June 15, 1982

The Grand Imp settled himself in front of a piece of apple pie and a cup of coffee. A long night of mischief lay ahead and he needed to fortify himself. Between bites, an anxious bystander slipped in quietly next to him. ''Have the demons and dybbuks arrived?'' he was asked. The Imp smiled. His bright blue eyes narrowed. ''For the time being,'' he said, ''I see only people, but most probably the others will show up.'' Isaac Bashevis Singer - Nobel Laureate, master storyteller and literary imp - came to a great Gothic stone church in this suburban community Sunday to attend a stage adaptation of his short story ''Gimpel the Fool'' and later to hold a dialogue with the audience.

An official of the New York City Transit Authority charged with illegally taking benefits from companies doing business with the authority said yesterday he ''thought there was nothing wrong with it'' because other officials were doing the same. The official, Edward O'Grady, testified at his trial in Federal District Court in Brooklyn. He is charged with accepting total benefits valued at more than $30,000 over a 10-year period from 12 companies involved in a contract to produce subway cars for the city.

The Supreme Court agreed today to decide whether the use of home video recorders to tape television broadcasts violates Federal copyright law. The issue is the focus of a high-stakes legal and lobbying battle between the growing video recording industry and the entertainment industry, which calls home video recording ''piracy'' that shrinks its paying audience and threatens its profits. The entertainment industry won the previous round when a Federal appeals court in California ruled last October that the use of the machines, even by individuals in their own homes, infringed the copyrights on the movies and television programs. Since then, both sides have been pressing, so far in vain, for a Congressional response. The video industry seeks a bill to ''decriminalize'' home recording by writing an exemption into the copyright law, and the entertainment industry wants compensation in the form of a tax on the sale of recording machines and tapes.

Israeli tank columns completely cut off Moslem western Beirut today, trapping the military and political leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization. At the same time, other Israeli armored units, greeted by rice and flowers from sympathetic Lebanese Christians, began driving still deeper into Lebanon, apparently in an effort to push Syrian troops northeast of the capital into the Bekaa Valley. There is a concentration of Syrian troops in the Khalde junction area on the coastal highway south of Beirut near the airport, and fighting was reportedly continuing there today between Israeli forces and Palestinians and Syrians. The Israeli radio quoted Israel's Chief of Staff, Lieut. Gen. Rafael Eytan, as saying that Israeli troops had trapped guerrilla forces in Beirut and that the troops' mission was to smash the P.L.O.'s political and military nerve center there. (Page A18.)

The Government issued a new set of antitrust guidelines in an effort to reduce uncertainty over what kinds of corporate mergers it will allow. Though the new policy was described as more lenient, the Justice Department and the F.T.C. said they doubted that any significant increase in mergers would result. (Page A1.) The Supreme Court will decide whether taping television broadcasts on home video recorders is a violation of Federal copyright law. The issue is at the heart of a high-stakes battle between the video recording and entertainment industries. (D1.) The Court invalidated Alaska's plan to redistribute its oil revenue windfall among its citizens on the basis of their length of residence. (A27.)