Rosh Hashanah 5787
“I’m sharing an Erev Rosh Hashana message with our All Torah users. How many hours of high quality Torah content were learned on our platform since Rosh Hashana 5786?”
That’s the question I typed into our AI bot that has access to our data.
The answer?
“Since Rosh Hashana 5786 (beginning September 22, 2025), our community has learned approximately 1.76 million hours, precisely 1,759,435 hours, of Torah across the All Torah platform.
That’s roughly 200 years’ worth of continuous Torah learning packed into a single year, powered by your users around the world.”
(And that’s before the Shnayim Mikrah dashboard, everyone listening on podcast platforms, and all the content downloaded and learned offline.)
Here’s what I keep thinking about.
These hours aren’t coming from kollel yungeleit and semicha students. You’re generally not a group of תּוֹרָתָם אֻמָּנוּתָם. You’re people who work hard to support your families, who carry obligations at home, in shul, in your communities, and a long list of other things that don’t wait.
But there’s one thing that stays constant in your lives.
Kvius Ittim LaTorah.
Daf Yomi, Amud Yomi, Oraysa, Yerushalmi Yomi, Shnayim Mikrah, Nach Yomi, Mishnah Yomi, Kitzur Yomi, Mishnah Berurah Yomi...
We just marked the 100th yahrtzeit of R’ Meir Simcha of Dvinsk. There is striking language in the Meshech Chochma (ויקרא כג, כד), a piece that is almost required reading for his explanation of how a Rosh Hashana that falls on Shabbos carries the power of shofar blowing. In that piece he expounds on our connection to akeidas Yitzchok and how we invoke it.
דְּאֶחָד הַמְיֻחָד מִמִּצְוַת שׁוֹפָר הוּא לִתְקֹעַ בְּשׁוֹפָר שֶׁל אַיִל, לְהַזְכִּיר זְכוּת הָעֲקֵדָה, שׁוֹפָר שֶׁל אַיִל, כְּמוֹ שֶׁאָמְרוּ פ"ק דר"ה, וְהַתְּקִיעָה מַכְנִיס זְכוּת יִשְׂרָאֵל מַה שֶּׁנָחֲלוּ מִיִּצְחָק, לִמְסֹר עַצְמָם לְחֶרְפָּה וּלְמַכָּה וְלַבִּזָּה עֲבוּר שֵׁם הַשֵּׁם יִתְבָּרַךְ כִּי נִקְרָא עֲלֵיהֶם, זֶהוּ זְכוּת עֲקֵדָה, שֶׁבָּנָיו עוֹקְדִים כָּל תַּאֲוֹתֵיהֶם וְהַרְגָּשׁוֹתֵיהֶם וּשְׁאֵלוֹת הַחַיִּים עַל מוֹקֵד אַהֲבַת הַשֵּׁם וְתוֹרָתוֹ.
This is who we are. A people that takes its wants, its emotions, its doubts about life, and places them on the altar of ahavas Hashem and His Torah. The language is poetic and it is strong.
Every early hour, every late hour, every schedule moved around, every hard Gemara you didn’t walk away from, every halacha in Mishnah Berurah you actually applied, all of this taps into akeidas Yitzchok.
I’ll close with the words we say in Selichos today:
חַיִּים דְּבָרְךָ יְדָעֵנוּ
Teach us the words of Your Torah and mitzvos
קֵ-ל גִּבּוֹר וְיוֹעֵץ
Hashem, the mighty, the powerful, the One who guides
לְהִדָּבֵק בְּתוֹרָתֶךָ
So that we may cleave to Your Torah
אוֹתָנוּ בְּטוֹבָה לְהִוָּעֵץ
Guide us with goodness, and may we merit only gezeiros tovos
Kesiva vachasima tova,
Rabbi Moshe Schwed
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