Carpool Curriculum

Now in its sixth year, with a readership of hundreds, Carpool Curriculum is a fun and engaging weekly Torah exploration for families and educators developed by Michael S. Raileanu, M.A.Ed. It is distributed every week by email.

It consists of a brief commentary on the Torah portion of the week, together with thought-provoking questions for you to talk about with your family. Parents, this is a great way to get your kids engaged in the Torah. Kids, the Torah is fun -- and you can prove it to your parents with Carpool Curriculum.

Educators appreciate the age-appropriate nature of Carpool Curriculum, and how easy it is to use with their students.

The suggested contribution for a year of Carpool Curriculum is $18.00. To contribute online via PayPal, click here.

If you would like to honor or remember a loved one, you can do so by sponsoring a week or a month of Carpool Curriculum. For more information, please send us an email.

Remember, Torah study can happen anywhere, anytime. Take Carpool Curriculum along for the ride!

Current issue - published June 27, 2010

Parashat Pinchas (Numbers 25:10-30:1)

A weekly Torah exploration for families by Michael S. Raileanu, M.A.Ed.

This week's parasha, Pinchas (Numbers 25:10 - 30:1), begins with a recounting of the leaders of the tribes and then we learn about how the land that God promised to the Jewish people will be divided. There is also the very important story regarding the daughters of Zelophchad. They were afraid that they were not going to get an inheritance and God understands their problem and guarantees them an inheritance.

The land is divided amongst the tribes in a couple of different ways. The bigger tribes get more land and the smaller ones get less. Do you think that this is necessarily the fair way to divide the land? If a tribe is made up mainly of farmers, should they get more? Maybe a tribe of traders should get less. What do you think?
The land was assigned by lot. What does that mean? Was that a fair system? Should God have assigned the tribes to specific places? Do you believe that God would have allowed the lot to be completely random? Or did God know the outcome of the lot before it happened?
The daughters of Zelophchad came before Moshe to find out about their inheritance since their dad was dead and they had no brothers. They wanted to make sure that their father's name did not die and that his family got an inheritance. Why did they have to ask? How would woman have been treated back then? Are you surprised by the result? The decision was that if a man dies without sons his land rightly goes to his daughter. This became law for all time! You go girls!
In this parasha we find out that Joshua is going to lead the people after Moshe dies. Why not Moshe's sons? Why Joshua? What do you know about Joshua that makes him the right guy for the job? What has he already done to prove that he can and should be the leader?
There are six parashiot named after people. How many of them can you name? How many of the people after whom the parashiot are named are really, really famous? How many parashiot are named for Abraham, Isaac, Jacob or Moses? Why do you think that is the case? Three of the "people parashiot" were in the last month or so. Can you name them?