More than 5,000 participants from Israel and around the world were set to attend the 31st “Yemei Iyun B’Tanach” Bible Study Days this past week at Herzog College, with parallel “Tanach Nights” events in Jerusalem and Modi’in.
Herzog College’s annual “Bible Festival” spans four days and attracts a diverse audience, including teachers, new and veteran immigrants, students, and multigenerational family groups who come to study Jewish sources together each year.
The Study Days took place on the shared campus of Yeshivat Har Etzion and Herzog Academic College in Alon Shvut. Lectures were presented by Bible scholars from Herzog College and Yeshivat Har Etzion, as well as guest speakers from overseas.
Among this year’s international speakers were Drs. Nechama Price, Ilana Turetsky, and Moshe Sokolow from Yeshiva University and Prof. Mira Morganstern from New York’s City College.
The Bible Study Days included lectures in Hebrew, English, French, and Russian. A large number were live-streamed to more than one thousand people in Israel and around the world, with recordings made available afterward on YouTube to registered participants. On the fifth day, participants were offered a choice of tours of historical sites around Israel with Tanach in hand.
Bible study at Herzog College focuses on the Bible's contemporary relevance and its role as the basis of Jewish and national identity. Current affairs and the ongoing war were recurring themes in a number of the lectures.
On Sunday – the day Israel’s next election date was announced – the English-language program featured a track dedicated to episodes in Tanach that address political and electoral issues.
Details to come
We hope to share details of these lectures in next week’s magazine.
Prof. Avishalom Westreich, president of Herzog College, said: “Especially in these days, when the State of Israel and the Jewish people face complex internal and external challenges, the study of the Tanach is not merely an echo from the past, but illuminates our life in the present, offering us a path for understanding current events.”