Did you ever see a six foot man eating chicken? Is the question about a 6-foot man who eats chicken, or is there perhaps a giant chicken out there eating humans? Exploring this and other examples of syntactic ambiguities helped a TorahTutors student understand two different ways to read Bereishit 37:18, “And they…
In the seventh chapter of his introduction to Pirkei Avot, Rambam explains that a person’s negative character traits can create obstacles to prophetic perception of God, and describes some of the essential qualities of a prophet: wisdom, strength of character, satisfaction with one’s lot, etc. However, “It is not of the conditions of the prophet…
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…
Why didn’t God simply command Avraham to “Go to the land that I will show you”? Why preface with so many details – “from your land,” “from your birthplace,” and “from your father’s house”? The Kli Yakar suggests the command was phrased this way “because it might have been difficult for Avraham to accept everything…
One way to help students stay actively engaged with text is to provide specific tasks that help draw focus to the details. And online learning offers a lot of tools for that! For example, after a preliminary conversation about lists and headings (e.g. “These are the things to buy at the store: Milk, eggs,…
Today’s TorahTutors Tidbit relates to this week’s Torah portion, where we learn about the beginnings of the world and of human history, and about development beyond those beginnings. When one TorahTutors student began her partial study of the Book of Bereishit, it was with a specific eye towards gaining a sense of the world’s…
It is traditional to read Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) on the Shabbos of Chol Hamoed Sukkot – or this year, since there is no Shabbos Chol Hamoed, on Shemini Atzeret. The book of Kohelet is so difficult to understand that the Talmud (Shabbos 30b) says the Sages considered excluding it from the biblical canon because of…