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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday evening 11 Tishrei, at his official residence in Jerusalem, hosted a meeting of the Tanach Study Circle, a tradition started by Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, and which was renewed by Prime Minister Netanyahu two years ago.

The evening session, the sixth since the Circle’s resumption, focused on Parshas Bereshis.

The Circle is named after the Prime Minister’s late father-in-law, Shmuel Ben-Artzi, and is held in cooperation with the Menachem Begin Heritage Center.

Also participating this evening were Education Minister Rabbi Shai Piron and the parents of the three youths who were kidnapped and murdered by Hamas: Iris and Uri Yifrach, Rachel and Avi Frankel, and Ophir and Bat-Galim Shaar.

Prime Minister Netanyahu said at the start of the meeting “We are preparing to celebrate Simchas Torah when we will conclude reading the Torah and begin it again. The cyclical nature of reading the Torah and starting it again from Genesis also symbolizes the renewal of our people in our land. Despite all attempts to destroy us, each time we build ourselves up again, deeply linked to also growing the tree called the Jewish People, with our deep roots and branches that reach ever higher.

“I am always very moved by these meetings. It was postponed due to this past summer’s campaign but I would like to tell you that during that campaign in this house the study of the Tanach continued. We study it at least once a week. It is part of our experience and it is not for nothing that this Circle is named after my late father-in-law, Shmuel Ben-Artzi, a Tanach scholar who saw the study and teaching of the Tanach as his life’s mission. He instilled this in generations of students and in his daughter, sons and grandsons.

“We are very moved at this meeting to have with us the parents of the three wonderful youths, the wonderful parents, and they also symbolize the great sacrifice, and the nobility and greatness of spirit, of our people at its best. On behalf of the entire people of Israel, my wife Sara and I welcome and embrace all of you.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)