Torah Portion of the Week

What is the Torah Portion of the Week?

Torah is the name the Jews call the Bible, which is broken up into three parts: The Five Books of Moses, Prophets, and Writings.

A portion, parsha in Hebrew, is a section from the Torah. In the case of the weekly readings, this a section from the 5 Books of Moses.

Jews break the Torah up into 54 sections, arranged slightly differently than the Christians. Each week, we read a different section of the Torah, according to a pre-determined chronological order, so that each year we read the complete 5 Books of Moses.

Each week is also assigned a particular reading from the Prophets, known as the haftorah, but we will not be discussing these readings on this page.

What is Dvar Torah, and how does it relate to the Torah Portion of the Week

Dvar Torah is an interpretative speech that relates to the Torah Portion of the Week. During prayer services, especially on Friday and Saturday night, the Rabbi usually gives a Dvar Torah, which could also be known as a sermon.

There are different appraoches to composing Dvar Torah. One of the most common devices is to take a section of the Weekly Torah Portion, explain it's meaning, and then talk about it's application in daily life. Another approach would be to take a difficult section of the portion, explain what great commentators of the past have said, and then provide your own approach.

Dvar Torah provides a great opportunity to connect the wisdom of the 5 Books of Moses to other Jewish sources (Talmud, Pirkei Avot, Modern Philosophy, etc.) or even to non-Jewish sources (anything from Socrates to Bill Gates to Yogi Berra!)

What are the names and references for the various Torah Portions of the Week?

To find the names of the Torah Portions of the Week, and their locations in the Torah, look at the table below, from Wikipedia.