Arieh Ben Gurion

Making a connection with the Bible

The Bible – the book of man, recounts about the family of man

It is my – your – our – our people’s family tree

Genesis – the book of family: from Abraham – Isaac – Jacob and the Children of Israel

The book of the birth of the nation with awareness and an identity card

For me the Bible is – an autobiography of my forefathers, my teachers, and me, it belongs to the family album; its language is Hebrew, which I, my son and my grandson speak today in Israel, which Moses – David – Jeremiah and Job spoke.

The Bible was formed here, in this body and on this earth.

It is the foundation stone and the infrastructure of all the Jewish generations, including mine. In its stories – human existential veracity of man and family, urges, weaknesses, existential situations

God is – a human, with whom we argue about justice, we try to rise above it, we speak to him during times of sorrow.

To rise above means – to try to overcome wastage and distress: the stories, the characters, the truths understood by children and adults and the child identifies with it.

This is the wonderful literature of our people, because when the student reads it in the Pentateuch every week, when he studies the situations, he examines himself.

When I read the Bible I refer to and create the biographical continuity of my life. When I am in contact with memories of the past and anticipate future continuity. Only then does my life have significance. Significance means: What things from the past speak to me today.

Because only the biographical continuity moving forwards and backwards creates a personality.

In my connection with my past I draw in the passing of the past and thus I create an affinity to the present, then I can be an inheritor of heritage. The need to answer myself: Who am I? Who gave birth to me, my parents, when and where was I born historically? What do I fold up inside of me? Me – in a historical-biographical relay race, from Abraham and Moses – to me, to my son and my grandson.

Because to be a parent means to feel responsible for parenting, to build a generation spiritually, make a connection between the biography and my and our history, whether for the individual – me, or my people. This is continuity.