The Hebrew Bible

The storyTwo Candles on Friday Night — The sun goes down, two candles are lit, and a family hears the story of the very first week.

The storyA Leaf in Her Beak — After many days of rain and waiting, a small bird flies home with big news.

The storyThree Travelers in the Hot Sun — It is the hottest part of the day, and an old man runs to greet three strangers.

The storyA Ladder to the Sky — A young man sleeps on a stone and dreams of a ladder that goes all the way up.

The storyThe Youngest Child Asks — It is the first night of Passover, and the smallest person at the table has the biggest job.

The storyOne Rule for Our Room — A class writes its own rules, and then hears about a mountain where the Torah says ten sayings were given.

The storyA Scroll That Takes a Year — Every Saturday, one more piece of a very long scroll is read out loud.

The storyA Map With Footprints — A class draws the whole Torah as one long walk, and marks every stop with a footprint.

The storyThe Judge Under the Palm Tree — People walk for miles up a hill road, because a woman under a tree will tell them what is right.

The storyA Promise on a Dusty Road — Three women stand at a crossroads. One is going home. The other two must choose.

The storyA Harp for a Troubled King — A shepherd boy walks into a palace with a harp, and the king cannot stop listening.

The storyA Boat Going the Wrong Way — A prophet gets a message he does not like, so he buys a ticket in the opposite direction.

The storyA Song About Green Pastures — The same six-verse song is sung softly at a bedside and out loud in a stadium full of people.

The storyNoise Every Time the Villain Is Named — A whole room stamps, rattles and boos each time one name is read from a scroll.

The storyOne Letter Wrong — A scribe leans over a sheet of parchment and counts, because a single wrong letter can undo a whole column of work.

The storyA Page Full of Voices — One verse sits in the middle of the page, and around it, in smaller type, readers from five centuries take turns talking back.

The storyThe Walk Up the Mountain — A father and a son climb a hill with wood, fire and a knife, and the son asks a question that the text never fully answers.

The storyOne Song, Two Shores — A song of freedom sung at the edge of a sea, and the same story sung in a field in 1850 by people who had never seen that sea.

The storyFive Sisters at the Tent Door — Their father died with no sons, and the law says his land will go to someone else. So the sisters go to Moses.

The storyThe Scroll in the Temple Wall — Workers repairing the Temple find an old scroll, and when it is read aloud, a young king tears his clothes.

The storyThe Man in the Wooden Yoke — A prophet walks through Jerusalem wearing a farm tool around his neck, and everyone stops to stare.

The storyFive Scrolls, Five Holidays, One Year — A synagogue's year can be told by which short scroll is being unrolled on the reading table.

The storyCounting the Words Isaac Never Says — Two students take a highlighter to Genesis 22 and go looking for what Isaac was thinking.

The storyThe Man Who Limped at Sunrise — Alone by a river at night, a man fights a stranger until dawn and walks away with a new name.

The storyTwo Oxen, Two Laws — A cracked black stone in Paris and a scroll read in every synagogue describe the very same accident.

The storyNoise at Bethel — A cattle herder from the south stands in the royal shrine of the north and tells the worshippers that God is not listening.

The storyThe Holy of Holies — Around 100 CE, the rabbis argue about a book of love poems, and one teacher says something no one forgets.

The storyNoisemakers in the Synagogue — A scroll that never mentions God is read aloud once a year to a room full of costumes, and every time one name is spoken the room explodes.

The storyA Stone, a Jar and a Cave — In the winter of 1946–47 a young shepherd near the Dead Sea threw a stone into a dark opening in the cliff and heard something break.

The storyOne Word, Six Choices — In a Philadelphia meeting room in the years before 1917, a committee of scholars argued over a single Hebrew word that English could not hold.

The storyTwo Rabbis on One Page — A student opens a printed Bible and finds the verse surrounded by voices that never met in life.

The storyThree Readers, One Chapter — In a Chicago classroom, three guests read Isaiah 53 aloud and reach three different places.

The storyThe Scroll on the Doorpost — A case the size of a finger holds two paragraphs this whole course has been reading, and a family touches it every day.

The storyOne Verse, Four Voices, Two Chairs — Two students take one verse of Genesis 22, open four commentaries, and end not with a winner but with a better question.