TalmudPod

For the Torah-studying scholar on-the-go, 23-year-old entrepreneur Yehuda Shmidman has created the ShasPod, a 20GB iPod filled with the equivalent of 2,700 pages of the Talmud as read and commented by Rabbi Dovid Grossman of Los Angeles. The $399 price is one hundred bucks over the price of the iPod as shipped from Apple. And while the lectures by Rabbi Grossman are available for free at dafyomi.org, some Orthodox Jews will not use the web for non-work purposes. Timing is key here as well. As the New York Times reported (free registration required), Jews worldwide recently celebrated the completion of the seven-and-a-half-year cycle of Talmudic learning called the Siyum HaShas, where students learn one page per day. Here’s a sample file about the s’hma.