One of the most valuable things we do as educators is empower our students to learn on their own. Recently, a TorahTutors tutor introduced her pre-teen student to a website with a Hebrew-English dictionary and tools for learning Hebrew. Even though their twice-weekly sessions together are focused more on content than language, the tutor reports…
A small group of TorahTutors students finished off the last mishna in Brachot, including its interpretations of several clauses repeated multiple times in daily prayers (and found in this week’s Torah portion, Devarim 6:5). This mishna raises a number of questions, from the textual to the theological. Some of the questions these students addressed with…
As the mourning practices of the Three Weeks build towards the intensity of the coming fast of Tisha B’Av, it is a good time to think about what we lost with the destruction of the Temple(s). One TorahTutors student explored what the Sefer Hachinuch has to say – at least, on one level – about…
Did you ever realize a tutor can give a testimonial, too? Our tutors are as excited about their students (and the students’ successes) as the students are about their tutors! We just had to share this exchange between the parent and tutor of a pre-teen TorahTutors.org student: Parent: M had a fantastic year. We…
An adult TorahTutors student wanted to develop skills in translating and understanding biblical commentaries. She and her tutor have learned a wide selection of texts, with an eye towards language and understanding different approaches to interpretation. One example that resonated with the student was the phrase al d’var in Bereishit 12:17: “And God plagued Pharaoh with…