Are you looking for a way to make Torah real, exciting, and understandable for your young children? My First Torah will help you present Torah to your children on their level. For each Torah portion I have written a beginner reader level version. The first five books of the Bible make up the foundation for everything else we find in the Scriptures. My desire in writing this book is to give your child an opportunity to read the Torah portion each week in words that they can read and understand. Then your new reader can read Torah all by themselves.

Many parts of Torah can be more difficult to understand, let alone explain to children. I hope I have simplified that process for you. The tricky parts are still in there, but handled in a delicate, minimalist way to make them accessible for children. The Torah presents some tricky topics, such as circumcision. But we are instructed to read the Torah to even the nursing infant. So I have chosen to include these topics where they appear. However, I have used a minimalist approach to allow you, as the parent, the freedom to teach more in depth as you see fit. You know your child best of all.

You can use My First Torah as a great way to include Torah in your school day. It can be used as a Torah beginning to the day. It can be used as a beginning reader. It also lends well to copywork. Our children have also read the Torah portion out loud on Shabbat, from My First Torah.

I have chosen to refer to our Heavenly Father and Creator in a couple different ways. Sometimes I use Elohim, which means “Supreme Being.” We often find the personal name of our Creator in the text. Out of respect for anyone using this book, I have chosen to use YHVH. This is the English transliteration of the consonants we see in the Hebrew language. There is much debate over the proper pronunciation, or whether to pronounce the name. I wish to recognize that He has a personal name, but give your family the freedom to teach your children about His name as you see fit.

My First Torah is an 8×10 full color paperback or hardcover book with 27 hand drawn illustrations. It makes a great family read, because of the ease of understanding.