How to start learning Torah: a beginner's guide

Most guides to learning Torah begin with a reading list. This one begins with a claim: the hardest part is not understanding the text, it is opening it tomorrow. Everything below is arranged around that. What to open, how to read it, what to ignore for now, and how to make the second day happen.

What “Torah” means here

Strictly, the Torah is the five books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The full Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh, adds the Prophets and the Writings; our explainer covers the structure. In conversation, “learning Torah” can mean studying any Jewish text at all, including the Talmud. This guide means the first thing: reading the five books, in Hebrew and English, with one classic commentary when you are ready for it.

Where to start

Genesis 1:1 is the obvious answer and the right one. Genesis is narrative from beginning to end, the family story of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, and it teaches you how the Torah tells a story: sparely, with repetition that means something and silences that mean more. By the time you reach Exodus you will know how to read.

This week’s parasha is the other good answer. Synagogues everywhere read the same portion each Shabbat, and joining that cycle means you can talk about what you read with anyone who reads. Wherever you join, the cycle comes back around. The parasha page shows the current portion with a summary.

Do not start with Leviticus, and do not start with a book about the Torah. Read the text.

How to read a pasuk

The Torah’s basic unit is the verse, in Hebrew a pasuk. Here is one, the best known of all:

1. Sound out the Hebrew, right to left, using the vowel marks (nikud) under and above the letters. Speed does not matter. If you cannot read Hebrew letters yet, a weekend with an alphabet chart is enough to sound out words; comprehension comes later, from repetition.
2. Read the English. The JPS 1917 translation used in Torah Feed follows the Hebrew word order closely, so you can match phrases between the two.
3. Find one word. In the Shema it might be echad, “one.” Notice it. You will meet it again in the next chapter.
4. Move on. One question per verse is plenty. Write it down if it matters. Rashi probably answers it, and you can look later.

Hebrew, English, or both

Both, side by side, from the first day. English alone is reading a book about the Torah, one that happens to be very accurate. Hebrew alone, before you know the vocabulary, is decoding. Together, the English carries the meaning while the Hebrew slowly becomes familiar, and after a few months you will notice that you are reading the Hebrew first and glancing at the English to check. That is the goal, and it needs no course.

When to add Rashi

Rashi is the eleventh-century commentary printed in every traditional Chumash, and traditional Jewish education begins Rashi around age eight, once children know the stories. Follow the same order. Read the text through at least once as a story, then add Rashi on your second pass, or on verses that stop you. When you do, read the guide to reading a Rashi: his comments answer questions he does not state, and knowing that changes everything.

A few words you will need

Making the second day happen

• Attach it to something that already happens. Coffee, the train, the minute before sleep. The Torah does not need a desk.
• Count verses, not minutes. Decide on a number you can hit on your worst day. Three is fine.
• Never decide where you were. Use something that keeps your place for you. Deciding is friction and friction ends habits.
• Do not catch up. Missed a day? Read today’s verses. The reading-plan page explains why this is the whole secret.
• Save what stops you. A verse that makes you pause is the beginning of study. Keep a list. In a year it will be the best commentary you own.

Free resources worth knowing

Sefaria is a free online library of Jewish texts, including the Tanakh, Rashi and thousands of other works, and the source of the public-domain texts in Torah Feed. Chabad.org publishes the daily Chumash with Rashi in English. Both are libraries, built for looking things up. Torah Feed is a reader, built for the next verse. Use whichever gets you to open the text tomorrow.

Common questions