What exactly is the Torah? Who wrote it? Why has it remained the most important text in Judaism and one of the cornerstones of Western culture for over two and a half thousand years? How should we read the stories it contains without reducing them to either a literal chronicle or a collection of legends?

During our meeting with Prof. Marcin Majewski, we will discuss the Torah – the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. We will examine the circumstances of its creation and the editorial process, consider what contemporary biblical scholarship says about its authorship, and explore why tradition attributes it to Moses. We will try to understand the meaning of God’s name, YHWH; we will revisit the story of the creation of the world and the most important figures and events described in the Torah; and we will discuss how Jewish and Christian interpretations of the Bible differ.

This will be a discussion not only about an ancient text, but also about a book that has shaped the religion, culture and imagination of millions of people for centuries. We invite everyone interested in the Bible, its history and contemporary approaches to its interpretation.

Our guest for the event will be Marcin Majewski – a biblical scholar and researcher of antiquity, a professor of theology and a lecturer at a university in Kraków, where he teaches and conducts research on the Bible, its languages and its cultural context. He has recently begun to combine his academic work with popularising the subject – creating lectures, films and popular science articles that help people read the Bible more attentively and closer to the original. The discussion will be moderated by Marek Panuś.

The event is part of the ‘Culture in Tahara’ Festival, dedicated to the culture and heritage of the Jewish community of Tarnowskie Góry and their place in the multicultural history of our city. The festival’s name refers to the former Pre-Burial House (Bejt Tahara) at the Jewish Cemetery in Tarnowskie Góry – a unique place which, despite the passage of time and its current state of preservation, remains an important testament to the history of the Jewish community in Tarnowskie Góry and to the need to protect this heritage and keep its memory alive.

This year’s edition of the Festival, organised by the Gliwicka 66 Association, is supported by the Tarnowskie Góry Municipality and Tarnowskie Góry District, whilst the event’s partners are the Local Tourist Organisation of the Town of Gwarki and the Evangelical-Augsburg Parish in Tarnowskie Góry.

As well as the talk with Prof. Marcin Majewski, we also invite you to join us for a walk in the footsteps of Tarnowskie Góry’s Jewish community (26 August) and a concert by the band Negev (27 August). Admission to all events is free.