Here’s today’s Tuesday TorahTutors tidbit – real Torah, from real TorahTutors sessions.
A TorahTutors student looking to learn Chumash content as well as boost her Hebrew language skills saw how paying attention to grammatical details, as basic as identifying pronouns and who is doing what action, can shed important light on the story.
When the family heads toward Canaan at the end of Bereishit 11 and beginning of Bereishit 12, who takes the others? Do we know why?
Who goes, actively? Does that enhance our understanding of the manner in which they were “taken“?
Which personalities in this story were the prime movers, and which were not? Does that tell us anything about their characters?
(We recommend the commentary of Radak on these lines for some possible answers. Available with translation beginning here – but remember, every translation is an interpretation. Best to learn with a live teacher who can work with you through the nuances of the original phrasing – perhaps at TorahTutors.org?)
