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36 Mos.
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A cyber-yeshiva finds a home on the information
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n the old country, the study
house was likely to be a dark,
musty place with rudimenta-
ry furnishings — the antithe-
sis of high tech.
But in this information age,
rabbis and scholars are using cy-
berspace — that great, unchart-
ed, planet-spanning web of
computer networks — to reach a
much broader audience for seri-
ous Jewish scholarship.
Project Genesis, a New York
State-based group devoted to
reaching out to Jewish college
students, has led the way in the
development of the cyber-yeshi-
va. Its primary tool for creating
this electronic miracle is a col-
lection of 11 Internet mailing lists
— electronic publications dis-
tributed automatically to sub-
scribers with Internet access, or
accounts on commercial on-line
services like America Online.
Each Genesis list is a "class,"
taught by a real, live Jewish
scholar. Each edition is the equiv-
alent of a detailed lecture on a
specific subject or an electronic
dialogue between teacher and
students.
A sampling from the Genesis
E-mail lineup:
• Genesis: a general list for
Genesis announcements, as well
as discussion of the weekly Torah
portion.
• Torah-Forum: a general list
for the discussion of the tradi-
tional Jewish perspective on any
topic under the sun.
• Dvaaorah: here subscribers
write their own commentaries on
the weekly Torah portion — and
distribute them worldwide.
• Gossip: No, it's not a list for
trading information on Julia
Roberts' love life. Instead, teacher
Ellen Solomon teaches about the
Jewish attitude toward loshon
horah the evil tongue.
• Halacha-Yomi: Easy-to-un-
derstand translations of the Code
of Jewish Law and appropriate
commentaries.
• Maharal: The Sayings of the
Fathers, a study of the commen-
tary of Rabbi Yehuda Loewe (the
Maharal), a 16th-century Jewish
philosopher.
Genesis has attracted more
than 2,000 subscribers world-
wide. One, from Montevideo,
Uruguay, says, "I can learn Torah
from this end of the globe while I
wait for things to happen at home
and at work."
Rabbi Yitzchak Etshalom,
principal of SAJS (the communi-
ty Hebrew high school) in Pitts-
burgh and a professional
storyteller, is teaching a new
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ARTERS • ALTERNATORS • FAN BELTS • FLOOR MATS • SEAT COVERS • JUMPER CABLES • BRAKE SPECIAL • WIPERS 12
Genesis course on Maimonides'
Mishnah Torah or "Review" of the
entire body of Jewish Law.
Texts are posted in English.
Hebrew terms are transliterated
and translated for the benefit of
the novices who are a prime tar-
get for Genesis.
The biggest advantage of the
Internet yeshiva is the obvious
one — its vast reach. And sub-
scribers study the messages in
the privacy of their own homes.
As a result, Genesis is able to
Genesis has
attracted more than
2,000 subscribers
worldwide.
reach some Jews who might be
intimidated by the prospect of re-
vealing their ignorance in a tra-
ditional shul.
The biggest down side also is
obvious: the lack of face-to-face
contact that provides real-time
input for teacher and student
alike.
"So far, you can't do that [on
the net]," Rabbi Etshalom said.
"But we're working on it."
Project Genesis also is work-
ing on new lists, which seem to
appear almost monthly. The
group also is expanding its World
Wide Web "home page" — a cen-
tral Internet location that allows
users to browse through the
group's offerings and select lists
to join.
More on using the Web in next
month's column. ❑
Next Month:
Touring Jewish Museums
Via the World Wide Web.
Mr. Besser can be reached
on the Internet at:
jbesser@clark.net .
How to get there: For in-
formation on all Genesis
E-mail services and in-
structions on how to sub-
scribe, send an E-mail
message from your Internet
account or account on a
commercial service like
America Online to:
learn@torah.org