A women’s Daf Yomi siyum in January, 2020.
NEW YORK — In December, when she was given two to four years to live, Catherine Johnson decided to start studying a page of Talmud a day.
The expansive work of Jewish law and narrative written in Aramaic, the Talmud spans 2,711 double-sided pages. At a rate of one folio page studied each day, a practice called Daf Yomi (Hebrew for “daily page”), the entire Talmud takes seven-and-a-half years to complete.
Johnson isn’t sure she’ll be able to finish it. But every page, every day, is a small victory.
“It just struck a chord with me,” said Johnson, who has ovarian cancer. “Time was a big deal for me. People were putting constraints on the amount of time I had and the idea of starting something that would take seven-and-a-half years to complete — it felt like a statement of hope.”
Johnson lives in North Wales, in the western part of the United Kingdom, more than an hour’s drive from a synagogue.
The latest Daf Yomi cycle, which began in January, has drawn a much broader following than perhaps at any time during its century-long history.
Previously, only those with the fortitude to show up in person every day for a lesson in millennia-old Jewish law — or study it on their own or with a partner — could participate. But with the proliferation of tools to study Talmud in translation, and Facebook groups to connect with others who have undertaken the daily commitment, a wider spectrum of people seem to have taken it on.
For those who live far from other Jews, Daf Yomi has created a virtual community of fellow learners.
“On a personal level, it stopped the isolation that I felt and it personally supported me,” said Johnson, who now texts daily with other women studying Daf Yomi that she has met through Facebook.
“It’s lovely to have other women who are intelligent and smart and they know things I don’t know and they have a background different from me.”
Part of what has enabled the broadening of Talmud study is the proliferation of online tools that make the text easily accessible to English speakers. Sefaria, the online library of Jewish texts, offers a line-by-line translation of the entire Talmud.
The Artscroll translation of the Talmud into English, Hebrew and, in part, French, with extremely extensive, accessible and learned notes, revolutionized the study of Talmud worldwide and dramatically boosted participation in Daf Yomi.
My Jewish Learning launched a daily email in January featuring a teaching based on that day’s page. A range of podcasts, telephone lectures, Facebook groups and other resources enable the study of the daily page from virtually anywhere.
Rabbi Joseph Meszler, who runs a nearly 400-member Facebook group called Daf Yomi for Progressive Rabbis, said today’s political environment may be pushing people back to ancient texts as a break from the nonstop news cycle.
“One of the reasons people were eager for it is times were tough emotionally, and people were looking for some kind of transcendental check-in, something that helps them rise above reacting to the right-now,” said Meszler, the spiritual leader at Temple Sinai in Sharon Mass. “I think everyone is looking for meaning and trying to make sense of our world.”
Online learning isn’t ideal for everyone. Garry Stein, a Canadian who lives in Hong Kong and does business in Ghana, appreciates the opportunity to access the Talmud from his phone across many time zones, but says it isn’t the same as studying in person with a partner, a traditional mode of learning known as chavrutah.
“I do wish I had someone I could talk to regularly while studying online. The posting [on Facebook groups] is useful to me, but to be honest, the quality of the posts is very uneven.”
Some newcomers to Daf Yomi have trouble grappling with social norms articulated in the Talmud.
“Some of the stuff, especially as a woman, is very difficult,” said Rene Rose, who lives in rural Vermont and began studying after reading If All the Seas Were Ink, a memoir by Ilana Kurshan about her experience studying Daf Yomi.
“We have to go back in history,” Rose said. “We can’t project a 21st century consciousness there. The Temple was destroyed, people were scattered, and the people talking here were trying to re-create something in a different format.”
Johnson and her texting group puzzle at some of the Talmud’s stories about women. But she also took comfort in a rabbinic discussion of illness and whether it comes from G-d, something she’s grappling with in her own life.
“Sometimes the sages say, ‘It’s G-d’s punishment,’” Johnson said. “They’ve got a divine aspect to why the person is ill, and that can be really difficult to learn on those days, that can be tough. One of the things that gives me comfort is the sages are just the way we are today. We still don’t understand why some people get sick, and some people don’t, and they were just trying to understand where G-d was in that.”
Each day of study is another day in Johnson’s fight with cancer. Seven-and-a-half years is a daunting timeline, but she’s determined.
“I am sure that G-d did not bring me this far to kill me now,” she said. “So I’m planning on finishing. I’m planning on finishing the Daf Yomi.”
