September 11th of this year marked the one-hundredth anniversary of the start of the very first daf yomi cycle.
In the time of Rav Chaim of Volozhin, there was a ba’al habayis who had completed the entire Shas. Rav Chaim would stand up for him when he would enter the room. The talmidim of Rav Chaim felt that it was an affront to his honor to stand up for a ba’al habayis. They spoke to Rav Chaim, saying that although the ba’al habayis did learn Shas and spent a lot of time learning, he didn’t know the Shas in depth, so it was not respectful for a great gaon like himself to stand up for him.
Rav Chaim answered that there are two types of Shas - the Vilna Shas which was a beautiful Shas with a quality print, and another Shas printed in Poland which was of lesser quality with inferior print. Rav Chaim explained that if one had these two sets of Shas, he wouldn’t say that the inferior Shas is not Shas. That person would merely say it was not as beautiful as the other one. Similarly, someone who had completed Shas is someone who had completed Shas, and therefore it’s appropriate to treat him with proper honor.
Shas is Shas!
