Every year, we go through the first five books of Hebrew Bible and read a couple of scrolls (Esther, Ruth) but we don’t explore the rest of the Tanakh. The walls of Jericho tumble down, Samson gets his hair cut, Bathsheba takes her famous bath, Jezebel goes to the dogs, Elisha sees a chariot so mystical a major mystical movement is based on it – and we’re not there. Western culture is suffused with visual art, music, novels, movies depicting what’s in the rest of Tanakh, yet many of us don’t know our own stuff. So we propose:

Once every week,
In the library or wherever,
We’ll read three or four chapters out loud, 
Look at notes, if desired (Jewish Study Bible is useful)
Ask questions
Discuss
Share opinions, reactions, archeology, art work, music.

No homework, no prep, miss when you need to, drop in when you want to.

All attitudes toward the text welcome, from deeply reverent to what-the-f** is this?

Facilitator: Pat Madsen, a B’nai Havurah member for the better part of 30 years, has written liturgy, studied for a master’s in Judaic Studies, sat as a judge, practiced law, acted in local theaters, read more than is necessary and taught at the Denver Institute for Jewish Studies.