Making It Relevant: Timeless Torah Wisdom for an Ever-Changing World by Katia Bolotin; Mosaica Press; (c) 2025; ISBN 9798897-670178; 264 pages; $23.99.
By Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel in Chula Vista, California
In a world that races forward at breakneck speed, Katia Bolotin’s Making It Relevant feels like a quiet revolution. This isn’t a heavy academic commentary or a collection of abstract ideas. It’s a warm, practical companion that walks you through the weekly parsha and shows exactly how its ancient wisdom speaks straight into your modern life.
Bolotin, a gifted educator, writer, musician, and passionate transmitter of our mesorah, excels at turning textual puzzles into profound lessons on avodas Hashem and personal growth.
What makes this book shine is its consistent structure: sharp questions on the text, insights drawn from Chazal, classical commentaries, and Chassidic thought (especially Chabad), followed by the powerful “Making It Relevant” section. These practical takeaways and reflective exercises are the book’s greatest gift—they transform passive reading into active spiritual growth, helping readers see the big picture of each week’s parsha as a roadmap for their own lives.
Starting in Bereishit, Bolotin’s essay on Parsha Vayeitzei (Jacob’s Ladder) is a standout. She begins with the dream of the ladder (sulam) and cleverly notes that its Hebrew letters rearrange to semel — “symbol.” The ladder isn’t just a bridge between Heaven and Earth; it represents incremental transformation. Unlike a bridge (where you cross at the same level), a ladder forces you to change altitude rung by rung.
Bolotin draws on Rashi’s explanation of the ascending and descending angels and on Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi’s teaching that prayers create spiritual energies. She then elevates the image into a daily spiritual GPS.
“Making It Relevant” turns this into an unforgettable tool:
- Visualize yourself on the ladder: Are you ascending from a low rung or descending from a high one?
- Assess your thoughts and reactions daily — do your words and responses elevate or lower your spiritual altitude?
- Use the ladder as a mental cue during challenges: “Which way am I moving right now?”
This exercise alone can reframe how you approach personal growth, relationships, and daily provocations. It’s simple, visual, and profoundly effective.
In Vayishlach, Bolotin explores Yaakov’s wrestling match as an internal battle between higher and lower selves — secular pulls versus moral compass. She poses honest questions about identity conflicts in today’s world and guides readers toward integration rather than suppression. The “Making It Relevant” prompts encourage self-examination and practical steps for aligning competing wills.
Moving into Shemot, the essay on Parsha Bo (Plague of Darkness) is deeply compassionate. Bolotin contrasts the external Egyptian darkness — “a man did not see his fellow” — with internal darkness: depression, collapsed belief systems, and spiritual despondency. Drawing on the Chiddushei Harim and Rabbi Shneur Zalman (“one small light can push away a whole lot of darkness”), she emphasizes mutual responsibility.
“Making It Relevant” offers three powerful directives:
- Grow through your darkness, not just go through it.
- Notice and reach out to those around you who are struggling — be a lamplighter.
- Find a trusted person to share your burdens with.
These steps turn a heavy parsha into a source of hope and communal healing. Readers facing low points will find this essay especially life-giving.
Later in Shemot, Bolotin tackles Ki Tisa with fresh eyes on the aftermath of the Golden Calf and Moses’ radiant face, and Pikudei — a portion many skim — by highlighting themes of completion, detail-oriented devotion, and building sacred space in our own lives. In each case, the “Making It Relevant” sections prevent the ideas from remaining theoretical. They invite weekly check-ins: How am I building my personal Mishkan? Where do I need more attention to detail in my service of God?
Throughout the book, Bolotin’s tone stays warm, inviting, and straightforward. She never talks down to beginners or overwhelms scholars. Her own creative understandings breathe new life into traditional sources, always grounded in respect for the text. The documentation is thorough, yet the writing flows like a meaningful Shabbat conversation.
The true genius lies in those “Making It Relevant” boxes. They elevate the book from good Torah commentary to a genuine tool for transformation. Instead of finishing a parshah feeling inspired but unchanged, readers close each chapter with concrete exercises: reflective questions, mindset shifts, small behavioral changes, and visualizations. Over a year of weekly reading, these accumulate into real spiritual muscle — exactly what “living with the times” (as the Alter Rebbe taught) should mean.
Bolotin reminds us that the Torah isn’t obsolete in an age of innovation. Like Yaakov’s ladder, it remains timeless precisely because it helps us ascend through every era’s unique challenges: identity struggles, technological distractions, emotional darkness, the search for purpose.
Rabbi Yitzchak A. Breitowitz captures it well: “Warm, inviting, straightforward, and practical… crucial lessons in how to grow as a Jew, an eved Hashem, and indeed as a good human being.”
Whether you’re new to weekly Torah study or a lifelong learner, Making It Relevant meets you exactly where you are. Read it one parsha at a time. Engage with the questions. Do the exercises. You’ll finish the year not just knowing the Torah better, but living it more fully — with greater clarity, compassion, resilience, and connection to the Divine.
In an ever-changing world, Katia Bolotin has given us a beautiful gift: the ability to make the timeless powerfully relevant, week after week, rung by rung.
P. S.
I would like to suggest that Katia Bolotin consider writing a possible series on the spiritual themes of the Siddur. I think her insights would make Jewish prayer more meaningful for those wishing to get closer to God.
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Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel is the spiritual leader of Temple Beth Shalom in Chula Vista, California.