Every Page A Story
Dean Henry Abramson Completes 2,711-Day Talmud History Video Project
The idea was simple: one video, every day.
It was also audacious: Each of the 2,711 installments would explore a daf in Shas through the lens of Jewish history.
It was 2019, and Rabbi Moshe Schwed of the OU was creating an app housing the best resources for daily Talmud study. All Daf, as it came to be known, was seeded with recordings by veteran magidei shiur, but Schwed sought supplementary content that would connect students with the Babylonian Talmud in fresh ways.
He reached out to historian Henry Abramson, dean of Touro University’s Lander College for Men (LCM), who took on the mammoth, almost quixotic task of producing one video — most between one and five minudtes long — per folio. In each, Dr. Abramson is superimposed on a page of Gemara, delivering his message in a genial tone, occasionally punctuated by historical images.
Celebrating Scholarship and Spirit
On Tuesday, October 21, Dr. Abramson concluded that winding Talmudic journey with a Siyum HaShas at LCM. More than 100,000 global students who learn with All Daf were invited to join a livestream, but the celebration felt intimate despite its scale.
It was, to be sure, a singular event — the culmination of years of quiet diligence and global connection. How often do people across ages and backgrounds gather to celebrate the study of historical curiosities linked only by their shared ties to a sprawling, ancient work?
The siyum’s speakers — Rabbi Moshe Krupka, Touro’s executive vice president; Rabbi Doniel Lander, the Touro's chancellor; Rabbi Yonason Sacks, rosh hayeshivah of Beis Medrash L’Talmud at LCM; and Dr. Shalom Huberfeld, project sponsor — praised Dr. Abramson’s humility and creative scholarship.
Fittingly, Dr. Abramson read the hadran from a historical Gemara: the so-called “Survivors’ Talmud,” printed in the shadow of the Holocaust in a displaced persons camp. Its worn pages, he noted, were themselves a testament to Jewish perseverance.
A Mosaic of Mini-Histories
Behind the celebration lay the painstaking assembly of thousands of miniature history lessons.
LCM student David Thumim, Dr. Abramson’s research assistant, has seen firsthand how eclectic those nuggets are.
“My research has taken me everywhere,” he said. “I learned where people once ate ants as a delicacy, how the Christian refusal to use cooked wine lets us benefit from yayin mevushal today, and about iconoclastic rhinotomy in ancient Egypt.”
Oh, and he’s chased the mystery of how nearly every culture independently created dragon myths.
The project was endlessly fascinating — and demanding. For each daf, Dr. Abramson studied the page, identified potential topics, conducted research, wrote a script, and recorded a video. His editor (a role variously filled by three of his children) prepared the final cut for upload to All Daf.
Context Breeds Connection
The dean’s project is of special value to his students, who spend hours a day absorbed in Talmud study.
“Understanding the historical context of this massive document changes the experience,” said Dr. Abramson. “Sometimes the Gemara only makes sense if one understands how linen was produced in the ancient world. Other times, Yemenite manuscripts illuminate cryptic passages in censored European ones.”
Eric Gertz, an admiring student of Dr. Abramson, shares how the dean’s imaginative didactic style comes to life. “He has us engage in debates, with each side impersonating historical groups antagonistic to each other,” he said.
A Global Classroom
Lander students are not the only ones to benefit from Dr. Abramson’s distinctive teaching. He has received thank you’s from viewers worldwide, including from atypical Gemara students who share what these little videos mean to them.
Increasing the Talmud’s accessibility was a goal, but the project was also about helping seasoned students appreciate elements they had not previously considered. Politics, economics, technology, material culture, geography: all of it enlivens Gemara to its students.
“Jewish history no longer feels optional: it’s staring us in the face right now,” said Dr. Abramson. “When I teach, I think beyond the specifics of 12th-century Ashkenaz or 15th-century Portugal and wonder: What does Jewish history say about our current challenges?”
