Hebrew Bible

The two creation stories, Cain and Abel, the Tower of Babel story, Abraham “venturing forth,” the Binding of Isaac, and the Joseph story are among the most iconic stories in all of world literature. Learn not only to appreciate each of them in their magnificence, but also to discern the unity in their message, taken as components of a single Book. The Joseph story, without the Yehudah and Tamar story, is as incomplete as is the Binding of Isaac without the “venturing forth” narrative. As literary critic Robert Alter insists, whether a reader is secular, agnostic or religious, the literary lens brings out more of what the Bible has always offered to its readers, and perhaps new contemporary meanings as well.

The David story may be the greatest single, in-depth character study we have inherited from antiquity, a dramatic revelation of the social, political, and family life of a tragically flawed and deeply impressive founding King of Israel. Is this history or literature, fiction or fact? Scholar Robert Alter, who does not hesitate to compare the author of this story to the likes of Shakespeare, Tolstoy, and Dickens, lifts the veil on this text with his sparkling new English translation that one reviewer called “a literary landmark.” Lust, power, friendship, and a desperate flight from the angel of death—nothing human is omitted in this foundational narrative of the Hebrew Bible.

The Prophets Isaiah and Ezekial and the Book of Palms are among the most theologically charged books in the Bible. Scholars scrutinize their verses for evidence of Israelite history; philosophers dwell on their metaphysical statements. And committed Jews and Christians offer the words of these texts in the course of prayer, as the words of these biblical.books are omnipresent in the liturgy. Thanks to the efforts of Robert Alter, these sacred texts are available to us as never before—in an English translation with scholarly integrity, poetic virtuosity, and a Hebrew form and spirit.

Deuteronomy more than any other book of the Hebrew Bible centers the relationship between Israel and God. Also unique is its status as oratory and interpretation, the beginning of Israel’s love-affair with exposition of its own history. Finally, Deuteronomy represents Israel’s first dalliance with the reform of religious tradition. Whoever wrote down Moses’ exhortations to the people—this person is often referred to as the Deuteronomist—was deeply committed to a covenantal theological perspective. We will take great care in following Alter’s insightful, accessible commentaries and trying to discover both the character of the Deuteronomist as an author and of Moses as a leader.

~ Available also as an explicitly interfaith convening ~
The Book of Samuel is—if you take Spinoza at his word—a treatise on the dangers of concentrating power in the hands of one man, and—if one absolutely must concentrate power in a central authority—a call to its readers to demand that even the supreme leader never be placed above the law as ultimate arbiter of what is fair and just. Many regard the book of Samuel as a founding document of republican government! Come away with skills for reading the Hebrew Bible you never thought you’d have. As a rendering of the particular features of the Hebrew text into English, the translations of Robert Alter and Everett Fox are unrivaled.