This week’s Torah reading (Parshat Mishpatim) includes the commandment of bikkurim: “The choice first fruits of your land you shall bring to the house of Hashem, your God” (Shemot 23:19). A TorahTutors student read the Sefer Hachinuch’s explanation of the “roots” of this commandment: So that even as we rejoice in our bounty, we will…
In honor of Tu B’Shevat and, in America, Martin Luther King Junior Day, we’ll make this a pre-Tuesday TorahTutors tidbit: real Torah, from real TorahTutors sessions. A TorahTutors student learned about the mitzvot of ma’aser: separating portions of produce for Leviim, poor people, and/or simply to eat oneself in Jerusalem. Different types of ma’aser are…
A time-traveling Tuesday TorahTutors Tidbit: Real Torah, from real TorahTutors sessions. A TorahTutors student studied some the Gemara’s many suggested Scriptural sources for the concept of the resurrection of the dead, and one of the texts cited is in this week’s Torah reading. The Gemara in Sanhedrin 91b quotes a baraita that states: Rabbi Meir…
A #TuesdayTorahTutorsTidbit for the beginning of 2022, about goals and what we need to achieve them; real Torah, from real TorahTutors sessions. According to Rambam (in his Introduction to Perek Chelek), the ultimate good to which a human’s soul might aspire transcends this world and consists in full knowledge of, and thereby unity with, God.…