I hope you're enjoying the newly designed Sefaria for Educators! We’re always looking to improve, so feel free to send us your feedback.

Also, a quick reminder: If you'd like to be featured as our spotlight educator in an upcoming edition, let us know. We'd love to share how you're using Sefaria in your work.

Finally, we're excited to announce that we're working on adding vowels to more Torah commentaries. This has been a frequent request, and we're thrilled to make these resources even more accessible. Stay tuned!

Happy learning,

Rachel Buckman

Who? Mrs. Olivia Friedman, Instructor of Judaics at the Jewish Leadership Academy in Miami

How? I use Sefaria to create thematic source sheets by blending Judaic texts with contemporary sources or pop culture. My goal is to engage people with Judaism based on their interests.

Two examples of this are my source sheet about the global phenomenon Game of Thrones and my source sheet about Rachel Goldberg Polin's heartbreaking eulogy for her son Hersh. Creating these source sheets enables people to see that the topics that move or excite them connect to Judaism as well!

Olivia's Top Tip: Sometimes people feel as though they don’t have enough expertise or qualifications to be a teacher, but we all have something to share. The Lubavitcher Rebbe taught, "If you know only Aleph, teach Aleph!" and this is a helpful idea. Perhaps you are worried that only really qualified people or scholars can create source sheets. This is not the case. You, and even your students, can and should build source sheets and put them out there. Remember, the same Jewish idea or assortment of texts that may seem really obvious to you could be inspiring to someone else for whom it is new. Building a Sefaria source sheet is something everyone should try at least once.

Have you visited the newly updated Teach with Sefaria page? That’s where you can find helpful resources from Sefaria, learn from other educators’ experiences teaching and using Sefaria’s resources, and get inspired to try new things in your work. Start exploring...

Get a fresh perspective on the original Tanakh text when you view it alongside a modern Hebrew translation. Known as Miqra Mevoar, this modern Hebrew translation of the Tanakh was crafted by Rabbi David Kokhav.

The work provides a concise word-by-word translation of the biblical text based on traditional commentators and rabbinic sources. Plus, Sefaria’s new right-to-left translation feature means you can view the two Hebrew-language texts side by side!

Ever wanted to SEE the connections between Tanakh and Talmud? Now you and your students can do just that!

The interactive Link Explorer displays 30,000 instances where the Talmud quotes a verse of Tanakh. Hover over the strands to see how many connections there are, or click on them to explore the connections in more depth. When teaching a tractate, consider asking students where they think the Torah basis comes from (or vice versa) — then look at the Link Explorer to see if they got it right!

Webinar: Sefaria + Google Docs | About Sefaria | The Sefaria Classroom