What is Daf Yomi?דף יומי
Daf Yomi is a worldwide programme in which participants study one double-sided page of Talmud each day, completing the entire Talmud in roughly seven and a half years.
Also written: Daf Hayomi, Daf Yomee, Daily Daf
Rabbi Meir Shapiro of Lublin proposed the cycle at the First World Congress of Agudath Israel in Vienna on 16 August 1923, and the first cycle began on the first day of Rosh Hashanah that year, 11 September 1923. It covers all 2,711 folio pages of the Talmud Bavli and has run continuously ever since. Everyone following it studies the same page on the same day, anywhere in the world, which is what lets a traveller join a shiur in an unfamiliar city and pick up mid-sentence.
Its effect on the seforim market is direct and predictable. Demand for a given tractate rises as the cycle reaches it, and demand for complete sets spikes at the start of a new cycle, when large numbers of people commit to the programme at once.
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Sources
- Meir Shapiro — proposed Daf Yomi in Vienna, 16 August 1923; first cycle began 11 September 1923
- Siyum HaShas — the seven-and-a-half-year cycle over 2,711 pages
Related terms
- Mesechta — A mesechta is a single tractate of the Talmud — one topical volume such as Berachos or Bava Metzia — which can be bought individually rather than as part of a full Shas.
- Shas — Shas is the complete Talmud — an acronym for Shisha Sidrei Mishnah, the six orders of the Mishnah — usually sold as a multi-volume bound set.
- Gemara — The Gemara is the component of the Talmud that records the rabbinic analysis and debate of the Mishnah; Mishnah and Gemara together make up the Talmud.