Talmud

Ari Elon, director of the department of rabbinic texts at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia, will be the scholar-in-residence this weekend at Congregation Beth Israel, Gayley Terrace at Baker Street, Media. Elon will offer a D'var Torah at the 8 p.m. Shabbat service Friday and will lead a discussion and study of the Talmud at the 10 a.m. service Saturday. Elon is the author of From Jerusalem to the Edge of Heaven: Meditations on the Soul of Israel. CHARTERED Marketplace Community Church, 500 Chesterbrook Blvd.

The standing-room crowds included elderly rabbis and young bar mitzvahs, doctors, housewives, computer consultants and others, all eager for an insight into Judaism. Many came clutching a legendary book: a white-jacketed, gilt-edged edition of the Talmud, or Jewish oral law, bearing the name of one Judaism's greatest scholars. Steinsaltz. It is a name some Jews utter in the same breath with Maimonides, Rashi, Akiba and Hillel. But unlike those ancient sages of memory, the august Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz is still very much alive.

The Talmud. It's the major compendium of Jewish law and lore. It's also a CD-ROM - those information-packed discs that are all the rage with owners of multimedia computers. For $299, you can have what Davka Corp. of Chicago calls "The wisdom of Judaism in the palm of your hand. " And just in time for Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, which began last night at sundown. All 5,000 pages of the historic Jewish work - in English and the original Hebrew and ancient Aramaic text - plus the Hebrew commentary of Rashi, the classic medieval commentator of the Talmud, are on disc.

Robb Armstrong, creator of the syndicated comic strip Jump Start, will be the guest at the 9:30 a.m. Sunday school session this weekend at St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Athens Avenue and Wynnewood Road, Ardmore. Armstrong will talk about how he gets ideas for his cartoons and will sign copies of his book, Jump Start - A Love Story. He will be introduced by W. Carter Merbreier, also known as Channel 6's Capt. Noah. For more information, call 610-642-3211. ADULT STUDIES The Jewish Theological Seminary of America will sponsor a Talmud study program from 7 to 10 p.m. Oct. 2 at Har Zion Temple, 1500 Hagys Ford Rd., Penn Valley.

When a Jew needs an answer to a question about any aspect of life - from the most mundane, such as what to eat, to the most profound mysteries of eschatology - a rabbinic maxim says that the answer is in the Torah. But Jews are not fundamentalists who read the text only literally, and the five books of Moses are an ancient text in a different language. So teasing a coherent response to an issue from the sacred text often requires the assistance of a rabbi and a look at the "oral Torah," the Talmudic commentaries.

On a Saturday morning as warm as God's love, Gamaliel Respes, his outstretched hands cradling a prayer book, bobs gently forward and back, chanting a fluid Hebrew that fills the sanctuary of the synagogue his father founded 30 years ago in this town tucked deep in the Pinelands. Behind him, a teenage boy and a cluster of men in skullcaps and blue and white prayer shawls worship with him, rocking slowly to the rhythms of his voice. The women in the back reply softly, ah-main. It is a weekly ritual for Respes, a slight, wiry man in horn-rimmed glasses.

Jewish education is an ongoing discipline for a man such as Bert Zauderer, who studies the Talmud every day and once spent an entire week pondering the meaning of one sentence in that body of law and tradition. So when his son, Rabbi Moshe Zauderer, began to muse about teaching classes in Judaism over the Internet, his father pounced on the idea - though the rabbi was in Jerusalem and the father was in Merion. Thus was the formation of Zichron Avos - Jewish Interactive Studies Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of adult Jewish education.

Caught up in a private but deeply emotional spiritual experience, Moshe Ungar seems oblivious to the 20 bearded men around him as he davens - prays - in silence, flipping pages of the prayer book and occasionally chanting aloud in Hebrew. The black fedora stays firmly in place as Ungar, a rabbi and accountant, swings from side to side like a windshield wiper on high speed. He is shuckling, his bowing symbolic of a believer's two responses to God - the approach in love, the withdrawal in awe. Soon, led by Rabbi Yehoshua Kaganoff the men will begin their discussions for this Thursday evening - about the intricacies of animal sacrifice, which hasn't been practiced by Jews for nearly 2,000 years.

Only in an interfaith caper comedy could four bungling Jewish shopkeepers and an ace Catholic seminarian/safecracker steal a sheaf of money "fatter than the Talmud" and have the Lord on their side. Not to be confused with The French Connection, Yiddish Connection is a mildly amusing film set in Paris' Jewish quarter. It was written by and stars Gallic cabaret performer Charles Aznavour, who here plays Aaron, a junk dealer and notorious neighborhood tightwad turned reluctant thief.

What is Hanukah? It is a question that appears in the Talmud - that ancient collection of commentary and stories on Jewish law - scholars say. It is also a question that many non-Jews ask at this time of year. But as leaders of the organized Jewish community are quick to point out, Hanukah is not the Jewish Christmas. The holidays have little in common except, as some students of comparative religion believe, in ancient observances of the winter solstice. "The notion that the Christians have Christmas and the Jews have their Hanukah is fallacious, misleading and does both faiths a terrible disservice," said Stephen M. Brown, headmaster of the Solomon Schechter School in Bala Cynwyd, in a recent letter to parents.

