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 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.
[5] Following the war, he and Hanan Porat turned to Rabbi Yehuda Amital and together they established Yeshivat Har Etzion in Alon Shvut.
In 1986, he helped establish Michlelet Yaakov Herzog for training Jewish Studies teachers, especially in Bible instruction.
[6][7] 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).
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.
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.
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."
In 2018 he was awarded the Rav Zvi Yehudah HaKohen Torah Creation Prize (Hebrew: פרס היצירה התורנית ע"ש הרצי"ה).
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.
[12] 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.
[5] Bin-Nun was one of the drafters of the Kinneret Charter, which seeks to create a common denominator between the various segments in the Jewish public.
He wrote that the approach of the sharp and violent resistance was only damaging, and emphasized that although democracy allows for "civil disobedience" it is precisely the Torah that forbids it.
"[13] On March 5, 2006, about three weeks before the elections to the 17th Knesset, Bin-Nun announced his support for the Kadima party, saying that "it seems, in the coming years all significant decisions will be made there.
If they act like Avshalom, in violent bullying, they will even succeed here and there, the people of Israel will vomit them, and God will turn a blind eye to them, Chas v'Shalom.