the very same daf that he studied on that day, and he gladly joins them. Another Jew leaves the States and travels to Brazil or Japan, and he first goes to the beis medrash, where he finds everyone learning the same daf that he himself learned that day. Could there be greater unity of hearts than this?Marks, Yehudah. "It's Question Time at Daf Yomi Kollel: Jews from around the world can get instant answers – in English – to their questions on Gemara, halachah, and many other areas of Jewish interest". Hamodia, 24 May 2012, pp. A30–31. Originally, Shapiro saw Daf Yomi as an obligation only for the religious youth of Poland. However, the idea was greeted enthusiastically by the nearly 600 delegates at the Congress, including many Torah leaders from Europe and America, who accepted it as a universal obligation for all Jews. The first cycle of Daf Yomi commenced on the first day of Rosh Hashanah 5684 (11 September 1923), with tens of thousands of Jews in Europe, America and Israel learning the first daf of the first tractate of the Talmud, Berachot. To show support for the idea, the Gerrer rebbe, Avraham Mordechai Alter, learned the first daf of Berachot in public on that day. On 12 November 1923 Tractate Berachot was completed, with small siyums (celebrations marking the completion of study of a Talmudic tractate) in local communities. At that time, Shapiro published a calendar for the entire cycle of Daf Yomi study. (For the first seven cycles, there were only 2,702 pages of Talmud on the schedule; later the Daf Yomi Commission of Agudath Israel increased it to 2,711, changing the edition used for Tractate Shekalim, taken from the Jerusalem Talmud, to one with more pages.) The siyum for the completion of Tractate Pesachim took place after the laying of the cornerstone for Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin. At that time, Shapiro conceived the idea of contributing daily groschen to help raise money for the building. Each day, each person who studied Daf Yomi was asked to set aside a grosh (a Polish penny), and at the end of the tractate, to donate the sum to the yeshiva. The Second World Congress of the World Agudath Israel, held in 1929, coincided with the completion of Tractate Zevachim. The 1st Siyum HaShas took place on 2 February 1931 (15 Shevat 5691) in several cities in Europe and in