Torah: Turn It

For iPhone and iPad

This week's Torah portion, a few minutes a day.

“Turn it and turn it, for everything is in it.” A rabbi named Ben Bag Bag said that about the Torah nearly two thousand years ago, and it’s where this app gets its name.

Every week brings a new portion to turn over. Torah: Turn It gives you the story, a question worth arguing about, a surprise hidden in the Hebrew, and the text itself, a few minutes a day.

No Hebrew needed. Nothing watered down.

See what's inside

Coming to the App Store for iPhone and iPad.

This Week in the app: the portion's story in one line, a question to talk about, and the week's readings

Every portion, three ways in.

Start wherever you like. You don't need years of Hebrew school behind you, and nothing is watered down.

Overview

  • The week's story in a single line, and the whole story when you want it
  • A question worth talking about
  • Think you know it? The version you learned as a kid, against the text
  • Look closer: one surprise in the Hebrew
  • What Reform Judaism says, including where it parts ways with the text

Read

  • Seven short readings, Sunday through Shabbat
  • A few minutes each
  • Hebrew and English side by side, with vowels or trope if you like
  • Highlight a verse that speaks to you, and add a note
  • Your place is always kept

Study

  • Questions to work through with a study partner
  • Who's who this week
  • Why Jews still do this
  • The hard parts, faced honestly
  • Where the rabbis disagree, and why
Look closer: the word toledot, spelled out in full only twice in the whole Bible
Every week, one small surprise in the Hebrew
Sunday's reading of Bereshit, Hebrew and English verse by verse, with one verse highlighted
A few minutes a day, with room for your own highlights
What does Reform Judaism say about science, evolution and faith?
What Reform Judaism says, and why
The Study tab: Study together, Who's who, Why Jews do this, A hard part, The rabbis argue
On your own, or with someone to learn with
Your scroll: the year's portions drawn as columns of a Torah scroll, the ones you've read filled in
Your own scroll fills in as you read through the year
This Week, in the app's dark look
Always opens on this week's portion
This Week on iPad: the story in one line, the tiles, and the week's seven readings laid out as cards
On iPad, the whole week at a glance, with keyboard shortcuts too.

Words explain themselves

Tap any underlined word, like midrash or mishkan, for a short explanation in plain English. No word stands in your way.

Your bar or bat mitzvah portion

Enter a birthday and it finds the portion. A good way back to the one you once chanted, or a head start on your child's.

Going to shul

A gentle guide to what happens when the Torah is read, for first-timers and for anyone who never quite liked to ask.

A widget and a Friday note

This week's portion on your Home Screen and, if you'd like, the week's question waiting for you each Friday.

Israel or the diaspora

Some weeks the two calendars read different portions. Tell it where you live and it keeps pace with your community.

Yours alone

No account, no ads, no tracking. Your highlights, notes and progress move between your devices through your own iCloud, and nobody else sees them.