Messiah

They have been summoned as though by some cosmic signal that set off hundreds of beepers all at once throughout the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights. Dropping their work, they have shuttered their shops and streamed through icy streets into a Gothic brick building. And now they form a throbbing mass, black coats and long beards, more than a thousand members of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect known as the Lubavitchers. Some perch on bleachers made of milk crates and plywood.

And so Ross Perot emerges from Texas - a candidate without a party or a platform, a man who, until a few months ago, was largely unknown to the millions across the country who now say they will vote for him to lead them back into the sunlight. I can't say I'm surprised. My sense of it, in fact, is that it was predicted in the Bible. At the very least, it seems to me that something about this was mentioned in the basement of a Methodist church in Milledgeville, Ga., during Sunday school one morning back in 1953 or so - that a Messiah was coming, and we'd better get ready - and I must have believed that because here we are 39 years later, and the man has more or less emerged on Earth to save us, and it all makes perfect sense to me. He doesn't look the way I'd imagined he'd look back in 1953.

When John Harrison has his split-finger fastball diving, the Widener senior is virtually unhittable. That is what made Harrison's 1-0 complete-game victory over Messiah on Saturday so impressive. The Sun Valley graduate did not have his best stuff but still held Messiah to three hits. "He didn't have his pitches working going in," Widener coach Bill Zwaan said. "His fastball wasn't working. He wasn't getting his breaking ball over as well as he has in the past. " But Harrison, who is 3-2 with an earned run average of 1.20 this year, battled.

German composer George Frideric Handel found great success as a writer of operas in his early years, but the work that truly elevated his fortunes was Messiah. Written in 1742 when Handel was 57, ill and considering retirement, Messiah "was a hit right from the beginning," said Kile Smith, curator of the Fleisher music collection at the Free Library of Philadelphia. Today, Messiah remains Handel's most celebrated work, and at no time is it more performed than at Christmas.

Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, 92, leader of the ultra-Orthodox Lubavitcher movement who transformed an old-fashioned Eastern European sect into an aggressive and conspicuous manifestation of modern Jewish Orthodoxy, died early yesterday. The rabbi died at 1:50 a.m. at Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan, where he had been hospitalized since March 10, when he suffered a stroke, his second in two years. After an emotional day of mourning at the Brooklyn headquarters of the sect, his followers buried Rabbi Schneerson just after 6 p.m. beside his wife and father-in-law in a Queens cemetery.

Kenneth H. Pope, 78, of Spring House, a former tobacco-store owner and retired Upper Gwynedd Township manager, died Friday at the medical facility at Fort Washington Estates. Mr. Pope was born in Philadelphia and attended Germantown High School and the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. During World War II, he was an Army tank driver in the Pacific Theater. He resided at Gwynedd Estates in Spring House for the last nine years after living in the North Wales area since 1955.

The music of celebration is ringing through the concert halls and churches, announcing the holiday season. Handel's ubiquitous and familiar "Messiah" can be heard in many formats, but a wealth of other diverse choices is available as well. Although there are programs of seasonal music everywhere, the following list represents most of the area's highlights. TONIGHT AT 8: The Music Group, conducted by Sean Deibler, presents Britten's "A Ceremony of Carols," Williamson's "World at the Manger," plus traditional carols at Church of St. Luke and the Epiphany (repeats Sunday at 8 at the Church of the Redeemer, Pennswood and Fishers rds., Bryn Mawr.

The season of holiday music begins with a flourish this weekend, ringing out to suit every persuasion. Outstanding versions of Handel's traditional "Messiah," both the authentic and the opulent, abound. Yet this year there are many other offerings for those seeking different expressions of this special season. As you sing along or carol, count your blessings for the wide spectrum of glorious music all around us. Tonight at 8: "Messiah," in a reconstruction of the first London performance of 1743, given at the Academy of Music by the outstanding Philadelphia Singers under the baton of Michael Korn.

It was not something you see every day at Sixth and Chestnut Streets: dozens of ordinary citizens, holding babies or skateboarding or talking on the phone, floating heavenward past Independence Hall. True, the image was just an ad from Jews for Jesus in Thursday's Inquirer, but it was a grabber. So was the message. "OK, you're in downtown Philadelphia when suddenly, BAM! It's Judgment Day," read the text. "Let's face it, this would be a really bad time to finally realize Jesus is the Messiah.

Music plays an essential role in the spirit of the holidays, and the glorious sounds of the season will soon be resounding through the area's performing venues. We'll have the usual share of Handel's ubiquitous "Messiah," but this year you'll also find a wealth of other offerings on the schedule. FRIDAY, DEC. 6 "Messiah," in the finest of local small orchestra and chorus presentations by the Philadelphia Singers. Richard Westenburg conducts the chorus and Concerto Soloists in the 1750 Covent Garden version.