"I Lived in a Luxury Villa, with a Private Plane and Businesses, but I Was Missing Spirituality"

Every day in Beit Shemesh, inside a unique and spacious building, people from all walks of Israeli life – businesspeople and yeshiva heads, religious and secular, Neturei Karta members alongside those with knitted kippot, suit-wearers alongside those in simple shirts – gather to do one thing: study a page of Talmud.

This happens in the unique class of Rabbi Eli Stefanski, who has become a cross-sector Torah phenomenon. More than 10,000 people join the class daily via Zoom from all over the country and the world, including women and even young children thirsty for words of Torah.

Rabbi Stefanski's class has become one of the most famous Daf Yomi classes in the world, perhaps the most famous, attracting a vast and varied audience. Behind the tremendous success is the fascinating personal story of Rabbi Stefanski, who was once a successful businessman in New York. He chose to make a sharp turn in his life, ascended to Israel, and settled in Beit Shemesh, where he now leads the massive Torah initiative that has captured many hearts..

"I Was Looking for Spirituality"

Rabbi Stefanski was born in America and studied in yeshivas and a kollel for six years. After that, he entered the business world, managing a catering company that was very successful, providing services for about 100 weddings a year.

"At one wedding," he recounts, "someone approached me and asked if I was interested in buying a project of 2,000 rental apartments and managing them for the tenants. My first reaction was: 'You're crazy!' It seemed utterly illogical to me. Later, I pondered it at night and started thinking maybe the idea wasn't so crazy. If it were ten or twenty apartments, I might have agreed, so what's stopping me from doing something big? It's just my fear and worries.

"Eventually, I decided to go for it, and with all my might. I transferred the catering business to my cousin's management, and in 2005 I entered the business world and bought all 2,000 apartments. From there began the huge business: I employed 150 people, and since the profits were nice, I could afford to indulge – I bought a private plane and many sea toys like yachts and fancy jet skis. I built a huge house for my family in Chicago, with dozens of living rooms and 15 bathrooms, an elevator inside the house, and more first-rate amenities. My wife, an interior designer by profession, designed the house according to the latest trends. We lived there for three months, and then I told my wife that everything was nice, but I felt something was missing in my life, I was looking for spirituality. During those days, I was giving a class in Chicago to five people, but I felt it wasn't giving me what I was looking for. So I decided to move to Israel, and within a few weeks, we made aliyah. It was very quick, and from there, our lives changed."

Rabbi Stefanski notes that when they first settled in Israel, he would initially fly abroad for a few days each month to take care of business, managing other matters remotely. Eventually, he found a good partner overseas and thanks to him could free up time in his schedule.

"At that time, an idea occurred to me – to deliver a regular weekly class that summarizes in brief the material learned throughout the week. I knew it would require effort but also force me to study daily, which would give me consistency. Since I realized there's no reason for people to come to my class just like that because they don't know who I am, I made sure to provide good food – sushi, schnitzels, cholent... and indeed, many came. I knew they weren't coming for me but for the food, but it served the purpose because it required me to prepare a class for them to hear it.

"After two years, people came to me and asked: 'Why are you giving a class that only summarizes the page? Give us a real class every day.' I asked them: 'Do you really want it?' And when I understood there was a real desire, I announced: 'We start tomorrow.' I'm a big proponent of immediate action and dislike procrastination. So we began the Daf Yomi class the very next day – eight people participated in the first class, and I even remember which page we studied – Tractate Avoda Zara, page 28. It's true it wasn't the beginning of a new tractate or a special date. On the contrary, it was right in the middle of a topic. But it was clear to me it was the right thing – not to wait or delay, but to start where there's motivation."

Did you anticipate how it would develop and grow?

"Of course not. But even then, at the initial stage, I told myself I would use the tools I acquired in real estate – various methods I used that made me unique in the business field. It was clear to me from the very first moment that I didn't want an ordinary class but a more unique one, and so I began to bring props to illustrate the material. I once brought a dog to class, another time a snake, and on another occasion a kid goat. When we discussed the topic of knives, I brought various kitchen knives, and in a different instance, someone hid under the chairs, and when I signaled him, he made everyone dance. Apparently, this intrigued people, and their numbers increased gradually."

Crossing Boundaries

Rabbi Stefanski recounts that when about 40 participants came to the class, he realized his home was not sufficient to accommodate everyone, and a special place needed to be built for this. "I tried to involve friends from the neighborhood in the initiative, but they didn't want to participate because they didn't believe in it. So I eventually decided to do it alone and built a structure with 80 places for Daf Yomi class participants. Even then, my friends didn't really believe me, and claimed: 'Why build 80 places? You won't have more than 40-50.' But it was clear to me I was thinking big, so I went for it. Today, those who initially discouraged me are saying: 'Why did you build such a small place? There's no room to sit.' But that's how life is. You mustn't listen to people, and even in real estate, if I had listened to everyone who told me 'Don't buy,' I wouldn't have done anything.

