About

Traditionally, Torah Scroll Navigation (TSN), the ability to quickly and accurately locate your place within the Torah Scroll, has been reserved for a relatively small number of learned individuals who can instinctively locate desired readings, due to their deep familiarity with the text of the Torah Scroll.  Anchor Columns, easily recognizable due to unique and distinctive formatting and text, assist them.

TSN is also possible using a Systematic / Process-Driven approach

Intermediate Hebrew language students, including Bar/Bat Mitzvahs, generally have sufficient skills to read the beginning text of Aliyot within the Torah Scroll.  When students learn the identifiable patterns within the text (how to recognize Anchor Columns) plus have information on the distinctive qualities of each Aliyah – its Column Number, and approximate Line Number, and beginning text, and type of preceding space, they can locate Aliyot on their own. It is possible to equip future leaders, from diverse backgrounds, with skills to locate Aliyot within the Torah Scroll.

My Torah Scroll Navigation Journey, started in IT

I have enjoyed a many decades long career in Information Technology.  Working for both start-ups, including a Texas based company (that moved me from Brooklyn, NYC to Dallas, TX) dedicated to developing software to support electronic publishing on mainframe laser printers for large insurance companies, and thriving in corporate – including long consulting contracts at AT&T and Amdocs, I have participated in developing many new technical initiatives and rolling out new products into large-scale production.  Working within teams, my varied roles in project management and programming and consulting and pre/post sales support and technical curriculum development and training provided a foundation for developing both big picture thinking and deep analysis – with an emphasis on being able to present complex ideas in a logical and easy to follow manner.  I did not realize how transferrable these skills would be as I was also nurturing a blossoming interest in improving my Hebrew and deepening my connection to the written Torah.

My TSN Journey continued: My first Tikkun Korim

The summer of 1999, I participated on a 10-week Ulpan program at the University of Haifa.  There were 120 students from North and South America and from Europe.  Established professionals in our real lives, for a special time, we lived in Israeli dorms and studied and toured and hiked and shared our love for Hebrew.

About 12 years later, I was introduced to my first Tikkun Korim.  What a revelation, to have a printed copy of the text corresponding to how it appeared in the actual Torah Scroll.  Many modern Tikkuns use a 245 Column / 42 Line layout – based on the post WWII Tikkun published by Rabbi Menachem Davidovich, zt”l.  Interestingly, it was during this same season, that I had an occasional discomfort with the Torah Service at our wonderful, small outreach shul.  On Shabbat we pray from Psalms 29:11 – יי עז לעמו יתן יי יברך את עמו בשלום “Adonai will give strength unto His people; Adonai will bless His people with peace.”  However, that peace was distinctly interrupted when the Torah Scroll was sometimes rolled to an Unknown Column.  Did this NOT bother anyone else?

My TSN Journey continued: An “Aha” Moment

There is an informal community of Hebrew teachers and adult students in the Dallas area metroplex.  One Shabbat, during this same season, we were invited to attend services at a Conservative synagogue that was hosting a very special speaker.  It was during that morning’s Torah Service, after my husband and I received an Aliyah, that I received an understanding.  Take the text from Line 1 of each Column of the Torah Scroll, sort it alphabetically, and you can then resolve that uncomfortable feeling of an Unknown Column by reading the first few words on line one and looking them up to see where you were.  A few weeks later, that same understanding was confirmed.

My TSN Journey continued: Publishing the “Torah Scroll Column Reference Guide” with Mosaica Press

Fast forward nearly 10 years.  The world is in the midst of the global Covid-19 pandemic.  In 2021, the “Torah Scroll Column Reference Guide” is published by Mosaica Press, printed in Israel.  The “Where am I?” section is the culmination of years of work fine-tuning, using IT design skills,  how the “Aha” Moment should be designed and presented.  Additional sections were included – “Where is My Parashah” and “Columns for Selected Yom Tov Readings” and “Columns Containing Selected Daily and Shabbat Readings”.

My TSN Journey continued: Self-Publishing the “Where is my Aliyah?” Workbook

An important friend and mentor had a special Torah Scroll at his shul.  Over 250 years old and made from deer skin, it followed the layout of the Torah Scroll that Maimonides used when he wrote his Sefer Torah – 226 Columns / 51 Lines.  He asked if I could create a reference that identified where each Aliyah began, for his Bar/Bat Mitzvah students that would be reading from that specific Scroll.  That Excel spreadsheet was the beginning of my self-published “Torah Scroll Column Locator Handbook”.  Since each Aliyah has the same essential, unchanging attributes of: Beginning Text, Type of Space preceding it (Open, Closed, or No Space) and the same preceding text – all I needed to do was update the Column Number, and Line Number information for each Aliyah to create a version for 245 Column / 42 Line Torah Scrolls.

My TSN Journey continued: Presenting at the NAPH (National Association of Professors of Hebrew) Conferences

In my IT career, I have given hundreds of technical and pre-sales presentations. The start-up company who specialized in mainframe publishing, had their headquarters in the Gold Towers in Dallas, TX, and the conference room where our team pitched innovative software solutions informed future customers that they were sitting in J. R. Ewing’s conference room, from the old series Dallas.  It was a great ice breaker.  Still, nothing was taken for granted in preparing for each academic conference.  It was enjoyable presenting in English and using Ulpan skills to do Q & A in Hebrew.

Much of the material shared on this website is a direct result of the work that went into preparing presentations for the following two conferences:

• 2023 Annual NAPH Conference – University of Tel Aviv, Israel
  “Teaching Hebrew Students to Locate Sefer Torah Aliyot – Using their Existing Reading and Pattern Recognition Skills”
• 2024 Annual NAPH Conference – University of Washington, Seattle
  “Equipping Future Leaders from Diverse Backgrounds with Skills to Locate Weekly Parashiyot/Aliyot within the Sefer Torah”

The TSN Journey continued: Publishing the “Torah Scroll Column Locator Handbook” with KTAV Publishing House

In software engineering, there is a constant review and refining of products.  With that in mind, in 2025 I reviewed and refined the presentation of the TSN reference tables used in the “Where is my Aliyah?” Workbook – and created the manuscript for the “Torah Scroll Column Locator Handbook”.  Same two-step process for locating an Aliyah:  Locate the Column containing the Aliyah, and then Locate the Beginning Text for the Aliyah within that Column.  This new book has a streamlined presentation of the TSN data.  I am very happy to work with the amazing team at KTAV Publishing House, to make this book a reality in the Spring of 2026.

The TSN Journey: Looking Ahead

At the very beginning of this journey, one of my trusted Mentor Rabbis cautioned that this work is introducing new concepts, and that is not easy to inculcate within an existing community, within a generation.  So, this is a long haul project. 

The TSN Journey: Confirming the Vision

Intermediate Hebrew language students, from diverse backgrounds, can gain Torah Scroll Navigation skills.  Students practice, individually and in pairs, in the classroom using a Tikkun Korim.  TSN is an essential core competency for future community leaders.

Diverse backgrounds include – you fill in the blanks:   ______________________________ and ______________________________  and ______________________________  and _____________________________   and ______________________________