“How can a young person stay on the path of purity?  By living according to Your word.  I seek You with all my heart; do not let me stray from Your commands.  I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You.”  (Psalm 119:9–11)

Israel once again emphasized the importance of the Bible last week at the International Youth Bible Contest, which was held on Israel Independence Day.

“The Bible was and still is the foundation of our national identity.  It’s the source of our [national] life, it’s the source of our moral and social inspiration, and the basis of our right to fight for our survival here in the Land of Israel,”  Education Minister Naftali Bennett said.

The contest was neck and neck.  In the 11th question of the 12-question final heat, 14-year-old Elkana Friedman caught a one-point lead ahead of Rehovot resident Tehilla Mattes.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Education Minister Naftali Bennett speak with the winners.

Friedman, a student at the Bnei Tzvi Yeshiva in Beit El, had his 15th birthday on Sunday.  Mattes is a student at Ulpana HaRav Baharan where Friedman’s mother is a teacher.  Friedman’s father, Rabbi Aharon Friedman, also teaches but at the Kerem BeYavne Yeshiva.

Friedman told Arutz Sheva after his win that he did not have a “definite goal to be the Bible winner.  It’s nice to be the winner, but that isn’t the goal.”

“With God’s help I made it here,” he said.  “I get such great satisfaction from learning the Bible, and from this moving event in Jerusalem.  Even after winning this prize, I’m going to continue studying the Bible, and I want to thank all of my family for supporting me, and thank the staff of the yeshiva for helping me reach this point.”

“Already in Talmud Torah [religious elementary school], we studied Tanakh from first grade up to eighth grade — four hours a day of expertise.  In addition, I also studied by myself in my free time and at home,” Friedman said emphasizing that he had gone over the Hebrew Scriptures 30 to 40 times.  (Arutz Sheva)

Along with the gift of a Tanakh, Friedman received 30,000 shekels and a promised grade of 100 percent for his Tanakh matriculation exam in high school.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulates Elkana Friedman, winner of the annual Youth Bible Quiz.  (GPO photo by Amos Ben Gershom)

A few days before the contest, Netanyahu affirmed the centrality of the Bible in supporting the Jewish People’s connection to the Land.

“It all happened, and it happened here,” he told the Bible Contest participants.  “This is our land, this is our heritage, our book, our story, our faith, our hope.  It’s all in the Bible.  It’s all in the Tanakh.”

“No one has been able to replicate anything of the like, although there were great works of literature,” Netanyahu said.   “I know how excited you are and I wish you all the best.  You should all consider yourselves champions, and to be a champion of the Bible is to be a champion of our people.”

According to Dan Kanar, who emceed the contest at the Jerusalem Theater, thousands of students registered to participate in the contest this year — from Australia, Ukraine, Uruguay, Italy, the United Kingdom, Estonia, Argentina, US, Bulgaria, Belgium, Belarus, Brazil, Germany, South Africa, the Netherlands, Hungary, Turkey, Mexico, Spain, Poland, Finland, Panama, Czech Republic, France, Colombia, Costa Rica, Canada, Croatia, Romania, Russia, and Switzerland.

Preliminary tests determined those with the highest Bible scores, and a series of quiz rounds narrowed down the contestants to a final 16, including Mattes and Friedman, all together hailing from eight different nations and contributing answers to the theme of this year’s contest — “Israeli Unity.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the crowd at the International Bible Contest.

At least 20 of the students who flew to Israel for the contest had never visited the country before.

“This is definitely not the last visit,” Netanyahu told them, inviting them to move to Israel.

“The most important thing that I want you to do aside from learning Tanakh, spreading Tanakh, is coming permanently to live in the land of the Tanakh.  This is your home.  This is the most important thing that I can tell you,” he said.