As we complete a full Nach Yomi cycle, I wanted to share some reflections.

About a decade ago I completed my first study of all the books of Nach. This was the fulfillment of a years-long goal and I wrote about my experience here:

Tanakh, Chapter by Chapter

While that first round of study filled me with a sense of accomplishment and greater familiarity with the content of Tanach, it also frustrated and mystified me. As a person familiar with the flow of the five books of the Torah, I had expected the books of Nach to have a similar structure: a story with a clear beginning and end. (Of course the Torah is more complicated than that, but that’s the overall impression.) However, the structure of Nach varies greatly from one book to the next.

Some books of Nach, such as Samuel and Kings, at first glance read as historical accounts of events while others, such as Isaiah and Ezekiel, are much more abstract, using vivid metaphors to deliver prophetic visions and warnings to the Jewish people.

As the aphorism says, the more you learn, the more you realize how much you don’t know. Rather than feeling I had any sort of mastery of Tanach, I realized there were great depths I did not understand and I couldn’t even articulate the right questions to understand more. I found myself wishing, as I puzzled through allegorical language, or dense litanies of names, that I had the benefit of a teacher to guide me.

As if in answer to this unspoken prayer, a few years later, the OU Women’s Initiative launched Torat Imecha Nach Yomi, which offers a daily podcast from master teachers – all women! – who elucidate these challenging books. Students around the world are united in studying the same chapter each day.

I was both early and late to the party for Nach Yomi. During the first cycle, which began in 2020 just weeks before the pandemic shutdown, I followed the Nach Yomi calendar by reading the books of Tanach in English.

In 2022, inspired by Shoshana Genack, Nina Butler formed a WhatsApp group to link community members who were beginning the second Nach Yomi cycle. During this cycle I was finally able to access the daily recorded classes and to receive the guidance I had been missing to this point. Our local group began gathering for siyumim and used WhatsApp to chat about ideas/questions raised by the podcast. Since then, the Nach Yomi podcast has been part of my daily routine, and I am incredibly grateful to learn from truly amazing teachers.

So what have I learned? Every cycle of Nach Yomi has given me deeper understanding of the content of each sefer and how it connects to Jewish history, the tefillos in the siddur, the land of Israel, and the patience and love of Hashem to tolerate and preserve the Jewish people.

One of my impressions from studying Tanach is that the survival of the Jewish people is truly miraculous despite generations of flawed leaders (including brazen idol worshippers) and widespread neglect of Torah observance. Incredibly, whenever we seemed to be at the brink of self-destruction, Hashem sent us rebukes and punishments that brought us back to Him. Defying the odds and the turbulence of history, the Jewish people are still here, still studying the holy texts of Tanach.

In my first reading of Nach I felt like an endurance reader whose goal was simply to read every chapter, just to say I had done it, regardless of how much I understood. This was far from ideal, but it was a first step.

The benefit of daily Nach Yomi classes has brought the text to life for me. While it’s impossible to retain all the wisdom from every class, day by day I feel like I have a clearer understanding of the purpose of each sefer and how it connects to the rest of Tanach. Metaphorically, my comprehension has evolved from a blank slate, to a lined sheet of paper, to a clear outline that I continue to flesh out with continued study. For those who remember when floppy disks had to be “initialized” to become readable by a computer, Nach Yomi has reorganized my knowledge and assumptions so I have a basis for comprehension.

This greater understanding has enhanced my life in multiple ways.

Daily study brings me comfort in difficult times. During the Sukkos that immediately preceded the massacre of October 7, we were studying the book of Lamentations, which is traditionally read on Tisha B’Av. The timing seemed incongruous with the joy of Sukkos. However, when the war began it felt as though our Nach Yomi study was preparing us for the coming devastation. As we proceeded through the five Megillos, Ecclesiastes gave us pause to dwell upon the fleeting nature of life, and Megillas Esther was chilling to read as the root of our distress was financed by Iran, the modern Persian empire.

More recently, the books of Ezra and Nehemia have provided a nuanced view of the early years of the return to Israel from Babylonian exile. At that time, our people also faced opposition from unfriendly neighbors who questioned the right of the Jews to return to the land. A coordinated effort was needed to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem so Jews would feel safe living there. The perseverance of that generation brought me comfort and encouragement for our own times.

Each reading of Tanach has brought me delightful surprises. Here are some recent ones:

Chronicles I & II are the final books of Tanach. At first glance these seforim read like a recapitulation of events described primarily in the books of Samuel and Kings. However, this round of Nach Yomi helped me understand the differences in the messages of these books. Chronicles includes or omits details found elsewhere, and adds more context and information, because its purpose is to emphasize the eternity of the Davidic line and to provide encouragement to the Jews returning to Israel from exile.

While I knew that Psalms account for a significant portion of our daily prayers, I had not realized that any part of Chronicles was part of our regular davening, but I learned that a long passage is included in Pesukei Dezimrah, and a very brief excerpt is part of Tachanun. Far from being an ancillary book, Chronicles is at the very core of our Jewish practice.

I also felt validated this cycle during our study of the 12 “minor” prophets. I noticed a couple of years ago that an excerpt of Haggai sounded almost Talmudic in its discussion of tuma and tahara, ritual impurity and purity. This time around, the teacher noted this as well, helping me understand that Haggai, a prophet who lived during the post-exile period, represented a transitional era – the end of the prophetic period and the ascendence of halachic debate as our central way of understanding Hashem’s commandments.

When I first studied Nach I felt I might have a sense of completion and lack an interest in continued daily study, but the opposite has been true. The more I study, the more I have moments of insight, and recognize connections. Our local group – which is open to new members at any time – has also brought me a sense of community and sisterhood. We learn from each other’s perspectives about these sacred books. I invite you to join us.