"Today, I don't work in business at all and trust my partner 100%. All the time I have in the day – 10 to 14 hours – I dedicate to the Daf Yomi project, and all my thoughts are occupied with how to innovate, diversify, and add. I employ a team that prepares animations and illustrations to illustrate, and I also continue to bring various props to illustrate the material. When we recently learned about lashes, I brought a whip, just like in the past, and I also have very advanced animations. Today, for example, we had 57 animations in slides, in one lesson. The work is really around the clock, and there's nothing else I do besides this. I hardly attend weddings, don't go on vacations with my wife, and when I have to fly abroad to deliver classes there, I pre-record that week's classes, which is very complex and complicated."

Additionally, Rabbi Stefanski notes that one of the things that make the Daf Yomi unique is that you can't take any day off. "You have to deliver a class even on Tisha B'Av and Yom Kippur, even on holiday eves, even on Saturday nights, and even in your busiest times. For example, I delivered a class on the day a grandson was born to me, and we were so distracted around the daughter who gave birth, as well as on days I was sick or distracted or busy with countless other things. Anyone who knows me knows that this consistency isn't really typical of me because I have dozens of books at home that I started reading and didn't finish, but in Talmud study, there's an especially great miracle. For five years, I haven't missed a single day. I have no natural explanation for this."

Over time, a warm atmosphere developed among all the class participants who got to know each other. "It's really an amazing phenomenon," Rabbi Stefanski shares excitedly. "People got to know each other in the class thanks to Zoom, which led to the creation of connections, mutual help, and a feeling very much like a community or family.

"We had an interesting story when one of the people participating via Zoom contacted me one day and shared that he noticed that a child listening to the class had a leak in his home ceiling, and he wanted to transfer money to fix the leak. When he checked the matter later, it turned out that it was indeed a family in need of financial assistance, and even during that week, he transferred $10,000 through me to fix the leak.

"Another participant had a son who, at age eight, fell ill, and other participants who heard about it supported him throughout the time, helped him purchase an advanced computer for the child to help him communicate with the family, and sent many more packages of food and clothes. When the child passed away, participants from the class came to comfort him, and I was so moved when they later sent me pictures showing a Chabad Hasid who came to comfort the father, who was actually Lithuanian, but they connected through the class. Some even flew from abroad to comfort him. Where else do you see such things?"

A Profitable Venture

Those who listen to Rabbi Stefanski's classes are also aware of a unique initiative where he gives free Talmuds to anyone who expresses interest in joining. "To date, over 500 Talmuds have been distributed," he says with satisfaction, "Each Talmud costs nearly 200 shekels, and that's really not the only expense. This Daf Yomi study project costs about $2 million a year, of course, I don't take a salary from it, but my goal is truly to do good for people, and I discovered that one of the ways to do that is to offer a free Schottenstein Talmud, because people like to receive things, even if they have the money, and eventually, they see it's good and just stay."

And what do you plan for the future? Do you think you'll return to the business world?

"I really love business, not just because of the money. Business gives you a lot of satisfaction – you buy and sell, and it's interesting and challenging. But that satisfaction doesn't even begin to compare to the satisfaction I get from delivering the classes now. There isn't a day I don't hear stories that genuinely move me to tears. Like a person who approached me and shared how he was hurt when he was a child and his whole life was ruined until he found the class and it saved his life. Or a 17-year-old who said that since he was 15 he stopped wearing tefillin until his father showed him the class, and thanks to it he completed ten tractates.

"There was a case where a woman told us she had a dream where she was told she needed to study 'Beitzah.' She didn't understand what Beitzah was and who studies Beitzah, but when she took the dream to her rabbi, he explained there's a Talmud Beitzah and suggested she try to delve into it. She searched online for 'study Beitzah' and found my class. For two months she listened to the class, eventually returning to faith, although at the time her husband was still secular. A few months later we received an email from her husband recalling the story, informing us he joined the class following her, and now he has also returned to faith, and even noted: 'You changed my life.'

"I strive to convey to as many people as possible the message that Daf Yomi study is life-changing, and from my familiarity with many cases – I also know how to explain why. The reason is clear: when a person does something consistently every day and succeeds in maintaining it – they learn about themselves that they have the ability to persist and do things they didn't always believe they could do. And if they manage to regularly incorporate a 40-minute class into their schedule, it means they can also do additional things, like maintaining physical fitness, eating well, or any other project that mattered to them. Also, the study itself provides many tips and good advice regarding marital harmony, children, and even business. It's no wonder it changes lives.

"So yes, I treat the project I've established here as a kind of business, I aim to provide good service to the people listening to the class because they are essentially my clients, just like in business, only of another kind – clients for Torah. This is an opportunity to invite anyone reading this to join the class and try a taste too. It's a personal request from me, but the merits are entirely yours."