How do you write a D'var Torah speech?

I am having a difficult time writing my speech. Any tips?

Heck if I know- I'm Presbyterian! (Hope you enjoyed the laugh and please don't get mad at me.)

First you have have to have knowledge. This is gained by reading and studying a biblical text or commentary. Otherwise, you'll be writing a D;var Torah that has more to do with Madonna or your soccer team, that the Torah. So.....first you need a copy of the Torah, a Chumash book, preferably with some good English commentaries. Get a large soda of your favorite flavor, put your feet up on the couch, and while alone and quiet, just randomly find a page of text. Keep hunting around till something is interesting. Write your D'var Torah talking about what you've read and what relationship it has to something you know, you do, or your life. don't Turn your bar-MTVo Academy Awards Thank you pap.... just talk about something you've learned yourself from the Torah and how it affected the way you think about things.

Before writing you speech, you need an idea.... so work on the idea part first..... the writing will then be easy. Also.....be sure to ignore any nonsense your parents try to pull and don't let them write your speech for you..... you only get one shot at this in your life..... make it yours. . ..

I don't know what occasion you are writing it for- and the occasion will dictate the length of the speech and its content. Generally, I would start with the weekly par shah and find an idea from that that is related to the occasion. There are a number of books which discuss the weekly earshot, and many are themed along those lines. A good generic source of ideas from the weekly pars ha is the "Book of our Heritage" By Eliyau Kitov.

Once you have an idea around which to base your Deva Torah, you can look at the various commentaries and pars ha specific information available. The Chabad website, Ohr Samayach, OU, Aish Hatorah and many others have parshah specific shiurim online. I personally try to find the idea I am working on and incorporate the ideas of Rashi and Ramban (Rashi for the plain meaning, the Ramban to get some esoteric insights which people often enjoy hearing), and then flesh it out with some of the ore modern ideas from others such as the Chofetz Chaim, Chazon Ish and Harav Moshe Feinstein z'tsl.