Noah Kayser-Hirsh

12/11/14
Response paper #1

As a young male with a prominent Jewish background, the Bible, at least the Old
Testament, has been very present in my life. I attended Hebrew school through seventh
grade and was Bar Mitzvahed at thirteen. Every Sunday in Hebrew school we studied the
Torah, its teachings, and its stories. Though not very in depth, we covered most of
content of the Old Testament. We learned about all the typical stories (Adam and Eve,
Cain and Abel, Noah and the Ark) and the extensive origin of the Jewish people. As a
typical young Jewish adult I developed a general distaste for and ew! feeling towards
the Bible. It was totally uncool and completely lame, and the fact that my dad made me
go to Saturday services for two whole hours did not help at all. Thus I learned to like the
Jewish Community for the music and community aspect it brought into my life. Until this
year I never really payed attention to what the Bible actually told of, instead I sort of just
blindly sang its praise. For this reason I bring to this course an interesting perspective in
that I have almost completely washed the religious and spiritual connection to the Bible
out of my system and am able to objectively look at the Bible as only a piece of literature.
My background allows me also to analyze how people interpret the Bible. As I have at
least once a month gotten to listen to a unique interpretation of the Bible in services.
Additionally, I have a strong Jewish presence in my extended family. My cousins are
full-on orthodox Jews, and my grandparents are Reform Jews and leaders in their temple.
At family/friend gatherings there is almost always at least one Rabbi, so I am surrounded

by people who take the Bible very seriously. This makes me especially curious about the
modern and personal influence the Bible has, especially interpretations of it.