Lexicon

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(Original Index)

Torah

Torah is a Hebrew word meaning “teaching”, “instruction” or “law”. It is the central and most important document of Judaism revered by Jews through the ages. It is written in Hebrew, the oldest Jewish language. It is also called the Law of Moses (Torat Moshe). The Torah is also known as the Five Books of Moses or the Pentateuch (Greek for "five containers," which refers to the scroll cases in which books were being kept).

The five books and their names are as follows:

• Genesis (Bereshit: "In the beginning..."),

• Exodus (Shemot: "Names"),

• Leviticus (Vayyiqra: "And he called..."),

• Numbers (Bammidbar: "In the desert...") and

• Deuteronomy (Devarim: "Words").

For Jews, the Torah was traditionally accepted as the literal word of God as told to Moses.

Torah primarily refers to the first section of the Tanakh – the first five books of the Hebrew Bible – but the term is sometimes also used in the general sense to also include both of Judaism's written law (Torah SheBeKtav) and oral law (Torah SHeBe'Al Pe), encompassing the entire spectrum of authoritative Jewish religious teachings throughout history, including the Mishnah, the Talmud, the Midrash and more.