Torah Structure Of The Five Books Punishments Jewish View Of

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. In its widest sense, Jews use the word Torah to refer to any kind of teachings or philosophy.

1 Structure of the five books

The Torah does not contain a complete and ordered system of legislature, but rather, a general philosophical basis, and a great number of specific laws. These laws are often reminiscent of the existing customs in the ancient middle east, but have important conceptual variations from them.

The book of Deuteronomy is different from the previous books; thus sometimes the first four books of the Bible are known as the Tetrateuch.

The first six books of the Bible as a unit (The Torah immediately followed by the book of Joshua) is sometimes referred to as the Hexateuch, as the book of Joshua picks up directly where Deuteronomy leaves off.

The Samaritans have their own version of the Torah, which contains many variant readings. Many of these agree with the Septuagint against the Masoretic TextThe Masoretic Text MT is the Hebrew text of the Tanakh approved for general use in Judaism. It is also widely used in translations of the Old Testament of the Bible. It was primarily compiled, edited and distributed by a group of Jews known as the Masoret, leading many scholars to believe that parts of the Samaritan text may have once been common in ancient Palestine, but rejected by the Masoretes.

2 Punishments

For a violation of the first seven commandments, the penalty was death. The punishment for stealing was restitution and compensation to the one whose property had been stolen; for false witness, retribution.

The last commandment, against covetousness or wrong desire, carried with it no sanction enforceable by the judges. It transcended man-made laws in that it made every man his own spiritual policeman and got at the root, or source, of the violation of all the commandments. If wrong desire was indulged, it would eventually manifest itself in a violation of one of the other nine commandments.

Strict justice was enforced by the law of talion or retaliation, like for like, where injuries were deliberately inflicted. (De 19:21, Leviticus 24:17) There is at least one recorded instance of the execution of this penalty. (Jg 1:6, 7).

3 Jewish view of the Torah

The Torah is the primary document of JudaismJudaism is the religion and culture of the Jewish people and the first recorded monotheistic faith. The tenets and history of Judaism constitute the historical foundation of many other religions, including Christianity and Islam. Star of David, a common s, being the source of the 613 mitzvotThe Talmud (tractate Makkoth 23b) states that the Torah contains 613 mitzvot Mitzvah precept, plural Mitzvot from , tzavah command), of which 248 are mitzvot aseh (positive commandments) equal to the number of bones in the human body and 365 mitzvot lo ta [מצוות] and most of its ethical framework.

According to Jewish tradition, these books were given to MosesSee also Exodus Moses or Moshe "Drawn", Standard Hebrew Moše Tiberian Hebrew Mošeh , son of Amram and his wife, Jochebed, a Levite. Legendary Hebrew liberator, leader, lawgiver, prophet, and historian. If he is a historical figure, he may have by GodThis article focuses on the concept of singular, monotheistic God . See deity, gods, or goddesses for details on divine entities in specific religions and mythologies. God is a term referring to the supreme being generally believed to be ruler or creator on Mount SinaiFor other places named Mount Sinai, see Mount Sinai (disambiguation Mount Sinai (2,285 meters) is a mountain in the southern Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. In Arabic, the mountain is known as Gebel Musa or Jabal Musa (literally Mount Moses . Biblical Mount Sin. 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..."

The rabbis hold that not only are the words giving a Divine message, but indicate a far greater message that extends beyond them. Ths they hold that even as small a mark as a kotzo shel yod [קוצו של יוד], the serifSans-serif font Serif font Serif font(red serifs) In typography, serifs are the small features at the end of strokes within letters. A typeface (font) without serifs is called sans-serif (from French sans "without"), also referred to as grotesque (or, in 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.

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. In that sense, the Torah is for Orthodox Jews that rush of letters and sounds that can mean so many different things.

There is little support for Bible criticism in Orthodox Judaism; the accepted Orthodox view is that the Torah was dictated to the letter to Moses, which is widely considered one of the Jewish principles of faith. Most religious authorities consider Bible criticism a form of heresy. Rabbinic commentators who took issue with the scientific approach are Rabbis Meir Leibush Malbim and David Zvi Hoffmann .

4 Christian view of the Torah

Christianity also believes that the Torah is the word of God; however most Christians do not necessarily hold that it was "dictated" to Moses all at once. Further, traditional Christianity holds that while the Torah's quotes from God should literally be understood as quotes from God Himself, the rest of the text is not a direct quote, but rather human words written by a prophet under divine inspiration. Thus the entire Torah is held to be a holy revelation, but not all of it is seen as a quote. The Christian belief that Jesus is both fully human and fully divine has a very close analogy in the traditional Christian view of Scripture.

5 The Torah and the oral law

Rabbinical Judaism holds that the Torah has been transmitted in parallel with an oral tradition. They point to the text of the Torah, where they believe many words are left undefined, and many procedures mentioned without explanation or instructions; they believe the reader is assumed to be familiar with the details from other, oral, sources.

This parallel set of material was originally transmitted orally, and came to be known as the oral law. At the time, it was forbidden to write and publish the Oral Law, as any writing would be incomplete and subject to misinterpretation and abuse. However, after great debate, this restriction was lifted when it became apparent that it was the only way to ensure that the law could be preserved. To prevent the material from being lost, around AD 200, Rabbi Judah haNasi took up the redaction of a written version of the oral law; it was compiled into the first major written work of rabbinic Judaism, the Mishnah. Over the next four centuries this body of law, legend, ethical teachings underwent debate and analysis in both of the world's major Jewish communities (in Israel and Babylon). These commentaries on the Mishnah, called gemara, eventually came to be edited together into compilations known as the Talmud.

Most Jews follow the traditional explication of these laws that can be found in this later literature. Karaites, who reject the oral law, and adhere solely to the laws of the Torah, are a major exception.

6 Scientific view of the Torah

There is no scientific consensus on the dates of the writing and canonization of the Torah, and estimates range from the 10th to the 6th centuries BC. Several professors of archeology claim that many stories in the Old Testament, including important chronicles about Abraham, Moses, Solomon, and others, were actually made up for the first time by scribes hired by King Josiah ( 7th century BC) in order to rationalize monotheistc belief in Yahweh. Others claim that the foremost motivation behind the text is political and has to do with the division between the southern kingdom and the northern kingdom.

The prevailing theory amongst liberal and secular scholars, linguists and historians holds that the text of the Torah appears to be redacted together from a number of earlier sources; this is known as the documentary hypothesis (DH), sometimes called the "JEDP" theory. See the documentary hypothesis page for the arguments of its proponents and oponents.

Evidently, the extensive written records of neighboring countries such as Egypt, Assyria, etc., do not mention any of the stories of the Bible or its main characters before 650 BC. See the book references below.

7 Translations

Torah translations have existed for over 2000 years. An early example is the Septuagint, which according to the legend was produced at the instigation of a king or pharaoh of the Ptolemaic dynasty.

The best-known translation of antiquity is probably the Targum of Onkelos the Proselyte, which is still used as a tool for Torah study and quoted extensively by Rashi in questions on etymology.

8 See also

9 References

William G. Dever, Who Were the Early Israelites?, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI (2003).
Neil A. Silberman et al., The Bible Unearthed, Simon and Schuster, New York (2001).

Jewish history Torah Holy scripture

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