“Rabbi Bohm’s important work opens up each weekly Torah portion in ways that will touch the soul of individual seekers and will serve as the basis for creating community through shared study and conversation. Her beautiful language is accessible and rich, allowing Torah to touch our hearts and minds. This book provides a compelling and persuasive argument for the contemporary relevance of Torah study, explicitly in its introduction, but implicitly on each and every page. This new book is a vital resource for adult learners, rabbis and educators.”
Rabbi Leon A. Morris, President of Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, based in Jerusalem and New York City
“What I really love about this book is its accessibility. A lay-leader could pick it up and use it to lead a Torah study group with great success. Yet at the same time, it offers a grounded, scholarly, feminist perspective on each Torah portion, offering a rich source of sermonic material. A genuinely useful book!”
Rabbi Kari Tuling, author of Thinking about God
“Rabbi Lenore Bohm has written a very accessible, appealing, and challenging book that is a gem for Christians as well as members of the Jewish community. She has done the work of Torah which, as its name implies, ‘instructs’ and ‘guides’ adults through key passages of the Hebrew Bible. Using an approach that explains stand-out phrases and verses, offers questions to illuminate the texts and invites readers to make practical connections to their own lives, this book ultimately leads to personal reflection and prayer. With the help of Rabbi Bohm’s knowledge and creative insight, adults will discover or rediscover trustworthy wisdom for life in today’s world. I heartily recommend this treasure for seekers and for those charged with bringing the scriptures alive for their communities.”
Barbara Quinn, RSCJ, Associate Director of Spiritual Formation, Boston College School of Theology and Ministry
“This book is for those more spiritual than religious, for the seekers and the shape-shifters who want to be drawn to Torah but need a guide, a reason, a rabbi. Rabbi Lenore Bohm offers her heart and wisdom but also, importantly, her expertise in arranging, managing, and navigating the immensity of Torah study. In this short, brilliantly organized book, Rabbi Bohm provides scaffolding for accessing Torah—for learning to talk about, think, and focus on Torah. This is a gift of a book by a very gifted rabbi.”
Jessica Pressman, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, San Diego State University
“Rabbi Bohm’s book manifests excellent teaching skills and important Jewish feminist insight. Throughout Torah Tutor, Bohm renders complex religious issues, both ancient and contemporary, easily understandable. The book offers something for every reader, including Jewish and Christian religious leaders preparing to preach. The seeds of many sermons are here! The audience is diverse, including Jews interested in exploring Torah and its relevance to their lives, Christians interested in how Jews today interpret Torah, and those seeking enrichment or personal spirituality. I highly recommend it and plan to return to it often.”
Bishop Jane Via, co-founder of Mary Magdalene Apostle Catholic Community in California
“As a Christian, I have always loved the stories and wisdom in the Bible. Rabbi Bohm expresses that same love in Torah Tutor. With each portion of the Torah, she lovingly crafts questions and insights that draw us in to the heart of God. Here you will find all the drama of creation and humanity made plain from ancient times. Here you will find parallels and deep connection to the issues and concerns of today. Torah Tutor can be used privately or in group study or by clergy preparing messages. Rabbi Bohm demands brave encounters with difficult and disturbing stories in the Torah. She offers a fresh spiritual approach, calling us to love and care more deeply for one another and the world around us.”
The Rev. Sharon A. Buttry, retired American Baptist minister, co-author of Daughters of Rizpah
“Rabbi Bohm, a popular and beloved teacher of Torah, has crafted a very accessible and rich approach to Jewish sources. Well organized, the materials stimulate thought and conversation while featuring diverse voices and opinions.”
Rabbi Deborah Prinz, author of On the Chocolate Trail
“Rabbi Lenore Bohm’s Torah Tutor is for adults—thinking, questioning, skeptical adults. In it she puts aside children’s Bible stories to reveal profound, often contradictory, and sometimes frustrating narrative investigations into what it means to be human. Torah is a tough book for tough adults looking for a challenge that is at the same time political, social, and spiritual. A skilled Torah teacher, Rabbi Bohm is the perfect guide to this indispensable book.”
Rabbi Rami Shapiro, author of The Tao of Solomon
“We describe Torah as Torat Hayyim, a living tradition. This requires that our lives be deeply informed by ancient wisdom and practices, and that Jewish traditions learn and grow from our insights and lived experiences. We are living through a moment of transformation in which ancient Jewish texts are being interpreted by an ever-expanding circle of people. Judaism is being transformed by this generation of learners. And so are we, as people who now have access to Torah study in previously unimaginable ways. This book is a sturdy walking stick, a bridge, and a trail map that invites anyone and everyone to come and drink from the well of Jewish wisdom.”
Rabbi Ari Lev Fornari, Senior Rabbi of Kol Tzedek, Philadelphia
“Torah Tutor is the perfect companion to jump into the sea of Torah. Rabbi Bohm has created a masterful and wide-ranging text to study the weekly Torah portions. She brings together the best of contemporary commentators and helps us focus our questions through carefully crafted and insightful teachings. I can’t wait to bring this book to my regular Torah study group.”
