What Is the Torah?
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The Torah is the first five books of the Hebrew Bible and the central text of Judaism. The word is often translated as law, though teaching is closer to the sense Jewish tradition gives it. Understanding what the Torah is makes a great deal of Jewish practice much clearer.
The five books
The Torah contains the books known in English as Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. It runs from the creation of the world through the stories of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the escape from Egypt, and the wandering in the wilderness.
It also contains a great deal of law and instruction, covering worship, festivals, food, farming, justice and the treatment of strangers. That mixture of story and instruction is why teaching fits the word better than law alone.
The scroll itself
In a synagogue the Torah is kept as a handwritten scroll, produced by a trained scribe on parchment using traditional methods. Producing one takes about a year, and a single error can require correction or the sheet to be replaced.
The scroll is treated with great care. It is kept in an ark, dressed in a cover, and read using a pointer rather than a finger. These practices are about respect for the text as an object as well as for its content.
How the Torah is read
The Torah is read publicly on a set cycle, so that the whole text is completed and immediately begun again each year. That cycle shapes the Jewish calendar in several ways:
- •A weekly portion is read and studied in communities worldwide
- •The annual completion is celebrated at the festival of Simchat Torah
- •Study of the weekly portion is a common shared activity
- •Readings are chanted using a traditional system of markings
Written and oral together
Jewish tradition speaks of a written Torah and an oral Torah. The oral tradition, later written down in the Mishnah and Talmud, records generations of discussion about how the written text should be understood and applied.
This matters for understanding Judaism. The Torah is not usually read in isolation but through centuries of argument and commentary, and disagreement between rabbis is preserved rather than tidied away.
How a Torah scroll is made
A kosher Torah scroll must be handwritten by a trained scribe, called a sofer, on parchment from a ritually acceptable animal, using a quill and specially prepared ink. It contains just over three hundred thousand letters.
The standards are exacting. Letters must be formed correctly and must not touch each other, and the scribe traditionally states an intention before writing the divine name. A single incorrect letter can render a scroll unfit for public reading until it is corrected. A completed scroll takes around a year and is correspondingly valuable, which is why synagogues treat theirs with such care.
The takeaway
The Torah is the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, kept as a handwritten scroll and read on a yearly cycle, and it functions as both a foundational story and a body of teaching at the centre of Jewish life.