Shavuot is one of our favorite holidays at Sefaria. After all, what better way to celebrate the giving of the Torah than by diving into the richness of our vast library of Jewish texts? It's easy to get delightfully lost in the stacks, especially for those who love being curious and learning new things.

We’ve gathered a collection of resources to support your teaching this season, including key texts on Shavuot, Tanakh, and Talmud, along with helpful tips for making the most of Sefaria.

Who? Rabbi Michael Billet, Judaic Studies Teacher for Grades 5–8 at Kinneret Day School in Riverdale, New York.

How? I often incorporate Sefaria into my classroom in a variety of ways. The library serves as a primary resource for accessing Tanakh verses and commentaries in English.

Rabbi Billet’s Top Tip: One of my favorite features on Sefaria is the search bar function. I love how I can enter a single word and instantly see every instance of its use in Tanakh and Rabbinic sources. It can be a lot to take in at times — but also so cool! Additionally, a major part of my lesson preparation involves exploring various commentators and utilizing the available source sheets. My students are comfortable navigating the Torah texts available on Sefaria, researching different commentators, and choosing from among different translations.

Looking for relevant information around the web? Finding connected articles is a breeze. Students and teachers alike can dig deeper by accessing hundreds of web pages created by a diverse group of Jewish learning organizations like The Rabbi Sacks Legacy, My Jewish Learning, and many more. In a few clicks, students can follow their own interests and strive to find answers to their questions.

Teaching about the giving of the Torah? Enjoy these modern commentaries and essays on the Ten Commandments in English:

Sefaria’s library is extensive enough, but if you want even more thought-provoking writings on tractate Shabbat 88a, a text associated with Shavuot, you can find scores of them in a couple clicks. Check out the web pages feature above to see how! Here are some essays we thought we’d highlight, to get you started:

Want to explore interpretations of this talmudic text from within the Sefaria library? Chidushei Agadot, a 16th-17th century commentary by Rabbi Shmuel Eliezer Edels (Maharsha) on the midrashic sections of the Babylonian Talmud is available on Sefaria in English.

Study by Topic! Topic pages are collections of sources from across the library, organized according to a specific theme. Get started with #Shavuot, #Giving of the Torah, #The Book of Ruth, and #Torah.

Shavuot Source Sheets: Whether preparing for Shavuot in advance or teaching a lesson on the holiday, take a look at Shavuot on Sefaria, a collection of Torah journeys from an all-star lineup of educators including Ruth Calderon, Rabbi Dr. Kenneth Brander, and Dr. Elana Stein Hain. These Torah experiences include both source texts and narrative writing, to provide learners with a guided tour through a topic.

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