Bible Experts are First Married Couple to Compete in Worldwide Bible Competition

Married couple takes on competition based on the Hebrew Bible.

Yair Shahak and Yaelle Frohlich are bible experts. Shahak, in particular, stood first among his peers in a Bible competition which took place in Jerusalem. The competition was extremely tough. Those who know the competition well describe it as similar to a spelling bee, but with bible verses instead of words. For Jeopardy game players, all questions are complex ones and are sourced from one book, the Hebrew Bible, also known as “Tanakh.”

Bible Experts are First Married Couple to Compete in Worldwide Bible Competition[/tweetthis]

Shahak is a hard man to beat when it comes to competitions; he zipped through preliminary questions with ease until the tough ones came. After thinking for a few seconds, he confidently gave correct answers to almost all questions and was judged the winner. He grew up in the Borough Park area of Brooklyn.

Shahak and his wife Yaelle Frohlich are both 28-years-old. Frohlich did her undergraduate studies at Stern College, New York. They were the first married couple to take part in the worldwide bible competition and Shahak is first New Yorker to win first place. This is extremely hard; studying for such competitions is much different compared to just mugging up text. The toughest questions are set from different quotations which are extremely similar to each other. It means that to answer two questions, participants must have a thorough knowledge of 14 chapters.

Both Shahak and Frohlich are two contestants of around 30 from all over the globe. The contestants were champions from their own countries themselves. Only the top two are summoned to Israel for the final championship. Countries with larger Jewish populations send the best scorers.

The Israeli contest serves a useful purpose: it makes a person comprehend the Bible's original text and appreciate the individuals who know them by heart. Contestants thus have a better knowledge of the subject compared to most intellectuals.

The first part of the contest in Israel was a written test consisting of 50 questions. The exam whittled the number of candidates to 16. Frohlich was eliminated at this stage, not by her husband, but by a Canadian like herself. She did her graduate studies at New York University.

Shahak came out on top by answering all 50 questions correctly. He won a prize of approximately $9,300.

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