United Israel World Union, a religious educational organization founded in 1944, is pleased to announce a new teaching series for the Jewish calendar year 5782. The entire year will be dedicated to a careful study of the words of the Bible’s first five books based upon an honest and objective new look at the Pentateuch.
The material for the weekly lessons will be arranged according to the annual cycle of readings.[1] Classes will be streamed live each Saturday morning at 10:30 a.m. CT on our Facebook page and our YouTube channel. Entries for each session will be posted on our website following the class and will include links to audio and video files as well as written transcripts of the week’s teaching. Audio files of the classes will also be available on Apple Podcasts.
Weekly presentations will demonstrate the beauty and artistry of the received texts of the Pentateuch, highlighting the core teachings conveyed within, while acknowledging the contributions and advances of biblical scholarship.
Participants are invited to discuss the content of the classes on our United Israel Facebook group page and thereby respectfully interact with others about the material covered in each class, asking, and answering questions that result from the studies.
Since we will be covering material from the Biblical texts, all that is required is a Bible. We will be recommending various books and articles throughout the year-long course, but these are optional. As a start we highly recommend Hertz’s commentary.[2] This work by the late, Chief Rabbi of the British Empire is a classic work and is widely available. It is available new from Amazon for $39.95, but they also list more than 80 used copies for as little as $6.38. We also recommend Dr. James Tabor’s, The Book of Genesis, which is also available on Amazon.[3]
We look forward to this new and informative series and hope that all our friends and supporters will participate. We encourage you to:
- Sign up for our UI Bulletin
- Like and follow our Facebook Page
- Join our Facebook Group page
- Follow us on Twitter
- Subscribe to our YouTube Channel
For those who wish to hear the weekly Pentateuch portions read in Hebrew, please check out, or join the Hebrew Torah Reading Team.
Will you join us for – The Pentateuch – A New Look at the Five Books? We hope so. We also hope that you will help us share this announcement far and wide. On Saturday, 25 September 2021, there will be an introductory class for the series, and on Saturday, 2 October 2021, Dr. James Tabor will teach a class based upon the first reading of the annual cycle. You will not want to miss this series!
“Read the Bible as though it were something entirely unfamiliar, as though it had not been set before you ready – made … Face the book with a new attitude as something new … Let whatever may happen occur between yourself and it. You do not know which of its sayings and images will overwhelm and mold you … But hold yourself open. Do not believe anything a priori; do not disbelieve anything a priori. Read aloud the words written in the book in front of you; hear the word you utter and let it reach you.”[4]
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[1] United Israel World Union provides its supporters with a Jewish calendar that includes the readings of the annual cycle for each week. To request a copy, email uiwuvp@gmail.com. Write “Calendar Request” in the subject line, and include a physical mailing address in the body of the email.
[2] J.H. Hertz, The Pentateuch and Haftorahs: Hebrew Text, English Translation, and Commentary (London: Soncino Press, 1960). This is the second edition. The ISBN is 0-900689-21-8.
[3] James D. Tabor, The Book of Genesis: A New Translation from the Transparent English Bible (Genesis 2000 Press, 2020).
[4] Everett Fox, The Schocken Bible: Volume I – The Five Books of Moses – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy: A New Translation with Introductions, Commentary, and Notes by Everett Fox (New York: Shocken Books, 1997), ix.