Mr. Speaker, I am proud to join my colleague the gentleman from New York (Mr. Weiner) in sponsoring this resolution on the completion of the 11th cycle of the daily study of the Talmud.

Mr. Speaker, tossed into a stormy sea when his ship was wrecked, the great Talmudic sage, Rabbi Akiva, was given up for lost. This is how he later described his miraculous rescue to Rabbi Gamaliel. He said, ``A daf,'' that is a wood plank, ``from the ship suddenly appeared as a salvation, and I just let the waves pass over me.''

When Rabbi Meir Shapiro, the rabbi of Lublin, Poland, initiated the programs for Jews all over the world to study the same Dafyomi, that is, daily page of Talmud, he explained the significance of this undertaking by paraphrasing Rabbi Akiva, ``A daf is the instrument of our survival in the stormy seas of today. If we cling to it faithfully, all the waves of tribulation will but pass over us.''

Mr. Speaker, the latest 7-year cycle of completion of the Talmud will occur in the first month of the Hebrew month of Adar, corresponding to March 1, 2005, which is today. This will complete a formidable 7 1/2 -year educational and daily study cycle introduced in 1923 at Agudath Israel's first international Congress in Vienna by Polish Rabbi Meir Shapiro ``to enhance the sense of unity of Jews worldwide.''

The entire Talmud is covered in 7 1/2 years by those who keep to the prescribed daily pace of one page at a time. By studying the Talmud, groups and individuals throughout the world spend time learning the precious details of Jewish law and life. They are able to step back, to develop a sharply honed understanding of Jewish history and law. People study in every country and every city, in groups, alone, with friends and over the Internet.

CEOs and cab drivers, doctors and shop owners, of different ages and nationalities come together to learn the Talmud. Tens of thousands, mostly Orthodox Jews, around the globe are on the same page, literally. In the Boro Park section of Brooklyn, in my district, for example, about 200 fathers of young children gather each night at 10 p.m., after their children are asleep.

I am proud that about 50,000 scholars are expected to attend this year's event at Madison Square Garden, the Javitz Convention Center in Manhattan, and Continental Airlines Arena in New Jersey.

In addition, more than 25,000 other Jews in 33 locations, ranging from Mexico City to Melbourne, Australia, from Los Angeles to Tel Aviv, will be linked to these activities via satellite television.

I join in their joy and celebration. This monumental achievement in study, dedication, perseverance, and persistence is a lesson for contemporary society and for people of good will everywhere.

I take this opportunity to congratulate the students and teachers of the Daf Yomi program on the occasion of their celebration of the completion of the 11th cycle of the Daf Hayomi, wish them well on the beginning of the 12th cycle, and urge the passage of this resolution.

And again I thank my friend and colleague, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Weiner), for being the chief sponsor of this, and I thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis) for yielding me this time.