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What is the Torah?

The Torah is an ancient scroll containing the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy—the first five books of the Bible, or what is often referred to in English as Pentateuch.

The writings of the Torah are also part of the Tanach (Hebrew Bible), which contains not only the Five Books of Moses (Torah) but 39 other important Jewish texts. The word “Tanach” is actually an acronym: “T” is for Torah, “N” is for Nevi’iim (Prophets) and “Ch” is for Ketuvim (Writings).

"These 5 books of Moses provide the solid footing for the entire Bible. Without the Torah, the Gospels have no foundation on which to stand."

                                                                                                                          

Joshua Ben Williams

The Five Books of Moses

The Five Books of Moses begin with the Creation of the World and end with the death of Moses.  They are listed below according to their English and Hebrew names. In Hebrew, the name of each book is derived from the first unique word that appears in that book.

 

  • Genesis (Bereisheet) – “Bereisheet” means “in the beginning.” This book talks about the Creation of the World, the Great Flood, and also tells the stories of Judaism’s patriarchs and matriarchs. These stories begin with Abraham and Sarah and end with Joseph in Egypt.

  • Exodus (Shemot) – “Shemot” means “names” in Hebrew. This book tells story of the Israelites bondage in Egypt, their journey to Mt. Sinai (where the Ten Commandments are received) and their wanderings in the wilderness.

  • Leviticus (Vayikra) – “Vayikra” means “And He Called” in Hebrew. This book deals mostly with priestly matters such as rituals, sacrifice, atonement and ritual purity.

  • Numbers (BaMidbar) – “BaMidbar” means “In the wilderness” in Hebrew. This book talks about the Israelites wanderings in the desert as they continue towards the Promised Land.

  • Deuteronomy (D’varim) – “D’varim” means “words” in Hebrew. This is the final book of the Torah. It recounts the Israelites’ journey according to Moses and ends with his death just before they enter the Promised Land.

All of our concepts today associated with the Gospel—such as God, holiness, righteousness, sin, sacrifice, repentance, faith, forgiveness, covenant, grace and the kingdom of heaven on earth—are introduced in the Torah. Our rituals like baptism, communion, prayer and blessing all come from the Torah. In fact our faith in Yeshua is meaningful because of the Torah. 

 

 

 

 

 

What is the Torah to us?

It is one of our holiest and most precious treasure, the Torah is literally Yahweh's gift to the world. The Torah is our guide to life. Actually, the Torah is our life. It is the heart, mind and soul of those that are following Yahweh. 

The first Sefer Torah in history was dictated by Yahewh verbatim and written down by Moses, then just before his passing. In his parting words, he told them to listen to the words found in that scroll and to reference them in response to life's questions. They taught their children to do the same, and that's how we've kept its tradition until this day. From that Sefer Torah, many identical copies were made, and likewise in all subsequent generations. Today there are many thousands of Sifrei Torah in existence.

Writing a Torah Scroll 

To eliminate any chance of human error, the Talmud enumerates more than 20 factors mandatory for a Torah scroll to be considered “kosher.” This is the Torah’s built-in security system. Should any one of these factors be lacking, it does not possess the sanctity of a Torah scroll, and is not to be used for a public Torah reading.

The meticulous process of hand-copying a scroll takes about 2,000 hours (a full-time job for one year). 

How do we know that the Torah we have today is the same text given on Mount Sinai?

The Torah was originally dictated from God to Moses, letter for letter. From there, the Midrash (Devarim Rabba 9:4) tells us:

Before his death, Moses wrote 13 Torah Scrolls. Twelve of these were distributed to each of the 12 Tribes. The 13th was placed in the Ark of the Covenant (with the Tablets). If anyone would come and attempt to rewrite or falsify the Torah, the one in the Ark would “testify” against him. (Likewise, if he had access to the scroll in the Ark and tried to falsify it, the distributed copies would “testify” against him.)

How were the new scrolls verified? An authentic “proof text” was always kept in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, against which all other scrolls would be checked. Following the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, the Sages would periodically perform global checks to weed out any scribal errors.

 

There are 304,805 letters in a Sefer Torah Scroll 

  1. Beraishis (Genesis)   78,064 letters

  2. Shmos (Exodus)   63,529 letters

  3. Vayikra (Leviticus)   44,790 letters

  4. Bamidbar (Numbers)   63,530 letters

  5. Devorim (Deuteronomy)   54,892 letters

 

There are 79,976 words.

 

There are 5,844 verses.

Beraishis - 1,534   Shmos - 1,209  Vayikra - 858  Bamidbar - 1,288  Devorim - 955

 

The Torah is divided into 245 columns.

Beraishis - 60   Shmos - 50   Vayikra - 38   Bamidbar - 52

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