Four years ago on the 5th of January 2006, I wrote a post entitled the Value of Learning Mishna outlining the benefits of learning Mishna, links to online mishna classes and some general guidance for starting your own mishna seder.
On the 5 of January 2010, I received the following email, which I post with the authors permission as is.
hii dont know if you remember me or not – we emailed back and forth almost exactly 3 years ago about the mishnayos learning and trying to do all mishnayos in a yearwell thanks to you I FINALLY DID ITi just turned forty erev chanukah and one of my goals was to finally actually get thru all mishnayos by the time i was 40i arranged my carpool schedle so at the school in the morning and afternoon i have 10-15 minutes of time to just sit in the car – i took my mishnayos with me every day – and actually did them all in less than 7 months – i am sure that is too fast and that nothing sunk in but i am hoping to keep it going and do all mishnayos again and again in less than a yearanyway i just wanted to share my good news with you and thank you for the encouragement you gave me 3 years ago – i didnt forget – i just kept missing my goal – in the past 3 years i have had 2 more children and had other things come up – not real obstacles but excuses which i used to slack offi want to make sure you realize that this is because of you and that you are due the credithope all is well with youthank you againyitz fleischmanbaltimore, maryland
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I cannot put into words what tremendous joy I feel from receiving this email, knowing that one blog post by a guy in Sydney, Australia inspired Yitz Fleischman of Baltimore to complete the entire of Mishna. Incredible! On behalf of myself and all my readers, I congradulate you Yitz on this tremendous milestone and may you go G-d willing from strength to strength in all your future learning endevours, keep us posted!
As for myself, I unfortunately have not be so resilient in my learning efforts, however this email from Yitz has really got me inspired to get back in the game and go on to finish mishna myself. I hope this post will inspire you as well, Yitz is proof that it really can be done and we should all aspire to his example and go from strength to strength in our learning. Amen.