MADISON — Yehoshua Yaffe   celebrated his completion of studying the entire Babylonian Talmud on Monday, April 11 at Yeshivas Beis Dovid Shlomo in New Haven.

Yehoshua is the eldest son of Rabbi Yossi and Rochel Baila Yaffe, directors of Chabad-Lubavitch of the Shoreline. Since concluding his first tractate at his bar mitzvah four years ago, he has studied the rest of the Talmud with the commentaries of Rashi and Tosafos.

The entire Talmud of 63 tractates is more than 6,200 pages long. Written in a combination of Hebrew and Aramaic, it contains the teachings and opinions of thousands of rabbis dating from before the Common Era through the fifth century CE. The discussions cover a variety of subjects, including halacha (Jewish law), the Bible, Jewish ethics, philosophy, customs, history, and lore. The Talmud serves as the basis for all codes of Jewish law and — in conjunction with the Bible — is the most important written work of Judaism.

The custom to celebrate upon completing a tractate derives from the scholar Abaye, a rabbi in third century CE Babylonia, who said: “If I saw a scholar who completed a tractate, then I would make a holiday for the rabbis” (Tractate Shabbos 118b-119a).

“Yehoshua has committed himself in an extraordinary way, and we are so proud of him,” said Rabbi Yossie Yaffe, acknowledging his son’s accomplishment. “He has done this all in his free time, outside of his regular course of studies at yeshiva. And that regular course of studies extends from 7:30 in the morning until 9 at night, so you see the time frame he was working with.”

Rabbi Yaffe also gives credit for his son’s unique achievement to Yehoshua’s teachers over the years at Southern Connecticut Hebrew Academy in Orange, Yeshiva Beis Dovid Shlomo in New Haven) and, currently, Yeshivas Lubavitch Manchester in England.

According to Rabbi Yaffe, completing a tractate—or even the entire Talmud—becomes a milestone, not an end. On the annual holiday of Simchas Torah, Jews celebrate the end of the yearlong study of the Torah—and they immediately begin it again. The new cycle of study is truly ‘new,’ with a deeper level of comprehension, commitment and spiritual connection.”