I want to share something with you that I have been doing for years. It is not a formula. It is not the only way. But it is the way that has helped me sit down with a Torah Portion and walk away with something I can actually use, something real, something that goes with me into my week.
The weekly Torah Portion can feel overwhelming at first. You open to a passage and it is full of names, places, laws, genealogies, and stories that feel very far from your kitchen table or your workplace or whatever you are walking through right now. I understand that. But here is what I have learned: there is always something in there for you. YaHoWaH did not preserve these words for thousands of years so they could sit on a shelf.
So let me show you how I approach it.
The Approach
Who, What, Where, Why, When and How
I use six simple questions as my starting point. You have probably heard them before because they are the same questions good journalists, good teachers, and good detectives use. They work just as well with Torah.
The Six Questions
WHO
Who is speaking? Who is being spoken to? Who are the key figures in this portion?
WHAT
What is being said or commanded? What is happening in the narrative?
WHERE
Where does this take place? Does the location carry meaning?
WHY
Why is this happening? Why is YaHoWaH saying or doing this?
WHEN
When does this occur? Is there a season, a feast day, or a moment in history that gives it context?
HOW
How can I apply any part of this portion to my everyday life right now?
Not every question will have a clear answer in every portion, and that is perfectly fine. Do not force it. But there are three questions I always come back to no matter what: Who is speaking. What they are saying. And how it applies to my life. If you walk away with those three things, you have done the work. And one more thing — sometimes the lesson is what NOT to do. Some portions show us people getting it wrong, and that is just as valuable as seeing them get it right.
Now let me show you what this looks like in practice with three Torah Portions. I chose these three because they are different from each other on purpose. One is a story of obedience. One is a story of calling. And one is a portion full of instructions for daily living. The six questions work on all of them.
Example One
Noach
Noach (Noah)
Genesis 6:9 — 11:32
WHO
YaHoWaH is speaking. Noah is the one being addressed and given an assignment. His family — his wife, his sons, and their wives — are also part of this story. And then there is everyone else, a whole generation living in ways that had grieved YaHoWaH deeply.
WHAT
YaHoWaH tells Noah to build an ark because He is going to bring a flood. He gives Noah specific instructions, a specific design, and a specific purpose. Noah does everything YaHoWaH commands him. After the flood, YaHoWaH establishes a covenant with Noah and with every living creature, setting the rainbow as the sign.
WHERE
The world as it existed before the flood, and then the ark itself as the place of preservation. After the waters recede, the ark comes to rest on the mountains of Ararat. The world that Noah steps out into is the same earth, but made new.
WHY
YaHoWaH saw that the wickedness of man was great and that every intent of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually. But Noah found grace in the eyes of YaHoWaH. The flood was not random judgment — it was the response of a righteous YaHoWaH to a world that had completely abandoned His ways. And Noah's preservation was not random either — it was the result of a life lived differently.
WHEN
Early in human history, after the fall, after Cain and Abel, after generations had multiplied and the corruption had spread. It is a sobering moment in the timeline — a world that had been given every opportunity to know YaHoWaH choosing another path entirely.
How This Applies to My Life
Noah did not wait for the culture around him to agree with what YaHoWaH told him to do. He built the ark. He did the work. He followed the instructions even when it looked foolish from the outside, even when no rain had fallen yet, even when no one around him understood what he was doing or why. That speaks to me. There are things YaHoWaH calls us to do that the people around us will not understand. Obedience does not always look reasonable to outside eyes. Sometimes it looks like a man building a boat in a field. The question I carry from this portion into my week is: What has YaHoWaH told me to do that I have been hesitating on because of what it looks like to others?
Example Two
Shemot
Shemot (Names)
Exodus 1:1 — 6:1
WHO
YaHoWaH is speaking from the burning bush. Moses is the one being called. Pharaoh is the one who holds the power that YaHoWaH is about to confront. And behind all of it is an entire people, the children of Israel, crying out from their bondage.
WHAT
YaHoWaH calls Moses from a bush that burns but is not consumed. He reveals His name. He tells Moses that He has heard the cry of His people, that He has seen their suffering, and that He is sending Moses to bring them out. Moses pushes back — who am I, what if they don't believe me, I am not a good speaker. And YaHoWaH answers every objection.
