TorahTutors is pleased to congratulate our Director, Sarah Rudolph, on her recent appointment to the editorial committee of Tradition! Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought is published by the Rabbinical Council of America. It was founded in 1958 by Rabbi Normal Lamm and has been led since January 2019 by Rabbi Jeffrey Saks, who…
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, ob”m, once wrote about Thanksgiving: Though you don’t have to be religious to be grateful, there is something about belief in God as creator of the universe, shaper of history and author of the laws of life that directs and facilitates our gratitude. It is hard to feel grateful to a…
A person who finds a lost object takes on responsibility not only to return the item but to make reasonable efforts to keep it in good condition until the owner comes to claim it. For instance, the Mishna (Bava Metzia 2:8) states that books (in those days, scrolls) must be read – or at least…
While TorahTutors learning is generally not school-based, it can involve homework when appropriate – and occasionally, a school may offer credit for TorahTutors sessions as part of a student’s individualized Jewish Studies requirements, which may take the homework up a notch. In one such case, a high school senior submitted an essay developing insight into…
A mother and daughter with little background in Jewish learning wanted to explore Jewish prayer together with their TorahTutors tutor. They began with the question: “If you had never heard of prayer, would it occur to you to do it?” A midrash suggests it did occur to the first human in the world, and that…
An adult TorahTutors student studying the Book of Ruth was interested in a comment by Malbim at the beginning of chapter 2. Malbim notes that Naomi could have gone directly to Boaz to ask for food: the text emphasizes that they knew each other, and describes Boaz’s stellar character; surely he would not have refused…