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Torah, (תורה)
is a Hebrew word meaning "teaching", "instruction", or
especially "law". It primarily refers to the first section of
the Tanakh–the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, or the Five
Books of Moses, but can also be used in the general sense to
also include both the Written and Oral Law.
The five books are:
Genesis (Bereishit
בראשית),
Exodus (Shemot שמות),
Leviticus (Vayikra ויקרא),
Numbers (Bemidbar במדבר) and
Deuteronomy (Devarim דברים)
Collectively they
are also known as the Pentateuch (Greek for "five containers",
where containers presumably refers to the scroll cases in which
books were being kept), Hamisha Humshei Torah (חמשה חומשי תורה)
(Hebrew for "the five parts of the Torah", or just Humash חומש
"fifth" for short) or Chumash.
A Torah is a specially written scroll of the five books, a Sefer
Torah. Jews also use the word Torah, in a wider sense, to refer
to the entire spectrum of authoritative Jewish religious
teachings throughout history. In this sense it might include the
entire Tanakh, the Mishnah, the Talmud and the midrashic
literature. |
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Also See |
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Chassidus |
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Torah Readings |
Selection from Torah Teachings |
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613 Miatzvah |
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The Torah is the primary document of
Judaism, and is the source of all the basic Biblical commandments,
in an ethical framework. According to a well-accepted rabbinic
tradition cited in the Talmud, the Torah contains
613 mitzvot
[מצוות] (tractate
Makkoth 23b).
According to Jewish tradition, these books were revealed to Moses by
God; some of it is said to have been revealed at Mt. Sinai (the Ten
Commandments.) Classical rabbinic literature offers various ideas on
when the entire Torah was revealed. Some sources state that the
entire Torah was given all at once on Mount Sinai. In the maxima
list view, this dictation included not only the "quotes" which
appear in the text, but every word of the text itself, including
phrases such as "And God spoke to Moses...", and included God
telling Moses about Moses' own death and what would happen
afterward. Other classical sources hold that the Torah was revealed
to Moses over many years, and finished only at his death. Another
school of thought holds that although Moses wrote the vast majority
of the Torah, a number of sentences throughout the Torah must have
been written after his death by another prophet. All classical
views, nonetheless, hold that the Torah was entirely or almost
entirely Mosaic and of divine origin.
The rabbis hold that not only are the words giving a Divine message,
but indicate a far greater message that extends beyond them. Thus
they hold that even as small a mark as a kotzo shel yod (קוצו של יוד),
the serif of the Hebrew letter yod (י), the smallest letter, was put
there by God to teach scores of lessons. This is regardless of
whether that yod appears in the phrase "I am the Lord thy God," or
whether it appears in that oft repeated "And God spoke unto Moses
saying." In a similar vein, Rabbi Akiva, who died in AD 135, is said
to have learned a new law from every et (את) in the Torah (Talmud,
tractate Pesachim 22b); the word et is meaningless by itself, and
serves only to mark the accusative case. In other words, the
Orthodox view is that "And God spoke unto Moses saying..." is no
less important than the actual statement. |
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One
kabbalistic
interpretation
is that the Torah constitutes one long name of God, and that it
was broken up into words so that human minds can understand it.
While this is effective since it accords with our human reason,
it is not the only way that the text can be broken up.
There is little support for higher
biblical criticism in Orthodox
Judaism.
Applying the techniques of higher criticism to books of the
Bible other than the Torah is frowned upon, but applying these
techniques to the Torah itself is usually considered to be both
mistaken and heretical. As such, the overwhelming majority of
Orthodox Judaism views the documentary hypothesis to be
heretical. Orthodox rabbis well-known for taking issue with
documentary hypothesis: Meir Leibush Malbim and Samson Raphael
Hirsch. |
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