The Torah
by Dov Nelkin
The central religious text for Jews is the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh. This name is an acronym for Torah, Nevi’im, and Ketuvim.
The holiest of all scriptures in Judaism is the Torah, also known as the Pentateuch or Five Books of Moses. In Hebrew, each book is called a chumash, which means “a fifth.” The Hebrew names of these books are taken from the first significant word in each one; for example, the first book is called Bereishit, which means “In the beginning” and is the first word of the Torah. The English names Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy refer to the topics discussed in each of these books.
Origins of the Torah
According to tradition, the Torah was dictated by God to Moses, who faithfully recorded every word. The rabbinic literature gives two opinions concerning this process: one, God gave the Torah to the Israelites “scroll by scroll” after each set of events; two, the entire Torah was spoken to Moses at one time, with the meaning of the future events remaining somehow obscured.
In the 17th century philosopher
Thomas Hobbes
suggested that the Torah was not written entirely by Moses, but by others looking back on history and earlier texts. He calls attention to the repeated use of the phrase “until this day” (Gen 12:6) as referring to a time long after the events that are described in the text. This idea was not new. The
Talmud
proposes that some verses, especially those detailing Moses’ death, were written by someone other than Moses. Beginning in the 19th century, German scholars, especially
Julius Wellhausen
, proposed that the Torah went through a very late process of editing, and established the order in which the books were probably written. His ideas are accepted by the
Conservative
and
Reform
movements within Judaism. According to most scholars, the Torah reached its final form sometime in the fifth century BCE. This dating also fits with a Talmudic legend in which the prophet Ezra, upon his return to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon, "repaired"
the forgotten Torah and put it into the form we have today.
The Prophets
Nevi’im is the second section of the Hebrew Bible. The name comes from navi, Hebrew for “one who is called” by God, a reference to the prophets. These texts were traditionally understood to be inspired to a lesser degree than the Torah, but to a greater degree than the third division. Whereas the Torah is seen as a direct communication from God, the Prophetic texts are viewed as communications through the prophets, reflecting their individual personalities. The time period covered in Nevi’im spans from the death of Moses through the conquest of Israel (ca.1240 BCE), the destruction of the first Temple (586 BCE), and the rebuilding of the second Temple (ca.515 BCE). The Tradition records that Malachi is “the close of prophecy,” with the book written around 500 BCE.
The Writings
Ketuvim or “Sacred writings” includes Psalms Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs, among others. These texts make no claim to divine guidance, but are considered inspired nonetheless. Some of the books are relatively late, including Daniel which may have been written in the second century BCE. The Talmud records debates about whether or not to include certain texts, such as the book of Esther, within the canon, as well as whether or not certain canonized texts should be “put away.” This is the question, especially, of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.
In the end, the heavy emphasis on public education within rabbinic literature overrode the impulse to hide away any sacred literature. Instead, the texts are read publicly as part of the annual liturgical cycle, and are studied in detail to this very day.
ONE is using the translation of the Hebrew Bible completed by the Jewish Publication Society (JPS) in 1982.
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