The Chumash Book That Changed How I Teach

By A Teacher

As we begin Chumash Bereishis again, I’ve been thinking about making the parasha relevant.

As a high school teacher, I’m always looking for ways to make what we learn in Chumash more meaningful to my students. The girls have been learning these parshiyos for years, and they know the stories well. The challenge is helping them understand what these stories are teaching us and how they apply to our own lives.

Last year, I discovered a book that does just that.

“Blueprint for Life” is a book based on the Chumash classes of longtime Beis Rivkah seminary teacher, Morah Yehudis Heller a”h. She takes the classical meforshim, Chassidus, and the Rebbe’s sichos, and brings out the practical lessons in a very clear and relatable way.

It’s not just a book on the parsha. In many ways, it’s a book of Lubavitch hashkafa for women, using the parshiyos as a starting point to discuss how a woman should think about herself, her responsibilities, and the situations she encounters in life.

I’ve found myself sharing various ideas from the book with my students, and they led to some good classroom discussions. A familiar story takes on new meaning when they see how it relates to something they deal with themselves.

I also enjoyed reading it on my own. The writing is straightforward and easy to follow, even when the concepts being discussed are quite deep. It doesn’t feel like something you need to learn, but there is plenty to think about.

We have often heard that Torah comes from the word hora’ah, because every part of Torah contains a lesson for our lives. This book really gave me a fresh look at familiar parshiyos in a way that makes it practical to my life.

As we start Bereishis again, I’m looking forward to revisiting it.