IN PERSON. 

What is the Bible? How did these 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 providing an introduction to the third section of Tanakh (Ketuvim).

This program is open to the entire congregation and wider public, timed to coincide with the beginning of the book of Psalms.

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Alan Cooper is the Elaine Ravich Professor of Jewish Studies at Jewish Theological 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 as Provost of JTS from 2007 to 2018. 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 10 years at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

Dr. Cooper earned a bachelor’s degree in Religion at Columbia University. He went on to do his graduate work at Yale University, earning a master of philosophy degree and doctorate in Religious Studies. His doctoral dissertation was on the linguistic structure of biblical poetry. He also spent a year in Jerusalem as a Hebrew University postdoctoral fellow.

Dr. Cooper’s publications include a monograph on Canaanite divine names that appear in the Hebrew Bible, and many articles on biblical poetics and the history of interpretation. Recent articles include “Once Again Seething a Kid in Its Mother’s Milk” (in JSIJ [Jewish Studies, an Internet Journal]); “Some Aspects of Traditional Jewish Psalms Interpretation” (in The Oxford Handbook of the Psalms); and “Introduction to Leviticus” (in Engaging Torah: Modern Perspectives on the Hebrew Bible). His work in progress includes a commentary on Psalms 31 through 60 for the Jewish Publication Society.