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 study (or turn over), called the parasha. Torah: Turn It gives you the original text, and different, interesting and relevant ways of studying it, making it applicable to your own life.

The Hebrew is all here, with vowels and even the trope for chanting. You just don’t need it. And if you’d like to chant it, the app teaches you how, starting from the very first mark.

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.

Learn trope

Learn to chant it, from the very first mark.

Trope is the melody the Torah is sung to: a tiny mark on almost every word, and each mark is a short tune. Most people only learn it for a bar or bat mitzvah, if at all, and plenty who did have forgotten it. Torah: Turn It teaches the Torah chant used in Reform congregations from scratch, and assumes you’ve never seen a trope mark before.

Hear every mark played clearly, with each syllable lighting up as it’s sung.
See it written out the way trope books print it, on a staff that follows along. You don’t need to read music.
Practice on real verses from all five books, from “In the beginning” to the Shema.
Your pace, your key. Slow it down while you learn, and move it up or down until it sits comfortably in your voice.
Ten short lessons, one family of marks at a time, each ending with a quick quiz.
Hear any verse chanted. Play one verse, carry on through the day’s reading, or repeat a verse until you’ve got it.

Mercha on two real words, syllable by syllable and note by note

Start here: what trope is, explained step by step, beginning with the first word of the Torah — Starts from zero: what trope is and how to read it

A lesson on mercha: how to spot the mark, its melody on a staff, and real words from Genesis, Exodus and Leviticus — Every mark: how to spot it, how it sounds, how it’s written

A phrase from Genesis 1:1 shown as written and syllable by syllable, with the music following along — Then the marks together, in a real verse

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.

Who made this

I’m Eric Linder, and I’ve been a Reform rabbi for twenty years. For most of that time I’ve been fascinated by what happens when an ancient text meets new tools, and whether a screen can bring people closer to a page that has been read aloud for centuries instead of pulling them away from it.

Torah: Turn It is what I’ve always wanted to hand people: a way into the weekly portion that respects their intelligence, doesn’t assume they remember Hebrew school, and doesn’t skip the hard parts. Every guide is written the way I’d teach a class, and every source is checked.

If you study with it, I’d love to hear how it goes. Write to me from the support page, or come say hello on .

Rabbi Eric Linder