Jewish Sacred TextRead pages 125-126 (stop at the end of “Parts of the

Tanakh”)

The Torah

The sacred writings of Judaism are called the Torah. The name is translated as meaning “law”, “revelation” or “teaching”.

The term Torah refers to the:Laws of Moses (the first 5 books of the Hebrew

Bible) entire belief system of the Jewish faithentire Hebrew Bible (Tanakh)The commentaries (e.g. Talmud) because of the

study that went into them, are considered to be as valid as the laws of Moses.

Torah Study

Studying Torah has kept the Jewish people focused on God.

Education and study are important Jewish values.

Other important values are worship/prayer and loving-kindness.

Studying Torah is allowed on ShabbatJewish people try to study Torah in all its

forms (written and oral) .

Torah Scrolls

In Jewish services, the Sefer Torah is read.It is written on parchment in Hebrew The scrolls are stored in the Holy Ark,

symbolizing the ark that was made to house the Ten Commandments during the Exodus.

The scrolls are touched only with a pointer it is seen as an honour for a congregant to be

asked to open/close the Ark.

The Hebrew Bible

The Hebrew Bible includes the 5 books of Moses, but also other books that are shared with Christians.

Another name for the Hebrew Bible is Tanakh.The Tanakh includes the books of Moses, the

writings of the prophets and other writings (e.g. Psalms)

The Hebrew Bible and the Christian (Greek) Bible arrange the books in a different order

The Christian Bible also contains 27 extra books that tell the stories of Jesus and Christianity.

The Talmud and “Halakhah” (the oral Torah)

The Talmud is an enormous book of Jewish laws and teachings of morality.

the Pharisees were strict about following the laws of ritual purity – to be holy, a person needs to only come in contact with holy and pure things.

The laws of ritual purity include food (kashrut laws about food preparation, combination and appropriateness), coming in contact with corpses, impure people, and women who are menstruating.

The Talmud and “Halakhah” (the oral Torah)

The laws originally were kept by the priests in the Temple – purity allowed them to perform their sacrifice.

After the destruction of the Temple, the laws were compiled in the Talmud.

The Talmud is written in the form of layers of commentary.

In the centre of this page is the original teaching (could be a Midrash (story) or a law) – surrounding it are teachings of various rabbis over the centuries