A Rabbi’s Take on the New Museum of the Bible
A Rabbi’s Take on the New Museum of the Bible by Rabbi Perry Tirschwell Should Orthodox families and yeshiva day schools visit this museum , which opened just before Thanksgiving in Washington DC? It was founded, and to a large extent paid for, by the Evangelical Christian family who are the owners of the 600 store Hobby Lobby chain, who successfully challenged Obamacare’s mandate to pay for morning-after pills in the Supreme Court. Is this museum a subterfuge for Christian indoctrination? I went to find out. I was simultaneously blown away, and underwhelmed, by the Museum of the Bible. If a Martian’s first exposure to the Bible was this museum, he’d guess that approximately 50% of this nation is Jewish. The Old Testament is called Hebrew Bible and Tanakh, and there are verses in the original Hebrew throughout. It’s truly remarkable that there is a sofer on staff who sits in the middle of the museum writing a Sefer Torah (blown up a large screen TV so you can see ...