There is now a wide variety of Religious Zionist methodologies of Tanach study—some emphasize medieval commentaries; others focus on Israeli geography or botany; still others address the psychology of the Biblical characters; and much more.
If you were going to check your analytical skills at the door, don’t come into Nechama’s beit midrash.
I found her in the cafeteria, identifying her by her trademark beret. Ever practical, she told me to take a tray and get some lunch. “If you want to study Torah, you have to eat,” she said, inverting the usual conception of Torah as nourishment.
There’s a responsibility for every generation to struggle with the text and learn its truths. And all of the Rishonim understood that.
Academics will ask, “What does this story say?” The religious person will ask, in addition, “What is the story saying to me?”
To us as Torah Jews, the Torah is the way Chazal, the Rishonim and the Acharonim understood it.
If studied in the spirit of the Sages, Tanach can help us answer questions that arise—questions of faith, morality, values, culture and society.
Neglect of Tanach study among the Ashkenazim dates back to the Middle Ages.
Anyone who engages in the valuable pursuit of discovering novel interpretations of Scripture must be wary of going too far.
Where did Yoram get the faith, the strength to be able to say “gam zu l’tovah” after the devastating fire?