Why Jews Stopped Reading the Bible, and Why Some Have Begun Again

In February, some 22,000 Jewish women across the world completed a two-year-and-ten-day cycle of daily Bible study. A new cycle began the next day with the first chapter of Joshua. This program, initiated by the Orthodox Union in 2020, is modeled on one the OU created for a male audience nearly two decades ago. And these are but two such programs that have popped up in recent years. In 2014, the Israeli Ministry of Education started Project 929—named for the number of chapters in the Hebrew Bible—which is now in its fourth cycle.

To anyone not especially familiar with the patterns of traditional Jewish education, these programs might seem like the most natural thing in the world. The Jews are the people of the book, and although they have many books, The Book is of course the Hebrew Bible. It should therefore follow, especially given the emphasis Judaism places on study, that the Jews are a nation of Bible readers. What’s more, since greater religious observance tends to correspond with more extensive religious education, the most strictly Orthodox Jews should be deeply immersed in Scripture. But that is not so. Indeed, it’s not uncommon for those with otherwise impressive Jewish educations never to have opened books such as Amos or Daniel.

Hasidic boys, for instance, have long school days and a bare minimum of secular subjects, spending many hours each day engaged in religious studies. But their formal Bible study usually stops with the end of Deuteronomy. Like their ancestors, they put away their Pentateuchs when they turn nine or ten, and don’t look back. My goal here is to explain how this came to be, why it has started to change, and why it should.