I don't want to cause any trouble here, but the wrong movie took home the Academy Award for best foreign-language film last month. As fine and complex as A Separation is, the Iranian Oscar winner doesn't achieve anywhere near the levels of psychological depth and emotional punch of its fellow nominee, Footnote. From Israel, this remarkable work, written and directed by Joseph Cedar, chronicles the epic rivalry between a father and son, both Talmudic scholars, and the twisted knots of ego, anger, loyalty, and loathing that bind them together, and tear them apart.

When a Jew needs an answer to a question about any aspect of life - from the most mundane, such as what to eat, to the most profound mysteries of eschatology - a rabbinic maxim says that the answer is in the Torah. But Jews are not fundamentalists who read the text only literally, and the five books of Moses are an ancient text in a different language. So teasing a coherent response to an issue from the sacred text often requires the assistance of a rabbi and a look at the "oral Torah," the Talmudic commentaries.

Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua has asked for us as Christians to forgive the men who performed this unspeakable act of violence against our country. "Christ Himself taught us that we must forgive," the cardinal wrote. "By His own example, He demonstrated that we must be willing to forgive even the most enormous of hurts and assaults against us. " With all due respect, the cardinal is wrong to preach this to people who are still missing their mothers, fathers, sons and daughters beneath tons of steel and concrete.

The standing-room crowds included elderly rabbis and young bar mitzvahs, doctors, housewives, computer consultants and others, all eager for an insight into Judaism. Many came clutching a legendary book: a white-jacketed, gilt-edged edition of the Talmud, or Jewish oral law, bearing the name of one Judaism's greatest scholars. Steinsaltz. It is a name some Jews utter in the same breath with Maimonides, Rashi, Akiba and Hillel. But unlike those ancient sages of memory, the august Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz is still very much alive.

Jewish education is an ongoing discipline for a man such as Bert Zauderer, who studies the Talmud every day and once spent an entire week pondering the meaning of one sentence in that body of law and tradition. So when his son, Rabbi Moshe Zauderer, began to muse about teaching classes in Judaism over the Internet, his father pounced on the idea - though the rabbi was in Jerusalem and the father was in Merion. Thus was the formation of Zichron Avos - Jewish Interactive Studies Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of adult Jewish education.

We have heard so much rancor and reproach. Now, a season of reverence and hope gives us a respite. Perhaps we'll find time to search our consciences and ponder what to make of it all in human terms. Two ethicists could be of use. First, let's hear from Rabbi Daniel Zemel of Washington's Temple Micah. Long before the House Judiciary Committee approved four articles of impeachment, Rabbi Zemel preached a thought-provoking Yom Kippur sermon on this matter. He searched Jewish law and tradition and offered "principles that have shaped my personal thinking about the President, Ken Starr, Congress and the entire affair . . . in the hope that you might benefit from them in your own personal deliberation": (1)

On April 10, Jews the world over will arise in the midst of the ceremonial seder meal to open the doors of their homes for one special guest. At the table, a single cup of wine will just have been poured in readiness for the late arrival. Obviously, any one guest who is expected at every seder, every Passover, everywhere and every year can be no ordinary mortal. The sought-for guest of honor is none other than the prophet Elijah, whom Jews believe will herald the coming of the messianic age. The sages said he is most likely to arrive at one of three times: At the end of the weekly Sabbath, because the messianic age will be an unending Sabbath.

When Rabbi Isaac Furman helped get South Jersey's only Jewish day school off the ground almost four decades ago, his motives weren't entirely altruistic, he admits. "I began the school for my own kids," said Rabbi Furman, 66. "I wanted a religious education for my two daughters that was not available, so I had an incentive to keep growing the school, grade by grade - I didn't want to drive to Philadelphia," he joked. Thirty-eight years ago, when Rabbi Furman arrived in Cherry Hill, the Kellman Academy had a kindergarten program with 11 students.

He was just out of high school, a 17-year-old with an eye toward making a career in medicine. But "something was missing," James Kaweblum said. And so he went about trying to find that something. Twenty years later, Rabbi James Kaweblum is finally ready to start medical school. Rabbi Kaweblum completed his orientation for first-year students Friday, and today begins his first of four years at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey School of Osteopathic Medicine in Stratford.

Ari Elon, director of the department of rabbinic texts at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia, will be the scholar-in-residence this weekend at Congregation Beth Israel, Gayley Terrace at Baker Street, Media. Elon will offer a D'var Torah at the 8 p.m. Shabbat service Friday and will lead a discussion and study of the Talmud at the 10 a.m. service Saturday. Elon is the author of From Jerusalem to the Edge of Heaven: Meditations on the Soul of Israel. CHARTERED Marketplace Community Church, 500 Chesterbrook Blvd.