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The screen depicts a starry backdrop and then suddenly the music commences, reminiscent of the opening sequence of a "Star Trek" episode. Yet rather than the Starship Enterprise entering the frame, the words "The Ask My Rabbi Show" scroll across the screen.

Approximately one year ago, Rabbi Eli Garfinkel of Temple Beth El in Somerset created the online show at askmyrabbi.com, which allows people to write in anonymous questions that he then answers via video.

In each video episode, Garfinkel introduces "The Ask My Rabbi Show" as "the interactive video blog that gives you the opportunity to ask me anything about Judaism and to get life advice from a Jewish perspective."

While he acknowledges that he is hardly the first person to do an "Ask the Rabbi" feature online, Garfinkel said that video format was a way both to challenge himself as well as create a vehicle that was more interactive and engaging than your typical Q&A with a rabbi.

"One thing I wanted to try was, first of all, to see if I could do it, to see if people would be interested, and secondly, making it more interesting by making it a video presentation as opposed to just a text thing," Garfinkel told The Jewish State, explaining the impetus behind the project. "What I've seen thus far is that you type in a question and sometime later the question comes back in text, and I wanted a more personal approach, which is the videos that I do."

Garkfinkel said that since starting the project he has received a constant stream of questions.

"The response has been great, I get regular questions all the time," Garfinkel said, adding that he doesn't respond to all queries. "I'd say only some of them are appropriate to answer. I get some off the wall questions."

The questions range from the purely factual (Where does Judaism get the rule of matrilineal descent?) to the more existential (Can one convert to Judaism if he or she does not believe in God?) to those quite out of the ordinary (Can a pig be considered kosher if it is raised in a home?).

The responses, relatively short at no more than two minutes, provide concise answers that raise the pertinent sources in the Jewish tradition that shed light on the topic at hand.

In one show, for example, a man wrote in asking if it was a violation of the kashrut laws to smell non-kosher foods while eating kosher foods.

Garfinkel references Maimonides, the prominent medieval Jewish thinker, to answer this individual's question. The Rambam said, Garfinkel recalled, "that one ought never say that pork is disgusting so I don't eat it, rather one should say that pork is delicious and I would love to eat it but my creator has forbidden me to do so."

"We are supposed to find un-kosher food tempting, but we must not submit to that temptation," Garfinkel concluded.

Garfinkel said that while he sees his project as part of the rabbinic tradition of teshuva (responsa literature) that extends back centuries, the online, anonymous feature allows people to ask questions that they wouldn't ordinarily ask in the more traditional formats.

"It allows them to ask questions that they would be too embarrassed to ask a live-rabbi or to ask in a forum that would post any identification, so I guess it's the questions that people really want answered," he said.

He also sees his project as a way to reach out to Jews who would not otherwise be interested in seeking the Jewish perspective on issues important to them.

"I think for anybody under 40 or maybe even under 50 now, the Web is a really important part of people's lives and whereas a more traditional-type approach is not going to get that type of exposure and it'll also be preaching to the choir," Garfinkel said. "So if I did a newspaper column or something like that, that would mainly be seen by people who are already in the system, who are already affiliated. And in terms of reaching out to people who are not affiliated with synagogues, I think the Web is where it's at."