Torah

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.

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The five books are:

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• Genesis (in Hebrew, 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 (C)Humash (חומש "fifth" for short).

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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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Torah: Structure of the five books ►



 

Hebrew: The word Hebrew can variously mean:...

Tanakh: Tanakh (also spelt Tanach or Tenach) is an acronym that identifies the Hebrew Bible. The acronym is based on the initial Hebrew letters of each of the text's three parts:...

Hebrew Bible: Hebrew Bible refers to the common portions of the Jewish and Christian canons. Its use is favored by most academic Biblical scholars as a bias-free term that is preferred to both Tanakh and Old Testament when discussing the text in academic writing. (For instance, see section 4.3 of The SBL Handbook...




Torah related Images and Photos (experimental)

Torah

Page from the Mishneh Torah Systematic Code of Jewish Law Written by Maimonides (1135-1204) in 1180

The Jews in New York Jewish Boys Studying the Torah