Rabbi Denise L. Eger, Senior Rabbi of Congregation Kol Ami, West Hollywood, California
“You couldn’t do better than picking up this book and reading her commentary, indispensable even among thousands of years of conversation on a text that begs for those like her to help us—even those like me who study and teach it for a living—encounter even more in it. The insights here you won’t find anywhere else, and you’ll use them every day of your life. Many have written commentaries on the Torah, and this rises up with the very best of them. It really is that good.”
Rabbi Scott Fox, Senior Rabbi of Temple Israel of Long Beach, California
“Rabbi Bohm’s book is a unique and useful offering to the rich world of Torah study. Part anthology, part manual and part spiritual guidebook, Torah Tutor is a fresh treasure trove of ideas, sources, questions and practices that are sure to deepen and enliven any Torah study group.”
Rabbi Lisa Goldstein, former Executive Director of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality
“As a participant in Rabbi Bohm’s Torah study sessions for over a decade, I heartily recommend Torah Tutor. This elegant and eloquent presentation of weekly parshiyot, accompanied by insightful commentary, fills the reader of Torah with renewed awe. Rabbi Bohm masterfully weaves contemporary themes and current issues with the wisdom and foresight of our rabbinic sages. Torah Tutor is a wonderful companion for those who wish to connect or reconnect to our greatest treasure.“
Michael B. Maskin, ABPP, Clinical Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry (retired)
“I have attended numerous Torah study sessions with the brilliant Rabbi Bohm over many years. This book is modeled on these sessions—but for a much wider audience. Rabbi Bohm brings the same expertise to her book as her in-person Torah study sessions.”
Glenda Sacks Jaffe, Hillel Director, University of San Diego and California State University at San Marcos
“Rabbi Bohm’s book is indeed a treasure—both for those who think that they know the Torah already and for those who have never studied at an adult level before. Her book will open your mind to some of the questions that the Torah asks of us as well as to some of the questions that we should ask when we confront the Bible. I promise you that this is a book that you will find well worth reading—and that you will want to reread many times.”
Rabbi Jack Riemer, author of Finding God in Unexpected Places
“I have attended numerous Torah study sessions with the brilliant Rabbi Bohm over many years. This book is modeled on these sessions—but for a much wider audience. Rabbi Bohm brings the same expertise to her book as her in-person Torah Study sessions. She is a gifted educator both in person and as an author. She manages to teach to all levels without making anyone feel ignorant or bored.
This book is truly awesome—as in the Biblical meaning of that word vs the way Americans use the word flippantly. Rabbi Bohm presents each parsha through highlights, questions and discussion points with a layout similar to how she leads an in-person session. The questions after each section keep the reader focused, involved and engaged, making the material more relevant. Everything is explained in simple terms. Each time a Hebrew word or phrase is used, it is italicized and explained. Additionally, there is a detailed glossary with accurate explanations of all the terminology used and explained in the book.
Rabbi Bohm cites a great variety of secondary sources from innovative rabbis and scholars from all denominations. She gives attention especially to women’s voices and experiences. These include modern as well as traditional ideas. This all is helpfully organized in a well-presented bibliography, as well as accurate references throughout the book. Rabbi Bohm is comfortable giving her own interpretations, including controversial ones and she does not shun difficult concepts—instead she pushes her readers to think and to rethink everything one ever thought, believed or took for granted.
This is a book I would buy for myself and give as a gift.”
Glenda Sacks Jaffe is the Hillel Director at USD/CSUSM (California State University at San Marcos)
“Torah Tutor is an invitation to consider, contemplate and discuss the essential themes of the weekly Torah portion. It is for the intellectual and spiritual seeker who is curious about what Torah teaches us on topics such as justice, family dynamics, power, celebration and the important search for meaning and purpose. This book is for the novice or experienced student, for the individual or for a small group interested in self-guided study. It is an accessible and beautiful rendering of the wisdom of Torah.”
Rabbi Karyn Kedar, author of Amen: Seeking Presence With Prayer, Poetry, and Mindfulness Practice
“Every preacher worth his or her pulpit has taught the Hebrew Bible from commentaries and published works by Christian authors. But few have taken the time to explore the Pentateuch through Jewish eyes. Rabbi Bohm offers added insight by lifting up the meaning of specific Hebrew words and concepts most Christian readers would miss. Her book will give added depth to the teaching and preaching from the Christian pulpit. Every Christian preacher needs Torah Tutor.”
The Rev. John E. Harnish, retired United Methodist minister and author of 30 Days with E. Stanley Jones
“For those looking to grow morally and spiritually, Torah Tutor gives us a fresh, modern way to understand and apply biblical text by highlighting standout verses, focus phrases and over-arching concepts, teasing out relatable themes of human experience and positing thought-provoking discussion points. While Rabbi Bohm shares many notable insights, she purposely leaves room for us to ponder for ourselves the meaning of these timeless texts in meaningful, new and varied ways. For Jewish lay leaders, Torah Tutor gives us an accessible way to inform and ground our philanthropic and community service efforts in Jewish values and ethics. It guides and inspires us to fulfill what Rabbi Bohm points out are the Torah’s key mandates: justice, compassion, generosity and responsibility.”
Lisa Brown is a lifelong lay leader in Jewish communities and co-author of Now What? A Guide to the Gifts and Challenges of Aging