Thousands find 'spiritual uplift' in Talmud-study celebration
DEBRA N. COHEN
and PETER EPHROSS
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
NEW YORK - The Shema sounded like thunder - or perhaps like the clarion call of a shofar. As 20,000 people chanted the words that affirm God's singularity and power, the most elemental words in Jewish prayer rose up and seemed to linger at the top of Madison Square Garden.
The moment served as a powerful conclusion to an emotional gathering for the men and women attending last weekend's celebration marking the completion of the study of the entire Talmud - one page a day for 2,711 days in a row. It is a practice called Daf Yomi, or daily page, which was initiated by Rabbi Meir Shapiro of Poland in 1923. The practice takes seven and a half years to complete.
Celebrating the end of a cycle of Talmud - which is a compilation of commentary and interpretation of the Torah - with thousands of others gives one "a spiritual uplift, a kick-start" to keep going, said Sammy Hamburger, who had come all the way from London to participate.
For Sunday's event, sponsored by Agudath Israel of America, another 6,000 people filled the theater next to the Garden. Some 18,000 more were at the Nassau Coliseum in nearby Long Island, which was booked when the first venue sold out within weeks of tickets going on sale.
All told, 70,000 people participated in the event, either in person or by satellite hookup in places such as Phoenix; South Bend, Ind.; and Sao Paulo, Brazil.
There were Chasidic men born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., who speak only Yiddish. They came wearing bekeshes, or long blackcoats, over their tzitzit, black knickers and stockinged legs. Other men, dressed in dark suits and rakish fedoras, clearly move comfortably in secular worlds.
Though it is only men who learn the Daf Yomi, some 6,000 women attended Sunday's celebration as well.
"My grandmother is a Holocaust survivor," said Shani Stein, 21. "When she saw the men she started crying, pointed to the numbers on her arm, and said, 'The Nazis wanted to kill us, but look, we're dancing.' "
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