"Not Your Father's Talmud"

The entire tractates of the Talmud are about to become widely accessible to cultural Jews thanks to an exciting new online venture by a Chicago humanistic rabbi.

Rabbi Adam Chalom, of the Kol Hadash Humanistic Congregation, will be keeping a blog, or web log, of his commentary on the Talmud page of the day, the Daf Yomi, every day until the entire reading is complete.

The web site will offer cultural and secular Jews an unprecedented opportunity to participate in this cycle of Talmud study.

The entire Vilna edition of the Talmud takes seven and a half years to complete, at the rate of one page a day. On March 2, 2005, a new cycle of the Daf Yomi was ushered in around the world, beginning with the tractate Berakhot (Blessings).

Rabbi Chalom's contributions, with the title, "Not Your Father's Talmud," will be a combination of explanation and personal reaction, presented for cultural Jews to familiarize themselves with the Talmud from a humanistic perspective.

As Rabbi Chalom, Assistant Dean for the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism, writes on his site, "The more we know about our cultural heritage, the more we can choose from in creating our own identities."

The origin of the site's name, apikorostalmud.blogspot.com, is significant. "Apikoros" is derived from the Greek philosopher Epicurus and an apikoros is a Jewish agnostic, or freethinker who denies divine justice and life after death.

Click here to enter the site.

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