WHERE
The backside of the desert near the mountain of YaHoWaH called Horeb. Moses has already left Egypt, already failed once, already spent forty years in the wilderness. He is not in the palace anymore. He is tending sheep far from where he started. And it is exactly there, in the ordinary and the quiet, that YaHoWaH shows up.
WHY
Because YaHoWaH remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. He had not forgotten His people. The timing felt long to them — four hundred years is a long time to wait — but YaHoWaH was not absent. He saw. He heard. He knew. And when the fullness of time came, He moved. He also chose Moses specifically, the man who had already failed and fled, the man who did not feel qualified. That is worth sitting with.
WHEN
After a long period of bondage and suffering. After Moses had already lived two very different lives — prince of Egypt, shepherd in Midian. He is eighty years old at the burning bush. What YaHoWaH is about to do through him is only beginning at eighty.
How This Applies to My Life
Two things stay with me from this portion. The first is that YaHoWaH meets people in the ordinary. Moses was not doing anything extraordinary when the bush caught his attention — he was working, tending to his responsibilities, living his everyday life. YaHoWaH did not wait for Moses to be in a sacred space or a special season. He showed up in a field. The second thing is Moses's objections. He had so many reasons why he was the wrong person. And YaHoWaH answered every single one. Not by removing the challenge, but by promising to be present in it. What excuses have I been giving YaHoWaH for why I cannot do what He has placed before me? And what would it look like to stop negotiating and just go?
Example Three
Kedoshim
Kedoshim (Holy Ones)
Leviticus 19:1 — 20:27
WHO
YaHoWaH is speaking to Moses, and through Moses to the entire congregation of the children of Israel. This is not a private conversation or a word for one person — it opens with "speak unto all the congregation." Every person is the intended audience.
WHAT
YaHoWaH gives a sweeping set of instructions for how His people are to live, covering nearly every area of life: honoring parents, keeping the Sabbath, not turning to idols, leaving portions of the harvest for the poor, not stealing, not lying, not swearing falsely in His name, not holding back wages, treating the deaf and blind with dignity, judging fairly regardless of wealth or status, not going up and down as a talebearer, not hating your brother in your heart, loving your neighbor as yourself, and much more. The range is remarkable. This is not abstract theology. This is how to treat people in everyday life, regardless of who they are, family, a friend, a neighbor or a stranger.
WHERE
In the wilderness, as YaHoWaH is shaping a people who are learning to live His way. They have come out of Egypt, out of a system built on oppression and the worship of other gods. YaHoWaH is now teaching them what it looks like to live differently — not just in worship, but in the marketplace, in the field, in the courtroom, at home.
WHY
Because YaHoWaH said: "Be holy, for I YaHoWaH your God am holy." Holiness is not just about ritual or ceremony. It is about how you live, how you treat people, how you handle power when you have it and vulnerability when you don't. YaHoWaH was showing His people that to reflect Him is to be just, merciful, and honest in the everyday — not only in the sanctuary.
WHEN
This portion comes at a significant time. The children of Israel have been brought out of Egypt, but they have not yet entered the land. They are in between. They know what they have been delivered from, but they are still learning what they are being formed into. YaHoWaH did not wait until they arrived somewhere to begin teaching them how to live. He started right there, in the wilderness, with the people they were already standing next to. Character is built before the destination is reached, not after.
How This Applies to My Life
What strikes me about Kedoshim every time I read it is how practical it is. YaHoWaH is not asking for grand gestures. He is asking: did you pay the worker what you owe him before the sun went down? Did you leave something at the edges of what you have for the person who has less? Did you speak the truth even when it cost you something? Did you treat that person fairly even though they could not do anything for you? Holiness, according to this portion, shows up in the small choices more than the large ones. The question I ask myself is: where in my daily life am I cutting corners that YaHoWaH would not? What does it look like to be genuinely holy in the most ordinary moments of this week?
This is just one approach. There is no single right way to study a Torah Portion. Some weeks you will have time to sit with all six questions. Other weeks you may only have time to ask two. That is fine. Start where you are. The important thing is that you open it, you read it, and you ask YaHoWaH to show you what He has in it for you this week.
He will not leave you empty-handed.
Sarah-Naviah Lewi
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