Shulamith Torah Bowl middle school champs

Torah Bowl is an amazing opportunity for students who love the study of Chumash to indulge their passion for learning in an exciting, yearlong competition against like-minded peers from other schools. The Shulamith School for Girls in Cedarhurst is proud to report that it won the middle school championship.

There are three geographic divisions for boys and three for girls. After four meets, the top team in each division competes in a “World Series” Torah Bowl.

For each meet, team members study two or three parshiot — Chumash and Rashi — in great detail, completing an entire Chumash over the year. This year, sefer B’Midbar was studied, and the finals were on the entire sefer. 

“At Shulamith we have a really large number of students who want to be a part of the team, and so many actually qualify based on a competitive qualifying exam,” said Principal Rookie Billet. “We are happy to give the opportunity to study extra Torah lishmah to as many girls as we can.” 

This year’s captains, Rivka Bennun and Meira Steiner, as others before them, were extraordinarily motivated, diligent and gifted. They conducted two practices a week for the entire year, meaning that they and the other team members gave up lunch with their friends to study, answer practice questions, and prepare for the competitions. Every team member studied at least one parsha for each competition, and captains prepared all the parshiot each time. 

“This was a very special team,” observed Mrs. Billet. “The girls worked so hard, not only memorizing, but composing questions week after week, making connections in their learning and always wanting not only to memorize, but to really thoroughly understand all that they were learning. B’Midbar has tons of names, numbers, places, borders, korbanot, and tremendous detail. The girls were outstanding in their mastery of the material and they were undefeated for the entire year, often by large margins. Still, their sportsmanship and respect for each other and the other teams was wonderful.

“There is always tension between trying to give members playing time and wanting to win, and the girls achieved a delicate balance of friendship, fairness and wholesome, competitive spirit.”