Religion: The Long Course

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Thirty years ago a middle-aged grocer named Donald Shapiro of Scranton, Pa. signed up with a group to whom his rabbi was giving a night course in the Talmud—the vast accretion of text and commentary that forms the body of Jewish law. They studied hard—an hour a night, six nights a week. This week, after about 9,000 hours, retired Grocer Shapiro, 78, completed the course.

Twelve students began the long bout of learning with Rabbi Henry Guterman, and twelve sat down with him last week to celebrate with a banquet. But Don Shapiro is the only member of the original group left. He has seen his rabbi's reputation grow: universities everywhere turn to Rabbi Guterman for interpretation of difficult passages in the Law; Manhattan's Yeshiva University conferred an honorary doctorate of divinity on him last year.

Lithuanian-born Rabbi Guterman, 75, who had to cut down on his habitual 15 hours a day of study, describes himself as nothing but a "painter and decorator." Says he: "The paint and the paper are there. I only mix the paint properly and pick out the wallpaper that will harmonize with it."

Guterman's students at Scranton's Hebrew Orthodox Center—from retired Shoe Salesman Morris Greenes, 92, to Accountant Irving Sicherman, 35—look upon their nightly hour of learning as a lot more than mental painting and papering. Every one signed up for his new class, which this week was beginning to study the Talmud all over again.