I will admit it, I'm a bit late to reading all the books in the TaNaKh, this Sunday, August 31, 2025, will be the start of the fourth cycle. The TaNaKh (what some would call the Jewish bible, for lack of a better word), so if you wondering, what does she want to read? TaNaKh is the acronym for the books included in the canon codified by the Rabbis starting in the Second Temple Period through the Great Assembly Period -- Torah (the five Books of Moses), Nevi'im (Prophets) and Ketuvim (Writings). Hence – “the Jewish bible”.
So why start now? Two things occurred in the last few days, that made me want to do this. The first was a conversation about the Haftorah (reading of the prophets at the Shabbat service), it was about the reading for the holiday of Hannukah. I had to admit I had never looked at, much less read the Book of Zechariah, and I had to look up the dates of the when the events written took place. The second happened as I was looking at a Facebook, doom scrolling, I saw a post about the full 929 cycle ending, and a new reading cycle starting. My thoughts were, I'm pretty good at starting stuff, not so good at finishing -- so I challenged myself, to reading a chapter a day, for the next few years. And, bring you all along on my journey. For full disclosure, I will be using the website 929, and taking the book names and chapter listings from them.
I’m also going to try and help my fellow Jewish travelers to Europe (and maybe now in the States), one should always know the weekly Torah portion – parshat hashavua. If you get asked this question (and 99% of the time security will ask you) this week is Parashat Shoftim.
