Mosaic Torah

Mosaic Torah

The Torah in Rabbinic Judaism

Written Torah

The Torah is the first part of the Jewish bible. It is the central and most important document of Judaism and has been used by Jews through the ages.

Torah refers to the five books of Moses which are known in Hebrew as Chameesha Choomshey Torah. These are: Bresheit (Genesis), Shemot (Exodus), Vayicra (Leviticus), Bamidbar (Numbers), and Devarim (Deuteronomy).

Jews believe that God gave the Torah to Moses on Mount Sinai 50 days after their exodus from Egyptian slavery. They believe that the Torah shows how God wants Jews to live. It contains 613 commandments and Jews refer to the ten best known of these as the ten 10 statements.

The Torah is written in Hebrew, the oldest of Jewish languages. It is also known as Torat Moshe, the Law of Moses. The Torah is the first section or first five books of the Jewish bible. However, Tanach is more commonly used to describe the whole of Jewish scriptures. This is an acronym made up from the first letter of the words Torah, Nevi im (prophets), and Ketuvim (writings).

Similarly, the term Torah is sometimes used in a more general sense to incorporate Judaism’s written and oral law. This definition encompasses Jewish scripture in its entirety including all authoritative Jewish religious teachings throughout history.

The word Torah has various meanings in English. These include: teaching, instruction and law. For Jews the Torah means all of these.

Oral law

Alongside the written law Jews believe God also told Moses the spoken or oral law. This is known as the Torah she b’al pei or literally Torah from the mouth.

The letter Pei as well as being the Hebrew word for mouth is the 17th letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Pei has a numerical value of 80 which Jews believe is the age that Moses was when he led them out from slavery in Egypt.

Although given at the same time this law was to be passed down orally from generation to generation. It is the information Jews need to practise fully the commandments in the written law.

The process of codification of the oral Torah started in the 2nd Century C.E. and resulted in the composition of the Mishnah (the oral law), followed by the Talmud and the Midrash. The Talmud is a commentary of the Oral Law (Mishnah) based on the Written Torah (or Tanak). The Midrash is a commentary of the Written Torah based on the Oral Torah. The Talmud and the Midrash show the unity of both the Written and the Oral Torah.

How is the Torah used?

The Torah scrolls are entirely handwritten in Hebrew by a sofer (scribe) on parchment from a kosher animal. This is usually a cow. It can take up to 18 months to complete the whole process from the complex preparation of the animal skins to the writing of the final words. Great accuracy is needed when the sofer writes the scroll. If he makes any mistakes it can make the whole scroll pasul (invalid). The completed scroll is known as a Sefer Torah from sefer which is the Hebrew for book.

A Sefer Torah is so sacred to Jews it is said that if one is accidentally dropped in the synagogue the whole congregation must fast for 40 days. When Jewish communities have suffered persecution, great efforts would be made to preserve these scrolls. This demonstrates just how symbolically and physically important the Torah is to Jews.

The Torah scrolls are taken out from the Ark (Aron ha kodesh) and portions read in the synagogue three times each week. On Mondays and Thursdays small sections are read. The main reading is on the morning of Shabbat (Sabbath).

Over the course of the year the whole scroll is read in sequence. This begins from the end of Sukkot which is an autumn festival.

The special portions for the readings are called parshioth and are usually three to five chapters in length. The reader has to be very skilled to read from the scroll because the letters are written without corresponding vowels. They have to know the portion very well to avoid making mistakes. The reading is conducted using an ancient tune and is sung rather than spoken.

The scrolls are not directly touched when unfurled on the Bimah (raised platform in middle of the synagogue). A pointer or Yad (hand) is used instead. This is in the shape of a hand with an outstretched finger. The reading or chanting is performed by a person who has been trained in this task. However it may be carried out by the rabbi. It is a very great honour for a congregant to be asked to attend at a reading during a synagogue service. This is called having an Aliyah which is Hebrew for going up.

The weekly portion or Sedrah is followed by the recitation of part of another of the Jewish holy writings.

Preexistence and Eternity of the Torah

Rabbinic tradition holds that "Moses received the Torah from Sinai." It is also maintained that the Torah existed in heaven not only before God revealed it to Moses, but even before the world was created.

According to Eliezer ben Yose the Galilean, for 974 generations before the creation of the world the Torah lay in God's bosom and joined the ministering angels in song. Simeon ben Lakish taught that the Torah preceded the world by 2,000 years and was written in black fire upon white fire. Akiva called the Torah "the precious instrument by which the world was created". Rav said that God created the world by looking into the Torah as an architect builds a palace by looking into blueprints. It was also taught that God took council with the Torah before He created the world.

According to the Midrash, the Torah was created prior to the creation of the world, and was used as the blueprint for Creation.

"The Torah was to God, when he created the world, what the plan is to an architect when he erects a building." (Bereshit Rabbah)

Whereas the rabbis understood the preexistence of the Torah in terms of its prerevelation existence in heaven, they understood the eternity or nonabrogability of the Torah in terms of its postrevelation existence, not in heaven; i.e., the whole Torah was given to Moses and no part of it remained in heaven. When Eliezer ben Hyrcanus and Joshua ben Hananiah were debating a point of Torah and a voice from heaven dramatically announced that Eliezer's position was correct, Joshua refused to recognize its testimony, for the Torah "is not in heaven", and must be interpreted by men, unaided by the supernatural. It was a principle that "a prophet is henceforth not permitted to innovate a thing." The rabbis taught that the Torah would continue to exist in the world to come.

Torah in Christianity

Christianity also as a canon of scripture that includes the torah and the New Testament (or tradition of the Fathers).

The process of codification of the New Testament started in the 2nd cent.

In order to define the "canon" of the New Testament the Church used two major criteria:

• apostolicity, or antiquity (in order to 'canonical a text had to be written by an apostle, or in the name of an apostle)

• recognition, or orthodoxy (the authority of a text had to be recognized by the majority of the Churches)

For Christianity the "Old" and the "New Testament" are not equal (like the Written and the Oral Torah). The New Testament is a new Revelation, that fulfilled and superseded te "old" Testament

Jesus as the Word of God

In Christianity, the uncreated Jesus has the role that in Rabbinic Judaism is taken to the Torah. Jesus is the Word of God that became flesh.

Jesus in preexistent, eternal. He is the precious instrument used by God in creation.

"Jesus Christ [is] the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds (æons), Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made."