Whether learning in person or online, it’s important to help students connect to what they learn in a variety of ways. One TorahTutors tutor recently did just that. In the course of learning the story of Chana, including her prayers before and after the birth of Shmuel, the tutor shared a song with Chana’s beautiful…
There is a widespread custom to study a chapter of Pirkei Avot – a popular and particularly accessible tractate of Mishna – each week between Pesach and Shavuot. Known in English as Ethics of Our Fathers, Pirkei Avot contains many teachings that go beyond the letter of the law, offering guidance on character development that…
The Gemara in Nedarim (45a) indicates that one can declare an item “hefker” (ownerless) only if there are three people present. (One to potentially take ownership of the item, and two to witness.) This rule raises questions about an aecdote in Bava Metzia 30b: R’ Yishmael, the son of Rabbi Yosi, encountered a man who…
There is a widespread custom in some communities to study a chapter of Pirkei Avot – a popular and particularly accessible tractate of Mishna – each week between Pesach and Shavuot. Known in English as Ethics of Our Fathers, Pirkei Avot contains many teachings that go beyond the letter of the law, offering guidance on…
A young TorahTutors student wanted to understand reasons for keeping kosher, so her tutor read Vayikra chapter 11 with her to look for clues in the Torah’s presentation of the rules for which animals may and may not be eaten. The student noticed several phrases, including “for I am the Lord, your God” (vs. 44),…
In a new essay, Sarah Rudolph, Director of TorahTutors, shares the perspectives of four different commentators on whether the Israelites in Egypt prayed for redemption – and why God answered even if they didn’t. This was a people who had been enslaved for centuries, whose collective memory only just barely held on to the knowledge…
Moadim l’simcha! This Passover Tuesday, we’re proud to share a tidbit of Torah from one of the tutors who’s been with us the longest, learning with a number of long-term and new students. We read in the Haggadah that Rabban Gamliel says we must explain three things: the korban pesach, matzah, and maror. The Bnei…
Preparing for Passover? This Tuesday TorahTutors Tidbit might help: An adult student has been learning the tenth chapter of Gemara Pesachim. The first mishna teaches that one should not start a meal late in the day on Erev Pesach. The Gemara notes that this halacha actually applies to all holidays and Shabbat – so…
The upcoming holiday of Pesach celebrates the end of an extended period of slavery that had been foretold to Avraham: “Your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and they will enslave them and afflict them for 400 years. And I will also judge the nation that they will serve, and…
While learning Pirkei Avot, a pre-teen TorahTutors student and her tutor noticed something that reminded them of something they’d learned not long before in the weekly parsha. (It’s also relevant to the upcoming holiday of Pesach!) Avot 1:10 says, ”Sna et harabanut– Hate status.” Moshe put in a lot of effort trying to “convince” Hashem…