I once heard, many years ago, that Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky zatzal used to make a siyum (the completion of an established unit of Torah study) every Erev Pesach on the whole Torah. Meaning all of the Talmud Bavli, all of the Talmud Yerushalmi, all of the Rambam, all of the Shulchan Aruch, all of the Sifri and the Sifra and the Mechilta. This claim is certainly something that I understand myself that it could be, regarding someone like Reb Chaim, but I always said to myself that I would like to hear such a claim from someone closer to Reb Chaim, someone with more personal knowledge.
The Shas Bavli alone would be 7 1/2 pages a day, and I am sure that he was learning it with Tosfos. Where did he find the time in a day to learn all of the above mentioned subjects?
Now it came out during the Shiva. When the Tzanzer Rebbe was paying a condolence call to the sons, the above claim was all confirmed by the sons themselves. They said that he had the goal to make a siyum hashas every year. The first year he tried and failed, the second year also. But the third year he was able to, and then every year since then he was successful. And not only a siyum of the Babylonian Shas, also everything else that I mentioned above, including also the Zohar.
Unbelievable. Just unbelievable.
The children said that when they were younger they always viewed their father as a regular Kollel student. He never made anything particular of himself, and they just assumed that what he knew, everyone knows.
The Rebbe asked them what he demanded from the children. They answered, that he learned with each one individually the whole Torah.
Personally I am moved to the point of tears. How much it is possible to do if you only put your mind to it and not waste time.
If you understand Hebrew, then you can view the whole conversation from the link below:
https://torahonline.co.il/videos/reb-chaim-siyum-kol-hatorah-kula.mp4
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