314 Yair Zakovitch
a course specifi cally dedicated to those sources. Today the situation is en-
tirely changed. Now course listings of the department include such courses
as “Ancient Jewish Interpretation,” “Biblical Interpretation and the Pesher
Literature of Qumran,” “Th e Sacrifi ce of Isaac as Refl ected in Early Inter-
pretations,” “Th e Stories of the Prophets in the Bible and in Early Jewish
Literature,” and “Th e Pentateuchal Books at Qumran — Rewritings, Inter-
pretation, and Textual Criticism.” Moreover, in almost every course that is
off ered and in discussions about almost every text, there is a marked bal-
ance between examining Jewish interpretative traditions throughout the
ages and in various genres, and the search for the simple meaning of the
verse, the peshat, using modern, critical approaches to the Bible.
Th ere is yet another welcome sign of change: Israel’s fi rst prime minister,
David Ben Gurion, established a Bible study group at his home. Th e group
had its ups and downs, disappearing and then being reborn a number of
times in the President’s Residence, including during the term of the sev-
enth president, Ezer Weitzman. During that time, it was no longer called
the Bible Group but rather the Presidential Residence’s Group on Bible and
the Sources of Israel (hug beit hanasi letanakh velemekorot yisrael ). Th e
academic advisers of that group (this author included) made certain that
at every meeting, which were dedicated to specifi c subjects or ideas, one
lecture would be on the Bible and another would deal with Jewish sources
throughout the ages, thereby demonstrating the continuity that exists in
Israel’s traditions. Th ese initial steps are not enough. Nonetheless, they en-
courage hope that the Bible and the Jewish bookcase will indeed return to
us if we return to them, fi rst.
NotesI have written this chapter from a very personal place, as both a professor of Bible
and as an Israeli who was born to socialist parents, Zionist pioneers who rebelled
against their religious, eastern European way of life and immigrated to the Land
of Israel to participate in the building of the new homeland. My secular parents
emphasized the importance of Jewish education and sent me to a school in which
Jewish studies were highly valued as the foundation of Israeli Jewish culture and as
the justifi cation of our existence in our land.
- All translations are mine. Th e original poem can be found in Hayyim Nah-
man Bialik, Kol Kitvei H. N. Bialik (Tel Aviv: Dvir, 1960), 54. - See Jacobus Schoneveld, Th e Bible in Israeli Education: A Study of Approaches