In I got It!
The International Daf HaYomi Movement
The beauty of this phenomenal project is the uniting factor between all types of Jews in the study of Gemara, in an organized framework of study. Many who until then had given up on the idea of completing the entire Shas, or were hesitant even to start, joined the collective study cycle. In every location over the globe that a Jew could possibly reach, he can be integrated into a Gemara class delivered there. The entire Jewish nation is learning the same material, at the same pace.
This was indeed the scenario painted by the Maharam Shapiro before the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudas Yisrael, headed by the generation’s greatest personalities: The Rebbe of Gur - the ‘Imrei Emes’, the Chafetz Chaim, R’ Chaim Ozer Grodzinski and other renown Torah giants. This was during the first Kenessia Gedolah (grand convention) in Vienna, which opened on the 9th of Elul 5683/1923. Rabbi Meir presented his idea of the study of ‘Daf HaYomi’, together with his proposal of setting up Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin.
Rabbi Meir Shapiro was given widespread support in his new endeavor, and on the 1st of Tishrei 5684 the first study cycle began, after the Rebbe of Gur announced on Rosh Hashana that he is ‘going to learn Daf HaYomi’. There are 2711 pages (Dafim) in the entire Shas; learning one Daf every day means that each study cycle is completed after seven and a half years.
An offshoot of the main Daf HaYomi movement is the Limud Daf HaYomi of the Talmud Yerushalmi, introduced by the 5th Gerrer Rebbe the ‘Lev Simcha’, in the 6th Kenessia of Agudas Yisrael that took place in Yerushalayim in the year 5740/1980. In this framework, the cycle of study is completed every four years and three months.