Yoel Bin-Nun

Yoel Bin-Nun (Hebrew: יואל בן נון; born May 9, 1946 CE; 8 Iyar 5766 AM) is an Israeli religious Zionist rabbi and one of the founders of Yeshivat Har Etzion, Gush Emunim, Michlelet Herzog and the settlements of Alon Shevut and Ofra.

He is a scholar of Jewish thought, and a lecturer and expert on the Tanach.

Bin-Nun was born in 1946 in Haifa to Yechiel Bin-Nun (Fischer) and Shoshana Bin-Nun (Rosa First), educators and researchers in Judaism and the Hebrew language.

His brother, Elchanan Bin-Nun, is the rabbi of Shiloh and the past head of a Yeshiva in Beit Orot.

Bin-Nun studied at the Kfar Haroeh yeshiva and, later, the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva, where he was close to Zvi Yehuda Kook.

He received his Ph.D. from Hebrew University.

He fought in the Six Day War and was part of Israel's 55th Paratroopers Brigade that liberated Old City Jerusalem.

He is one of the main characters featured in Yossi Klein Halevi's ''Like Dreamers: The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided A Nation.

'' Following the war, he and Hanan Porat turned to Rabbi Yehuda Amital and together they established Yeshivat Har Etzion in Alon Shvut.

Even then, at the age of 23, Bin-Nun taught at the yeshiva.

At the same time, he taught at the Kfar Etzion Field School.

He also fought in the Yom Kippur War, his brigade being the one who crossed the Suez Canal, changing the tide of the war.

After the war, Bin-Nun was one of the founders of Gush Emunim (which he would later break away from) as well as the settlements of Alon Shevut and Ofra.

The founding meeting took place in 1974 at his home in Alon Shvut.

For many years he was a member of the Gush secretariat.

In 1976, he and his wife moved from Alon Shevut to Ofra.

They eventually moved back to Alon Shevut, where they currently reside.

In 1985 he established an all-girls high-school in Ofra and headed it for about ten years.

In 1986, he helped establish Michlelet Yaakov Herzog for training Jewish Studies teachers, especially in Bible instruction.

In 1986, he co-founded Megadim, the Torah journal for Tanach, with the team of Bible studies at the Teachers' Training Institute in Har Etzion (now: Yaakov Herzog College).

Rabbi Bin-Nun published many articles in the journal and elsewhere.

He also taught training courses for instructors of the Society for the Protection of Nature.

In 1996 he and Yaakov Shapira established the Midreshet Yaud, within the framework of the Amit network, for the training of teachers in the national service for teaching Judaism in secular schools.

Between 2000 and 2006 he served as Rosh HaYeshiva of Yeshivat HaKibbutz HaDati in Ein Tzurim.

He and Hanan Porat emphasized the importance of studying the Tanach in yeshivas.

Bin-Nun emphasized a deep understanding of Tanach and its connection to the Land of Israel.

His teaching and activities at Yeshivat Har Etzion, at Herzog College and more contributed to the "Tanach (study) revolution" in Israel, especially in the Dati-Leumi public.

He led a generation of religious Zionists back to the study of Tanach as a way to understand contemporary Israel.

(See further re this approach under Yeshivat Har Etzion § Educational and religious philosophy.)

In 2008 his doctoral dissertation was approved at the Hebrew University on the subject of "the dual source of inspiration and authority in the teaching of Rabbi Kook."

As of 2015, Bin-Nun has a daily column as part of Project 929: Tanach B'yachad.

He also has a website with many of his Shiurim.

A significant part of Bin-Nun's thinking revolves around Tanach and its study.

Following Yehuda Elitzur, he strives to draw contemporary meanings from the Bible and to explain the text according to its simple meaning (Pshat).

He was one of the prominent voices in the "Bible at Eye Level" (Hebrew: "תנ"ך בגובה העיניים") debate, in which he criticized the approach of the rabbis of the Har Hamor yeshiva.

Bin-Nun believed that it is important to see the nuances, complexity and even faults of the heroes of the Bible and as having a humanity that is not fundamentally different from those learning the text.

According to him, only in this way can value and moral meaning truly be drawn from the stories of the Avot (patriarchs).

Bin-Nun also deals with the midrashim of Chazal, focusing on the principled controversy between the midrashim of Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Ishmael, as well as an original interpretation of Rav Kook's teachings.

In 2018 he was awarded the Rav Zvi Yehudah HaKohen Torah Creation Prize (Hebrew: פרס היצירה התורנית ע"ש הרצי"ה).

In October 2019, Tishrei 5764, he was awarded the Minister of Education's Award for Jewish Culture for Lifetime Achievement.