Hebrew Bible Lecture Explores the Torah

A widely-published author and winner of two National Jewish Book Awards will speak as part of the annual Westmont-UC Santa Barbara Hebrew Bible Lecture. Michael Fishbane, Nathan Cummings professor of Jewish studies at the University of Chicago Divinity School, will speak on “The Ideals of Torah and Torah-study in the Psalms,” Thursday, Nov. 2, in Hieronymus Lounge, at 7 p.m.

The event is sponsored by the religious studies departments at Westmont and UCSB and the Westmont provost’s office. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Fishbane’s most recent book, “Biblical Myth and Rabbinic Mythmaking,” is a comprehensive study of myth in the Hebrew Bible and mythmaking in classical rabbinic literature.

He is the author or editor of 19 books and hundreds of articles and reviews in scholarly journals and encyclopedias. He is editor-in-chief of the Jewish Publication Society Bible Commentary.

Fishbane has been a Guggenheim Fellow and a three-time Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University.

Tremper Longman, Westmont religious studies professor, and Randy Garr, UCSB religious studies professor, will introduce Fishbane.

“The purpose of this lecture series is to expose our students to some of the leading Old Testament scholars of the world,” says Longman, “especially those from a different perspective.”

For more information, please call Jennifer Hauser in Westmont’s religious studies department at (805) 565-6169.