Student Activities

Personalizing your Tikkun

Students practice Torah Scroll Navigation, using a popular Tikkun:  Tikkun Kor’im Hamefoar: Tikun for Reading the Torah with Instructions and Laws in Hebrew and English – A. Walzer (245 Column / 42 Line layout).

To enhance learning, each student needs access to two copies of this Tikkun:

Personal Highlighted Tikkun – Students use erasable coloring pencils and highlight the beginning text of each Aliyah.  Students may choose to use one color for the Cohen Aliyah, and another for the remaining Aliyot.  Or  a student may choose to use different colors for Aliyot in different Seforim.

Shared Masked Tikkun – Instructor uses removable ¼” white tape to cover the Column #, Sefer Name, Parashah Name information at the top of each page, and the Aliyah / Chapter, Verse information in the center of each page.  This simulates the experience one feels at the Torah Scroll, where there are no clues regarding Sefer, Parashah, Aliyah except for the text and the layout of the text.

Students practice TSN Scenarios – First using their Highlighted Tikkun and then repeat the scenario using the Masked Tikkun.

Locating your Aliyah in your Tikkun

Locating an Aliyah in a Tikkun or in the Torah Scroll is a two-step process:

• LOCATE the Column containing your Aliyah
• LOCATE the Beginning Text for your Aliyah within that Column

Reference Tables guide students.  Each Aliyah has a specific Address – the Column #, Line # - where it begins in the student’s Tikkun Korim. Each Aliyah also has Unique Characteristics, including: Beginning Text, Type of Space (Open, Closed, No Space) preceding it, and specific words preceding it.

Students use Anchor Columns, columns with distinctive formatting and text (such as the Column where a new Sefer begins) to go to a known Column #, and then roll (turn pages of) the Tikkun a designated number of pages in a designated direction – to get to the Column containing their Aliyah.

Students then use the Unique Characteristics of their Aliyah to locate it within its Column.

With a little bit of practice, this becomes an easily repeatable, quick, and joyous activity.

Where am I? Recovering from an Unknown Column

Recovering from an Unknown Column is much more than just locating where you are supposed to be in the Tikkun or in the Torah Scroll.  It is recovering from a state of anxiety to a restored sense of well-being and peace.

From Halachah/Jewish Law, we received binding Torah Scroll layout requirements.  This includes the placement of 4 empty lines between each Sefer, and the specific location and type (Open, Closed) for each space.  Also mandated is the layout of the Song of Moses and the text within Ha’azinu.  Maimonides, the Rambam, describes these in his Mishneh Torah – Sefer Ahavah – Laws of Tefillin, Mezuzot, and Torah Scrolls.

Recently, post WWII, Rabbi Menachem Davidovich, zt”l, published a Tikkun that has become a standard used throughout the world for many, many Torah Scrolls – 245 Columns with 42 Lines per Column, introducing recommendations for pagination standards.  Many modern Tikkuns follow this layout.

These standards enable us to create Torah Scroll Navigation processes based on the layout of the text, since there are no Column Numbers or extraneous information within the Scroll – such as a running header on each page with the Column Contents.

To recover from an Unknown Column – students read the first few words on Line 1 of the current column and then look those words up alphabetically in the Torah Scroll Column Reference Guide.  A student then knows the Column # and the Contents (Sefer, Parashah, Aliyah) for where the are and can roll the Torah Scroll / turn the pages of the Tikkun to recover and locate the Column containing their Aliyah.

Locating Key Readings in Tikkun

Students locate many beautiful readings directly in the Tikkun.  After locating each one, students can practice their reading skills – first reading from the Column containing vowels and then reading from the Column with no vowels.  Students experience first-hand, where these daily and Shabbat readings are located within the text of the Torah Scroll.

Weekly Torah Scroll Navigation Activities

Equipping Future Leaders to Locate Aliyot.  In each classroom, a handful of our students are on their journey to becoming tomorrow’s community leaders.  Some are easy to spot, some are struggling.

Today, Torah Scroll Navigation skills are reserve for an elite few.  Tomorrow’s leaders, from diverse backgrounds, can gain this expertise at an earlier age, and in much greater numbers.  Experiencing joy in this new facet of their journey to leadership.

Regular, weekly practice is essential to gaining and maintaining TSN skills.  Perhaps, at a set time each week, students can work in pairs and practice locating an upcoming Shabbat Parashah / Aliyah and practice recovering from an Unknown Column.  These same students can then coach another student on how to do what they just did, building teaching and mentoring skills.