The Torah is marked as the “most important document in Judaism.” The Torah, known as the Five Books of Moses, teaches and guides the Jewish people. The five books of the Torah are the first five books of the Old Testament, or Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. These would be found in scroll cases where the books were kept. Originating from Hebrew the five words mean:Genesis (בראשית, Bereshit: "In the beginning...")
Exodus (שמות, Shemot: "Names")
Leviticus (ויקרא, Vayyiqra: "And he called...")
Numbers (במדבר, Bamidbar: "In the desert...")
Deuteronomy (דברים, Devarim: "Words", or "Discourses")
Not only do these books contain the system of laws and commandments, but also a way for various people to learn the historical background behind the Torah and the beginning of Judaism.
The Torah is written on parchment scrolls and they have always been handwritten. The book is then kept in a cabinet in a synagogue. To read from the Torah, people would use a “Yad,” meaning hand in Hebrew, to follow along with the text. This is because of a wide range of reasons depending on the person. Some thought that the book was too holy to be touched, or that the oil from your finger could damage the parchment paper. The scrolls are often covered in fabric and ornamented with silver crown on the handle and a mounted breastplate on the front.
For more information: http://www.jewfaq.org/torah.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torah
Image: http://www.hamafitz.com/Images/SeferTorah.jpg
3 comments:
Make sure that you are paraphrasing or using quotation marks directly. To keep the Hebrew letters that you copied from a website, then use quotation marks around that text.
Fyi, that wikipedia article says it's missing some citations. That's probably okay here, especially since you've got a couple of other websites, and the info looks correct, but it's in general a bad idea to use flagged articles like that one.
--The Citation Cop, who is on the Prowl
I thought it was really interesting to learn more about the Torah! it is a really beautiful piece of text. Good presentation!! :)there was a lot of good information!
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