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Should We Bother with Tanach?

Does one need to study the Bible? When we move from the Ben-Gurion generation to the current generation of Israelis, we find a clear decline in the status of the Bible.
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December 8, 2021
Shabtay Emanuelov/Getty Images

Does one need to study Tanach? That’s a strange question. First of all, what does “need” mean? “Need” in the sense of must? In Israel, the factual answer is yes. It is obligatory to study Tanach in Jewish schools. “Need” in the sense of ‘it’s impossible to do without?’ That’s a difficult position to defend. Quite a few people in the world get along without studying the Bible. “Need” in the sense of ‘this is our book?’ Israel’s founder, David Ben-Gurion, certainly thought so. Ben-Gurion believed that Jews are special, and that the source of their otherness could be found in the Bible. This book is the key to their past and future. Ben-Gurion devoted many hours to examining the political and ideological ramifications of Bible stories.

In a survey published last week, we discovered that many Israeli parents see no value or very little value in what Ben Gurion considered a guidebook for the nation.   

Does one need to study the Bible? When we move from the Ben-Gurion generation to the current generation of Israelis, we find a clear decline in the status of the Bible. In a survey published last week, we discovered that many Israeli parents – presented with a question of whether Bible studies ought to be mandatory in high-schools – see no value or very little value in what Ben-Gurion considered a guidebook for the nation.   

Obviously, the Bible isn’t just a “subject”, and this is where the challenge begins. Is it a religious text? In that case, it’s clear why mainly religious Israelis demand the allocation of many hours to study it. Is this book a basic national-cultural text? Early Zionists essentially thought that the Jewish People ought to go back to the Bible, and sort of ditch everything that happened in between the end of ancient-times Jewish independence and modern-times Jewish independence. They thought that studying Halacha is unnecessary – but not the Bible. If you follow their advice, then every Jewish Israeli should study Tanach, and some would even say: especially secularists, because they are less interested in later books. 

That’s the basic position of the state. Tanach is an obligatory subject. But many parents have their own position. The Shenhar Committee, appointed by an Education Minister of the early 1990s, tried to figure out how to deal with the decline in the status of Jewish subjects at schools. It described reasons that haven’t changed much between then and now, almost thirty years later. Reasons such as “the rise of consumer society,” and such as “the importance of science and technology,” and such as “the growing politicization of religion.”

The Shenhar Committee recommended strengthening Jewish studies, arguing that “familiarity with the history of the people of Israel and its culture is an essential element in building the identity and spiritual and value world of the young Israeli.” Undoubtedly, this recognition is important for achieving the goals of the committee. But the goals of the committee are not necessarily the goals of the parents. They do not always think of the theoretical identity of a theoretical young Israeli but rather about their very specific offspring, with her specific ambitions and goals. Maybe it’s good for Israel to have Jewish subjects strengthened, but the question of every parent is “is it good for my kid?” Would another hour of Tanach help her or him achieve their goals? 

Of course, even what the committee calls “values” varies from parent to parent. There are those who believe, like the committee, that the value world of young people requires familiarity with the history of Israel and its culture, and there are those who are less inclined to have such belief. You will not be surprised to learn that religious Israelis agree with the committee’s conclusions, and secular Israelis less so. That’s because Tanach, for whatever reason, is still seen by many Jews as a religious subject (maybe it’s because Tanach stories have God as a main character?).

More than a third of Israeli secularists do not want even one compulsory hour of Tanach in high school. More than a third say one hour would be enough. Upon hearing these numbers, a leading promoter of Tanach education called me with the following comment: “I’m not sure if this is bad or good. On the one hand, I can tell the minister ‘See? We must act’. On the other hand the minister might tell me ‘I have no use for you, as you’re promoting something that people don’t really want’”. 

And the challenge of making Tanach seem less like  something that interests only the religious sectors is just the first layer of obstacles to strengthening this subject. When we look into the responses of seculars we also see that the more left wing they are, the less inclined they are to support Tanach studies. Right-wing secularists would still teach some Bible at school. Left-wing secularists would teach almost none. Why? Here I must send you to reread my article from last week. I assume you have better things to remember, so let me recall its topic: the decision by President of Israel, Isaac Herzog, to light a Hanukkah candle in the Cave of the Patriarchs, where the forefathers of the nation are buried. 

This is all part of the same story, and same challenge. The Tanach teaches us about God, whether we still believe in him or not. It also teaches us about our historic ties to Hebron and Jerusalem and Shiloh (today a settlement) and Shechem (today modern Nablus). Religiously charged, politically charged – and not at all beneficial for advancing our careers. Maybe that’s exactly why we must study Tanach.

Something I wrote in Hebrew

In most polls, former PM Netanyahu is at 45% support and current PM Bennett is at 20%-30%. I explained why that’s a misleading picture: 

In a country where there is no election for prime minister at all, but elections for parties, comparing Bennett’s position, with his five seats, to Netanyahu’s, who has closer to 35 seats in the polls, is a kind of chutzpah. Bennett doesn’t really have a chance of defeating Netanyahu in the next election. On the other hand, the numbers are not insignificant. They teach something about Netanyahu’s condition. He has a ceiling. He is very popular with his constituents, the voters of the right wing bloc. But he is also intolerable in the eyes of those who are not its voters. This is what we see in the numbers. Labor, Meretz, and Lapid voters – if they have no choice but to decide between Netanyahu and Bennett, they will vote for Bennett, even if they are devout leftists.

A week’s numbers

Exactly half a year after the Israeli government was established, the poll tracker of themadad.com gives the following average mandates to each party:

 

A reader’s response:

Sharon Weiss sent a question: “do you think Israel is going to attack Iran?”. My answer: if Israel has a way of doing it and get good results, I have no doubt that it would. But I don’t know if Israel has such capability.  


Shmuel Rosner is senior political editor. For more analysis of Israeli and international politics, visit Rosner’s Domain at jewishjournal.com/rosnersdomain.

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