© 2019 by Rabbi David Paskin

JPaL is a program of Temple Sinai of North Dade
Call Us: 305-932-9012   /   rabbi.david@tsnd.org   /  18801 NE 22nd Ave, Miami, FL 33180

Enduring Understandings:

You will understand that...

  • The Torah is the collective story of the Jewish people and teaches me how to be a part of the Jewish people.

  • The Jewish people began as a family and grew into a nation.

Essential Questions:

What do you think?

  • Who are some of the important characters in the Bible, what are their stories, and why are they important in my life and in my family’s life?

  • How am I like the people in the story and how am I different?

  • What values can I learn from these characters?

  • What are some of the challenges that the families in the Torah face?

I can describe the Torah as a scroll that has five books

The Torah contains the Five Books of Moses. These five books (B'reisheet, Sh'mot, Vayikra, Bamidbar and Devarim) tell the story of the Creation of the world and the birth of the Jewish people. A Torah is written on a scroll by a trained expert called a Sofer, or scribe. 

Create a scroll story with five parts representing the five books of the Torah​

I can show my understanding that a portion (or selection) from the Torah is read each week in synagogue

Each week we read a different portion from the Torah scroll. Each portion is called a "parsha." There are 54 parshiot (portions) in the Torah. Since there are only 52 weeks in the year, sometimes we read a double-portion.

Click on our Parsha Pie to see all of the Parshiot.

Choose one parsha and write a parsha play telling the story of that parsha.

I can use the words "Torah" and "parsha" in proper contexts

Now that you know what the Torah is and what a parsha is, see if you can fill out this Madlibs using these two key words.

Create your own Mad Libs about the Torah and the parshiot in the Torah.

I show appropriate behavior around a Torah scroll

Because the Torah is so special to the Jewish people we behave differently around it than we do when we're playing soccer, doing gymnastics or even just playing with our friends. We always want to show respect to the Torah. See if you know how to show respect to the Torah by playing our game!


I can ask good questions about the Torah stories

The most important part of Torah study is asking questions. And the best kinds of questions are "why" and "how" questions. Why did God say that? Why did Moses do this? How was Miriam feeling about this? When you learn about a story from the Torah, make sure to ask lots of questions!