Welcome

I am proud to announce the unveiling of the latest addition to the Weekly Shtikle blog network. This one will be slightly more challenging to keep up with since it requires my following of Daf Yomi (so far, so good.) Also, I will need to post in a timely manner while readers still have the relevant daf in mind.

Let me explain the name. I wanted to come up with something original. The first ideas that popped into my mind - On the Daf, Daf Thoughts, etc - just didn't fit the bill. The name is inspired by a speech I heard at the Toronto Siyum HaShas by R' Yair Adler where he pointed out that a daf of gemara is sometimes referred to as an עלה, a leaf. This was as he was introducing the guest speaker at the event, Rabbi Moshe Tuvia Lieff (his pun, not mine. I promise.) So, there you have it - "The Daily Leaf."

Live Daf

Thanks to Yeshiva World News, I just found out about a brand new site, Live Daf, based out of Toronto, which provides video and audio shiurim on the daf. The video feature is nice for those who feel their attention is kept better when the shiur is visual, even if it's just someone giving a shiur. But the true uniqueness of the site is its interactivity. You are able to submit questions on the daf and have them answered and there is a Question of the Day feature on each daf. I guess it's kind of the interactivity I hope to accomplish with this blog one day. But there's always room for more - להגדיל תורה ולהדירהּ!

Fastest דף יומי in the West

We've already had some גמרא's that address the concept of not making מצות or תפילה appear as a burden. Nevertheless, is one has difficulty fitting דף יומי into the schedule and is looking for the quickest online shiur, it appears the best option is the שיעורים provided by the Young Israel of Century City, CA given by Rav Yitzchak Etshalom. One slightly frustrating thing about the audio, however, is that although it seems these were designed for דף יומי the files are not divided exactly by דף. So listening to the day's דף will often entail listening to portions of two separate files.

Thanks to my father-in-law for this tip.

.ה Trials and Tribulations for ארץ ישראל

תניא רבי שמעון בן יוחאי אומר שלש מתנות טובות נתן הקדוש ברוך הוא לישראל וכולן לא נתנן אלא ע"י יסורין אלו הן תורה וארץ ישראל והעולם הבא... ארץ ישראל דכתיב כי כאשר ייסר איש את בנו ה' אלהיך מיסרך

It's always nice when the דף יומי intersects with פרשת השבוע.
See last year's Weekly Shtikle which is relevant to the above passage.