May the words of Torah, Lord our God, be sweet in our mouths and
in the mouths of all of Your people, so that we, our children, and all
the children of the House of Israel may come to love You and to
study Your Torah on its own merit. Praised are You, Lord, who
teaches Torah to His people, Israel.

Praised are you, Lord our God, ruler of the universe, who has chosen
us from among all peoples by giving us His Torah. Praised are You,
Lord, who gives the Torah.

When I first began teaching Jewish Studies, I included the
Hebrew text of these blessings in the student sourcebooks,
which I had created, and instituted the daily recitation of
these blessings before each Jewish Studies class that I taught.
In addition, I included a closing meditation to conclude the
class. While there are numerous texts that one can recite
upon the conclusion of a unit of study, ranging from the
Rabbinic Kaddish (also found in many traditional Jewish
prayer books) to the various texts following the completion of
studying an entire tractate of Talmud, I chose a Hebrew med-
itation found in Siddur Sim Shalom, the daily and Shabbat
prayer book of the Conservative Movement, which is based
on Pirkei Avot 1:12: