How can a scroll more than 2,000 years old still speak to us today?
The Great Isaiah Scroll, one of the most famous scrolls in the world, was written more than 2,000 years ago and found in 1947, just before Israel declared independence, in a cave near the Dead Sea. How did it survive? Who wrote it? And how did a verse from it end up carved on a wall facing the United Nations building in New York?
In this class we take a virtual trip to Qumran and the Judean Desert, discover how the scrolls were found by pure chance (a wild story in itself), visit the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum from afar, the building made especially to protect them, and talk about the vision of the prophet Isaiah and why words written thousands of years ago still echo today, like the famous verse “they shall beat their swords into plowshares… nation shall not lift up sword against nation.” We will also stop for a moment on the script itself: what the letters looked like 2,000 years ago, and what has changed since.
Taught in Hebrew. Full recording of the live class (about one hour), for all ages, with lifetime access.
