What Is the Bible? With Dr. Alan Cooper

What is the Bible, and how did those books become sacred literature? And why do we read some but not other books and chapters as part of Jewish liturgy? Bible Scholar Dr. Alan Cooper will be our teacher exploring these questions, and introduce the third section of Tanakh (Ketuvim) as part of the Oheb Reads: The Tanakh series. This event is open to the entire congregation and wider public, timed to coincide with the beginning of the book of Psalms.

Alan Cooper is the Elaine Ravich Professor of Jewish Studies at Jewish Theologiocal Seminary. He joined the faculty in 1997 as a professor of Bible, and has served as director of publications chair of the Bible faculty, and, from 2007 to 2018, provost of JTS. In 1998, he was appointed professor of Bible at Union, becoming the first person to hold concurrent professorships at JTS and Union. Previously, he was a professor of Bible at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, where for six years he was director of its School of Graduate Studies. He also taught religious studies for ten years at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.