Thursday, August 2, 2012

‘Very Spiritual’: 90,000+ Jews Take Part in Reading of the Talmud at MetLife Stadium in NJ

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (TheBlaze/AP) — In a sports stadium transformed into what was called the world’s largest synagogue, tens of thousands of people celebrated the completion of the reading of the Talmud, the book of Jewish laws and traditions.
The program at MetLife Stadium on Wednesday night combined a festive atmosphere of singing and dancing with the more serious pursuits of prayer and reflection; it was dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust.
“Tonight is a night of inspiration and opportunity,” Rabbi Elly Kleimnan told the gathering.
Rabbis from around the world addressed the audience during the five-hour program, and speeches and prayers in Hebrew and English were streamed by audio and video throughout the stadium’s concourses.
The celebration, called Siyum HaShas, marks the completion of the Daf Yomi, or daily reading and study of one page of the 2,711-page book. The cycle takes about seven and a half years to finish.
Organizers marked the start of the 13th cycle of study and reading. The event was organized by Agudath Israel of America, an Orthodox Jewish organization. It started celebrating the cycle of study in Europe in 1923.

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