Opening address of the 19th Annual Conference of the Israel Society for Biblical Research. President Shazar examines why Jonah was classified as a prophetic book despite containing no prophetic visions or words to Israel. He explores the distinction between biblical "seers" and literary prophets, and argues that Jonah is the programmatic book for the literary prophets: its core message is that prophecy's entire purpose is to change a people's ways and thereby alter their fate — making the prophet who succeeds in changing behavior a willing "liar" to his own prediction.
Traces the history of Bible study among Jews from the Second Commonwealth — when a Greek inscription shows the synagogue's foundation was Torah reading — through the Karaite revival that renewed textual scholarship, to the modern renaissance in Eretz Yisrael. Describes the World Jewish Bible Society's programs: the annual international youth Bible contest, conferences, the Hebrew journal Beth Mikra, and the new English-language bulletin Dor le-Dor launched to deepen biblical attachment in the Diaspora.
Introduces the Bible Readers' Union, an international membership organization open to Jews and non-Jews promoting systematic Bible study through the Triennial Tanakh Study Calendar — a three-year program covering the entire Hebrew Bible with a chapter per day. Recounts the Union's founding in 1939 on the eve of World War II, its wartime continuity under Rabbi Dr. I. Epstein, and its integration with the World Jewish Bible Society.
Commentary on two verses from the Triennial Tanakh Study Calendar for October 1972. The first note examines Genesis 12:1 and the concept of Moledet: tracing the word from its earliest meaning (the maternal household, Bet Ha-em) through its biblical uses in Ruth, Song of Songs, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and finally to its modern sense of homeland. The second note explores Joshua 24:22 on religious witnessing: how Moses and the prophets called upon heaven, earth, and Israel itself as covenant witnesses.
Questions and answers for Shabbat table discussion on Genesis portions, designed to engage the whole family. Covers multiple parashot: Noah (the ark and flood), Vayyera (Abraham's hospitality, the Akedah), Toledot (Jacob and Esau, the birthright), Vayyishlach (Jacob's preparation for meeting Esau, his name change to Israel), and Vayyiggash (Judah's plea before Joseph, the descent to Egypt).
Discusses the revival of biblical personal names in modern Israel: of the Bible's approximately 1,500 personal names, only 140 remained in use among Diaspora Jews, but in three generations 460 additional biblical names have come into use in Israel. Illustrated with an anecdote of a soldier at the Golan front coining a new name, "Yaira," from a biblical verse (Deuteronomy 3:14).
A selection of twenty questions from the Regional Finals of the Eighth World Bible Quiz for Jewish Youth, covering the full range of the Hebrew Bible: topics include brothers' reunions, military victories, the first mention of Jerusalem, rebellions at Shechem, prophetic similes, witnesses, and the book of Psalms.
Reviews of two Hebrew works on the Bible. The first, David Ben Gurion's Biblical Reflections (Am Oved, 1969), collects 17 addresses and articles by Israel's first Prime Minister on subjects from the Unique Destiny of the Jewish People to the Exodus from Egypt, reflecting his conviction that the ingathering of exiles and world peace are the dual Messianic vision. The second, Dr. Moshe A. Anat's The People's Bible (Tanakh La'Am, 1970–71), presents the Hebrew Bible in a punctuated, verse-by-sense layout that became an immediate bestseller in Israel.