Up until a few years ago, one of the largest Daf Yomi shiurim was delivered by Reb Avraham Shlomo Yavo. He captured thousands of listeners throughout the globe with his unique delivery and concise shiur. But there is a story behind him:
At the young age of 14, Reb Avraham Shlomo was sent by his parents to learn in Canada. That was the place they felt would best suit his learning needs, though he knew no one where he was going. No one in the entire country.
The yeshivah was learning the first perek of Mesechta Sukkah, a relatively easy perek, yet “I understood nothing of what was being learned,” Reb Avraham Shlomo said, in his own words.
“One day, during our bein ha’sedarim break, I noticed a bachur, a bit older than me, sitting at the table learning another mesechta. When I asked him what he was learning, he told me he was going through another mesechta on his own. He was already halfway through it and was heading toward the remaining half.
“That triggered a tremendous kinas sofrim, a deep desire to learn and know an entire mesechta with clarity. That was a new phenomenon for me. I was barely able to understand what was being taught, let alone learn something on my own, and now I was witnessing a boy learning another mesechta! That sparked a deep desire to imitate him.
“That day, I opened my Gemara to the second perek of Mesechta Sukkah and began to learn. No go. I understood nothing more than nothing. My conscience began telling me how I would never succeed in learning. ‘You wasted your younger years,’ it said, ‘and now it’s too late.’ I even closed my Gemara at one point, thinking that nothing would ever materialize for me.
“One long Shabbos afternoon, the beis midrash was empty, and I sat before my Gemara with hot tears streaming down my red cheeks. I cried so hard that I drenched the pages of my Gemara. I continued crying out the sorrow of my deepest longing to understand the words of Hashem’s Torah.
“The next day, one of the maggidei shiur — someone who I had very little to do with up until then — approached me and asked what was sitting on my mind. I had nothing to lose by opening up to him, so I discussed all that was troubling me. At first, he reassured me that any Gemara that I have difficulty comprehending he would be glad to aid me with. That was already something. But then, he invited me to visit the famed Tosher Rebbe. After hearing me out, the Rebbe reinforced that the day would come when I would finish Shas. His words sparked desire, though it sounded farfetched. Not too realistic.
“That was the beginning of a new era in my life. From that day on, a new ray of light began to gleam into my life, and my mind began to absorb the Torah concepts that I was learning. That was the happiest day of my life. With the new present I was gifted, I made sure to use it — and use it well. I put in my all to understand the thing that meant the most to me.
“From Mesechta Sukkah, I moved on to Mesechta Brachos, and I found myself retaining more and more. By the time I finished that mesechta, I knew it so well that my chavrusah and I tested each other by choosing a mundane item and finding a place where that object is mentioned or referred to in the mesechta. It was a pleasure that can’t be put onto paper.
“By the time I was ready to leave the yeshivah, just one and a half years later, I had 400 blatt sitting right in my pocket.”
Then, Reb Avraham Shlomo turned to his audience and asked them the climax question: “Can you only imagine if I would have just settled with that ‘reality’? There would be no Reb Avraham Shlomo. There would be no shiur. There would be no talmidim. And only because of the determination, perseverance, and of course tefillah, did I break out of my limitations and began climbing up this tall mountain, which till today I am still climbing.
Limitations are limiting.
But their mindsets are more constricting.
Through tefillah and perseverance, we can break barriers. We can do it.
