(IsraelNN.com) Pope Benedict XVI kicked off a weeklong Bible-reading marathon on Italian television Sunday, reading from the book of Bereishit (Genesis). 

The televised Bible-reading on RAI state television, called "The Bible Day and Night," which will include the whole Torah, will also include the Christian additions to the Bible, and will feature recitation by 1,200 people over seven days and six nights.  Among the bible readers will be cardinals, rabbis, politicians, academics, policemen, sportsmen, students, soldiers and factory workers.

Following Benedict's recitation from Genesis, Rome's Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, repeated the passages in Hebrew.

Every few chapters, the reading will be interrupted by Christian or Jewish religious music, with opera star Andrea Bocelli leading the first interlude Sunday by singing Bach's "Praise the Lord."