It was a night to remember and I was very excited because I was a part of it.
I am referring to the second cycle siyum of the OU Women’s Torat Imecha Nach Yomi.
Two years ago my daughter Mikki (Michal Silverstein) told me about this program of the OU and suggested that I would really enjoy taking part in this. So for the next two years every single night I listened on my phone to the full Neviim and Ketuvim.
I have been suffering from back pain and whenever I changed positions, such as when going into bed, the pain was the greatest. So for the past two years every night as I got into bed, I took my phone and played the Nach Yomi for the day. I concentrated on listening to the shiurim from Yehoshua through Divrei Hayamim. It took my mind off the pain.
We started with Yehoshua and just now ended with Divrei Hayamim. The truth is when I started I didn’t think that I would last the whole two years. I thought that Yehoshua through Melachim would be easy because I learned that in high school. I was in for a big surprise. The different teachers for each book didn’t just give us the plain translations. They brought in many different mefarshim.
Every sefer had a different teacher. Everyone was good and some were exceptional. Mikki was doing this with me and I was happy to discover that she was of the same opinion as I was regarding the teachers.
The siyum was held in the new Nefesh B’Nefesh building in Jerusalem. The first part of the program was a pre-siyum shiur by Michal Horowitz, who had been one of our teachers. Then we had divrei bracha by Mrs. Sivan Rahav-Meir. She is one of my favorite news people. And as you can see I was lucky to get a picture with her.
Rebbetzin Dr. Adina Shmidman is the director of the OU Women’s Initiative. She flew in from New Jersey to host our siyum. When I was introduced to her, I said, “Ah, you are the voice that so often comes to tell us of another exciting program.” Later on I met Chavi Eisenberg, who was the nightly announcer of that night’s shiur.
The video presentation was great and maybe in two years I will be on it. We heard from women, young and old, about their experiences studying the Nach Yomi.
I was very excited to see my name on the certificate attesting to the completion of the studies of Neviim and Ketuvim.
In addition to the delicious meal, everyone received a beautiful Hebrew-English Tehillim. I remember that one of the outstanding teachers was the woman who taught us the 150 chapters of Tehillim.
Mrs. Zemira Ozarowski, Director L’ayla, OU Israel, told us about her funny experiences with many of the OU programs. And then it was time for the ladies to dance.
The next two-year cycle (the third) of the Nach Yomi begins on February 1. And I have decided to go to the third cycle as well. I look forward to the siyum of the third cycle in two years.
