The Talmud Train Troop
Back in 1991, Rabbi Pesach Lerner, 56, was approached by Aryeh Markovich on the LIRR. He wanted to know if the Orthodox rabbi would be willing to teach the Talmud on the 7:51 a.m. train from Far Rockaway to Manhattan. (The Talmud is one of Judaism’s main texts, and it takes about 7½ years to complete one’s studies of it, Lerner says.) “I used to see a lot of people playing cards on the train,” says Markovich, 51, president of EyeMark Media. “And it really bothered me. I said, ‘Why don’t we do something for people to utilize their time productively and learn something, too?’ ”
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