by Batsheva Goldberg
When my mother told me that the Torah Tours women would be teaching a special class for the teen girls on Shavuous night, I was pretty excited. In past years, I had generally gone to the dinner at shul, then walked home and read something vaguely related to the Torah for an hour before going to sleep. This sounded like a much better way to get the learning experience I was hoping for. I certainly wasn’t disappointed! The three students visiting our community presented a fascinating lesson, complete with source sheets, and happily answered all our questions (and there were quite a few!). By the end of the night, I felt like I had really received some very satisfactory answers to things I had been wondering about.
The class went so well that they held another one for us the next day. This time we covered a different aspect about what being Jewish meant to all of us, and also participated in an extremely fun activity in which all the teen girls had to work together to connect various objects such as a glove, a doily, and a fork to Shavuous and then build a skit around those objects. By mixing the more serious content of the lesson with an exciting game, we were able to gain a much more comprehensive idea of what they were trying to teach us.
The Torah Tours women created a unique learning experience for the teen girls. This was the first time that a class had been held in the community especially for us, and everyone enjoyed it immensely. The unanimous consent was that we all can’t wait for them to come back next year!