What You Can Find in My Jewish Learning's Torah Portion Section

My Jewish Learning's Torah portion section gives you a weekly reference page for the upcoming parashat: the Torah reading range, a full summary, the Haftarah reading and summary, featured commentary, and the date it falls on. It is a reading-and-orientation resource, not a full Hebrew text with translation. The page is built around the next upcoming portion, so what you see changes from week to week.

What each Torah portion page contains

Using the current page for Parashat Bereshit as the model, a portion entry typically includes:

• Portion name and date — e.g., "Parashat Bereshit, October 10, 2026."
• Torah reading range — the specific verses read that week, here Genesis 1:1–6:8.
• Full summary — a short narrative recap. For Bereshit: God creates the world, Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit and are banished from Eden, Cain kills Abel, and God considers destroying Creation.
• Haftarah reading and summary — the accompanying prophetic reading, here I Samuel 20:18–42, marked "Shabbat Machar Chodesh" because it falls near a new month.
• Featured commentary — an essay on the portion. The Bereshit page carries "Parashat Bereshit: Being Like God" by Ben Harris, on the expulsion from Eden as the start of humanity's path to its destiny.
• Candle-lighting times — a link to find Shabbat start times for the week.

How the section is organized

The site frames the Torah as the first five books, with Genesis ("origins") covering the creation of the world and of the children of Israel. Around the weekly portion, the section links to related explainers and background pieces, such as:

• Classic stories treated separately (Cain and Abel)
• Ritual history (the origins of bar/bat mitzvah and confirmation)
• Practical questions (why Hebrew is written right to left)
• First-person rabbinic essays (e.g., "The Phantom Bimah" by Rabbi Diana Fersko)

This means you can move from the week's reading into deeper background on a figure, practice, or theme it raises.

Reading notes tied to the calendar

Some weeks carry a special label instead of a standard Haftarah. The Bereshit entry's "Shabbat Machar Chodesh" note is one example: the Haftarah is chosen because the Shabbat falls on the day before a new month. If you are preparing a reading or teaching, check this label — it tells you the Haftarah may differ from the default for that portion.

Related study resources on the same site

The portion page sits alongside other ongoing study tracks you may want:

What it is not

The section summarizes and contextualizes; it does not present the full vocalized Hebrew text with line-by-line translation, and the page evidence does not indicate any pricing or login requirement for reading the summaries and commentary. If you need the complete text for leyning or close study, use it as a companion to a Hebrew text rather than a replacement.

Best for: getting oriented before Shabbat, preparing a discussion, or checking which verses and Haftarah are read on a given date. Check first: the date and any special-Shabbat label, since both change weekly.