Nach Guides

Comprehensive guides through Neviim and Ketuvim (the Nach of Tanach). If you’re looking for guides to the Torah, see the Parsha Guides.

Neviim

Ketuvim

About the Guides

I didn’t find the type of summary I wanted online, so I decided to create my own.

• The goal of these summaries is to be comprehensive and analytical more so than concise and paraphrastic, breaking down each parashah into thematic units and presenting it with key terminology in Hebrew citation and transliteration. (The thematic units are informed by, but not analogous to, parshiyot in the text.)
• Written from a Modern Orthodox perspective, these summaries mostly approach the text from a peshat (contextual) perspective. In accordance with the principle דיברה תורה כלשון בני אדם (“The Torah speaks in human language”), I present events in the text in a straightforward manner with the understanding that this reflects the limitations of human understanding and expression.
• Without seeking to present any sort of comprehensive exegesis, l point out places in the text that serve as significant sites of interpretive activity and note major connections to Chazal, halakhah, Taryag, and parshanut.
• Where there is an important parallel within Tanach but outside of the current parsha, I make note of it.
• The summaries pay careful attention to timeline, place names, and other details provided in the text of the Mikra; where there is more than one authoritative opinion about these matters, this is noted.
• For the English translations, I have mostly relied upon the NJPS version, with slight modifications.

Recommended Resources for Learning Tanach

• For reading the Tanach with Mefarshim in a Mikraot Gedolot-type experience, I like Al-HaTorah. Sefaria has a good English translation and additional tools, such as connections to Talmud and Midrash.
• Bar Ilan University’s Mikraot Gedolot ha-Keter project includes a website that offers the entire Masora (Gedola and Ketana).
• For Shnayim Mikra, I love the OU’s AllParsha app (Play Store | App Store).
• I highly recommend the helpful timelines and maps provided on Hertzog College‘s website HaTanakh (you can toggle the website between English and Hebrew).
• The complete Nechama Leibowitz gilyonot (study sheets) are available online in Hebrew or in English.

Image: John Singer Sargeant, Study forfor Boston Mural “The Prophets.”