy for persons with disabilities through Yachad and Our Way. Its kosher supervision label, the , is the world’s most recognized kosher symbol and can be found on over 275,000 products manufactured in 68 countries around the globe.

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