BRICK — Rabbi Royi I. Shaffin sat silently staring at his Torah as his fellow classmates read from the ancient book.

A dozen people sat around four tables arranged in a rectangle to study Deuteronomy last Monday, in a small classroom inside Temple Beth Or. The fifth and last book of the Torah tells the story of Moses' retirement and Joshua's ascent during the waning days of Israel's desert wanderings three millennia ago.

Opposite Shaffin, Rabbi Robert E. Fierstien led the Bible study discussion.

Moses was told to step down by God because he did not listen to God's exact instructions. It's a sentence that did not sit well with many people in the class — they felt it was too strict. But Fierstien, Temple Beth Or's teacher and spiritual leader for 31 years, had a different interpretation of the ancient text.

"It was time for Moses to step down," Fierstien said with his palms extended outward. "It was time for someone else to take over."

Fierstien, 60, who is known for his constant jokes and his devotion to the New York Yankees, retired as the synagogue's rabbi during the summer. Shaffin, 34, is less of a joker but more energetic by all accounts. He took over the synagogue, following a national search.

"I have very large shoes to fill," Shaffin said in a recent interview. "Not that I expect to fill them, but if I can tiptoe in them, it would be great."

On Monday, between the two rabbis on the rectangle table's long side, sat David Kroll.

Two years ago, Kroll came to Beth Or looking for guidance on how to mourn his father. The 59-year-old East Brunswick accountant, who spends his weekends on the Point Pleasant canal, had not been to a Sabbath service in 35 years. At Beth Or, he found Fierstien.

"I never would have thought my favorite day of the week would be Saturday, our Sabbath — Shabbat," Kroll said.

Kroll chanted from the Torah for the first time in more than three decades last Saturday after spending two years studying under Fierstien.

"You think that was easy for me? It wasn't," Kroll said. "I must have done it 800 to 1,000 times in private with Rabbi Fierstien; I couldn't have done it without him."

It took Kroll two years of study under Fierstien to get to a point where he could lead the service in Hebrew again. He had first learned it as a boy.

But it was Shaffin who called him up to the pulpit Saturday. It was Shaffin who sang and danced with him and the synagogue's leaders. It was Shaffin who called on the congregation to sing and clap in celebration. It was Shaffin who ate the Kiddush lunch with him following the service.

Saturday was Kroll's second bar mitzvah. It was his recommitment to his faith and culture. It was something he would never have done without Fierstien.

"Rabbi Fierstien called me personally to tell me he was retiring; I was devastated, after two years we became very close," Kroll said. "I didn't think I could ever get excited for another rabbi, but Rabbi Shaffin makes you feel so good . . . He makes you want to get up and do it again and again."

Shaffin's road to this congregation has wound through the entire country. He was born in Los Angeles and he graduated from the University of Judaism there. He worked for film director Steven Spielberg's Survivors of the Shoah Foundation before jetting across the continent to study at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.

As a young rabbi, Shaffin worked in The Bronx and took over his own congregation in Lincoln, Neb., after graduation. From there, he set out for North Carolina's Appalachian Mountains, where he was a youth director at the American Hebrew Academy. But he is happy to be back in the Northeast with his young family.

He's the teacher of the temple's Hebrew school, and its principal. He's slowly meeting with New Jersey's Jewish leadership, and he has a curriculum to write. He spends what little free time he has scouring New York City for the best kosher restaurants, watching science fiction movies and debating the finer points of Superman lore.

Now, it's Fierstien's days that are much more free. He is filling his time teaching American-Jewish history at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey two times a week. And, he's teaching the adult education classes for his congregation Mondays.

"I'm not one to sit around in a rocking chair," Fierstien said in a recent interview. "I enjoy being active, so I'm glad to have something to do."

He came to Beth Or by a much more direct path. This township's only synagogue was Fierstien's only rabbinical assignment after graduating from New York University. He also studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary of New York, and went to work at Beth Or shortly after graduating in 1976. He's celebrated bar and bat mitzvahs at the only temple in Brick, where he later presided over the marriages of those same children.

He's the second rabbi at Beth Or, and he misses his active role. The congregation has given him the title of rabbi emeritus. He attends services there weekdays when he can drive from Lakewood, because it is too far to walk on the Sabbath.

"It was more than a job," Fierstien said. "It was my life and I absolutely love that."

The two rabbis are planning to form a chavruta, Shaffin said. That is a study group composed of two people who are teacher and student at the same time.

"We are all lifelong students," Shaffin said. "It's not fulfilling to always be the teacher."

Matthew McGrath:               (732) 557-5704        or mmcgrath@app.com