Tanach Study Week: The Book That Holds Us Together

By Rabbi Moshe Taragin

This week, Herzog College and Yeshivat Har Etzion hosted their annual Tanach Study Week. This gathering reflects the growing revival of Tanach learning. As we return to the land of history, interest deepens in the book of Jewish history and enduring legacy.

Though the study of Tanach is deeply meaningful, it has taken on greater resonance this year as we conclude the second year of our heroic war to defend our people and homeland from enemies who seek our destruction.

For the past 2,000 years of exile, we lost many traditions. One of them was the tradition of a Jewish army and Jewish soldiers. October 7th was not the first pogrom in our history, but it was the first to be followed by a war. In the past, pogroms were simply followed by more pogroms. We had no army to defend ourselves.

Studying Tanach reminds us of our ancient tradition of Jewish self-defense. We were once fighters. We once had an army. For thousands of years, we lived helpless and vulnerable. Today, we have revived that tradition.

It is a personal honor to teach in a hesder yeshiva, whose students also serve to protect our people. In doing so, I feel part of the legacy of Rabbi Akiva, whose students also rose in defense of our homeland.

Additionally, Tanach reminds us to take notice of the miracles we have experienced. This war has been exhausting and has brought darkness and suffering to our nation. Yet, we have also seen wonders—many of the enemies who built a ring of fire to destroy us have vanished like smoke in the wind.

Tanach is a book of divine miracles, some unfolding on the battlefield, others in the quiet moments of daily life. We were cut off from the flow of miracles when we were exiled from Jerusalem in 70 CE. But now, having returned to history, Hashem’s miracles are once again being bestowed upon His people. We are living through our own book of miracles, stories which will be told for generations to come.

Finally, studying Tanach during this time is essential, for it tells our shared story. We have a common past and a united destiny. We will only succeed in building a nation when we realize we are one nation of one ethnicity and one belief—Judaism—and hold fast to this narrative.

For the first fifty years of our statehood, our shared story was one of recovery—rising from the ashes of the Holocaust, creating a homeland to shelter the Jewish people, restoring sovereignty, and rebuilding Jewish pride. That story gave us strength and unity. The books of Tanach are where our story began and is written. We have a past. We share a legacy. We hold a future. The Tanach, tells this shared story and it will bind us together—forever. n

Rabbi Moshe Taragin is a rabbi at the Hesder pre-military Yeshivat Har Etzion/Gush, with YU ordination and an MA in English literature. His books include “To Be Holy but Human: Reflections Upon My Rebbe, HaRav Yehuda Amital,” available at mtaraginbooks.com.

Yemei Iyun B’Tanakh

Credit: Natie Ben Nun

New York to Gush Etzion: Learning Tanakh Together

By Roz Lyons

As Iranian rockets rained down in Israel, the organizers of the Yemei Iyun B’Tanakh met on Zoom to discuss whether or not to go ahead with the 30th annual Bible study conference. Thanks to a miraculously swift conclusion of that mini-war, the event went ahead as planned this week, attended by over 5,000 people of all ages, including many visitors from the Tri-State area. 

Hosted by Herzog Academic College and Yeshivat Har Etzion in Gush Etzion, this is the largest Torah gathering in the Dati Leumi world. What began in the 1980s as a professional development conference for Israeli Tanakh teachers, the event expanded over the past 30 years to include a wider range of speakers and languages. Over four days, 140 Bible lectures were given in Hebrew and English, with smaller programs in French and Russian.

Headlining the event were veteran lecturers from the Yeshiva, including Rabbi Dr. Yoel Bin Nun, Rabbi Yaakov Medan, Rabbi Elchanan Samet, Rabbi Amnon Bazak, and Rabbi Menachem Leibtag, who were joined by a new generation of Israel-based Tanakh teachers, including Rabbi Moshe Taragin, Dr. Yoshi Farjun, Dr. Yael Ziegler, Dr. Yosefa Fogel Wruble, and Rachel Sharansky Danziger. Despite the disruption to international flights this summer, several top educators from the U.S. were able to attend and contribute to the English lecture program.

Opening the Jewish Educators’ Day conference for English-speaking educators was Dr. Deena Rabinovich, associate dean of the Azrieli Graduate School of Education, who delivered an inspiring class on how to be a better teacher. Her husband Larry, an attorney from New York, remarked, “Attending the Yemei Iyunfor me is like attending the all-star game festivities! Studying Chumash with Rabbi Mordechai Brauer at Yeshivat Har Etzion 45 years ago was eye-opening, but just a beginning. Rabbi Yoel Bin Nun was here in those years, but he and the other creative teachers who have revolutionized Tanakh studies are here today at the Yemei Iyun, and that is very exciting for “Tanakh nerds” like me!”

Another local guest speaker was Dr. Nechama Price from Bergenfield, who flew to Israel with her mother, Marsha Friedman, to visit her son Elisha, currently studying at Yeshivat Har Etzion. Dr. Price is Assistant Clinical Professor at Stern College in Bible and Jewish Law, as well as Director of the Graduate Program in Advanced Talmud and Tanach Studies. She was invited to give one of the lectures in English, contrasting depictions of David’s general, Yoav, in the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles.

Dr. Price told us: “This is my first time attending the legendary Yemei Iyun, and it’s been an overwhelming and inspiring experience. On a personal level, it’s a true privilege to learn alongside my mother and son—three generations attending many classes together! It’s also deeply meaningful to finally meet and learn in person from the incredible Torah scholars whose works I’ve been reading and teaching for so many years.”

The Yemei Iyun conference is always scheduled during the Nine Days leading up to TishaH B’Av, and it brings together native Israelis and immigrants from across the religious spectrum. Concerns about sirens and the intense summer heat probably kept many of the regular participants at home this year, but 800 people around the world signed up for the online program, initiated in response to the Covid pandemic, but useful once again this year. Many people who enjoy watching lectures by Herzog’s all-star cast of Bible experts are happy to watch the recordings throughout the year. They are also offered opportunities to study online in English for an M.A. degree in Teaching Tanakh from Herzog College with many of the same teachers.

The theme of this year’s Yemei Iyun event was “M’Dor L’Dor,” intergenerational learning. It was heartwarming to see many different family members enjoying the lectures together, including Rabbi Heshie and Rebbetzin Rookie Billet of the Young Israel of Woodmere, who proudly attended with their grandson, Yehuda, who is in the Hesder program at Har Etzion, studying for a Tanakh teaching degree at Herzog College, and was heading back to miluim this week.

Rebbetzin Rookie told us: “It was absolutely inspiring to see so many people from all walks of Israeli life coming together as one to study Torah together from outstanding teachers and thinkers. On these days, everyone streams toward Gush Etzion, reclaimed, built, and expanding daily after falling so painfully at such a high price in 1948.”

While retirees always make up a large proportion of the audience, this year there were reduced-price tickets for soldiers, miluimnikim, and students. Several young men in IDF uniforms grabbed the opportunity to take a break from the battlefield and hear lectures about the historic Jewish battles recorded in the Bible.

We asked Rachel Levitt Klein Dratch, a veteran teacher from New York who made aliyah in 2023 and is now Director of Global Education at the ANU Museum in Tel Aviv, to explain the attraction of the Yemei Iyun. She said: “There’s something magical about this conference that brings together a diverse group of people and connects us all to the land of Israel. I think it’s because you are surrounded by people who are all infectiously delighted about uncovering new truths in the Bible that are really old truths, and that’s a wonderfully affirming experience.”

Recordings of the lectures from the Yemei Iyun B’Tanakh are available to purchase online at:https://events.herzog.ac.il/31896/en.