As the school year winds down, it’s a perfect moment to reflect on all you’ve accomplished and to celebrate a year of learning and growth. It’s also a great time to explore texts you might not have had time to delve into during the busy months.

I hope you have an opportunity to dive into the Sefaria library and get inspired by the incredible authors and ideas waiting for you there. Below, you’ll find a few suggestions to help you get started.

Who? Meirav Steinlauf, Teen Engagement Associate, Ohr Kodesh Congregation and Grade 6 teacher, Alvin Browdy Religious School in Maryland

How? When planning lessons, I like to use Sefaria as a springboard for my students’ learning journey. Often, this means presenting a snippet of Tanakh to show my students how easy it is to find commentary and other connected sources. Showing students the vastness of the Jewish library and how easy it is to connect their interests to their Judaism through Jewish texts is truly wonderful.

Meirav’s Top Tip: When reading a text on Sefaria, click on what you’re reading! That opens the Resource Panel, where you’ll see multiple translations of source texts, different commentaries, and (especially) related texts. In moments, you can turn one idea into 20. This is really useful when teaching in an afterschool program, where students may be tired. This way, they all can find ways to engage with the content. For example, this past Pesach, I brought in Exodus 1:15-19 to teach about women in the Torah. Together, we clicked on the verses and read commentary from Rashi and Ibn Ezra about Shifra, Pua, Miriam, and Yocheved, and discussed the questions raised by these and other commentators. In a few clicks, we had a rich conversation rolling.

Explore this work of ethical maxims from our sages with a new experimental learning tool. The Pirkei Avot Learning Guide, created by Sefaria’s learning team utilizing a custom-trained AI model, draws on recurring themes from commentaries on the text to create an interactive learning experience. You may find this useful for your own learning, to recommend to adult students, or for independent class work. Access the guide in the Resource Panel by clicking on any passage of the text.

Are you teaching the same book of Tanakh to a new group of students? Summer is the perfect time to discover modern essay-length commentaries available on Sefaria. In the Resource Panel, click on Commentary — then scroll down to find the All Quoting Commentary subheading. There, you’ll find passages from various volumes, including those by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Dr. Everett Fox, and Dr. Avivah Zornberg. Within the essays themselves, citations of other texts in the library are linked for you to explore.

Texts such as the ones above (and many more!) are expansive and comprehensive. Plus, they’re written in modern English — a crucial part of their accessibility.

The Ta'amei HaPardes Commentary, authored by scholars Rabbi Rahel Berkovits, Judy Klitsner, and Rabbi Zvi Hirschfield, offers original interpretations of classical Jewish texts, geared toward empowering modern learners to engage in independent text study. The authors, all faculty members of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, delve into key themes in Jewish law, spirituality, and ethics, examining psychological and social matters such as the complexities of family dynamics, humanity's tendencies toward competition and strife, and the human potential for self-reflection and repair.

The Talmud section of this collection, newly available on Sefaria, provides an opportunity to learn the Pardes method of Talmud study through a deep study of the sugya (passage of text). All Talmud learners (and teachers) can use it either for independent study or as a mini-course or unit for high school or adult Talmud study.

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