50 Fun Facts About Torah

How many books make up the Torah?

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, which is why the Greek name is Pentateuch, 'five scrolls'.

The Hebrew word Torah is usually translated as what?

Instruction (or 'teaching') is the usual modern rendering, from the Hebrew root for guiding or pointing the way; 'Law' was the older English translation via the Greek nomos.

What does the Greek-derived word Pentateuch literally mean?

Five scrolls: the Greek pentateuchos joins penta, 'five', to teuchos, a word for a scroll case or volume, and reached English through Latin.

Bereshit, the Hebrew name of Genesis, literally means what?

In the beginning is the literal sense of Bereshit, the very first word of Genesis, built on rosh, the Hebrew for 'head' or 'beginning'.

What is the Hebrew name of Leviticus, meaning 'And He called'?

Vayikra, 'And He called', is the book's opening word; the English Leviticus refers instead to the priestly laws that fill it.

Bamidbar, the Hebrew name for the fourth book, means what?

In the desert (or wilderness) is the sense of Bamidbar, taken from the book's opening verse; the English name Numbers refers to its two censuses.

Devarim, the Hebrew name for Deuteronomy, means what?

Words is the meaning of Devarim, from the book's opening 'These are the words'; the Greek-derived Deuteronomy means 'second law', because the book restates the law.

What is a Chumash?

The Torah in bound book form is a Chumash, used for study and for following the reading in synagogue; it is typically printed with commentaries such as Rashi.

According to traditional Jewish belief, who wrote the Torah?

Moses is held to have written the Torah at God's dictation, a doctrine called Mosaic authorship; critical scholars instead date its final form to the Persian period.

In rabbinic tradition, the Written Law is paired with what?

The Oral Law is the body of interpretation said to have been handed down at Sinai alongside the written text and later set down in the Mishnah and Talmud.

How many commandments does Jewish tradition count in the Torah?

The Hebrew shorthand is taryag mitzvot; the tassels of the tzitzit are said to add up to 613 by gematria.

Which medieval scholar's Sefer Hamitzvot is the most famous enumeration of the commandments?

Maimonides compiled Sefer Hamitzvot in the 12th century, using fourteen rules, the shorashim, to decide what counted as a commandment.

By gematria, the word tzitzit has a numerical value of 600; what brings the total to 613?

That is the traditional reason the fringes are said to remind the wearer of all the commandments.

How many letters are in a complete Sefer Torah?

304,805 letters is the traditional count for a Sefer Torah, each copied by hand with a quill, so that a single missing or extra letter invalidates the scroll.

What is a scribe who writes a Torah scroll called?

A sofer (sofer stam) is the trained scribe who hand-letters Torah scrolls, tefillin and mezuzot with a quill and specially prepared ink.

On what material is a Sefer Torah written?

Parchment from kosher animals, usually cow, goat or deer hide, is the only permitted writing surface, prepared as gevil or klaf and sewn into a scroll with sinew thread.

What must happen if a scribe makes an error while writing God's name in a Torah scroll?

The whole sheet is removed and replaced, because God's name may never be erased; the discarded sheet goes to a genizah for burial, while ordinary mistakes are simply scraped off.

Roughly how long can it take a scribe to complete a Torah scroll?

About a year and a half of full-time work is typical, since every letter is formed by hand with a quill and any error must be corrected before the scroll is kosher.

What is the pointer used to follow the text during a Torah reading called?

A yad, Hebrew for 'hand', is the rod, often silver, that ends in a tiny pointing hand and is used by the reader to keep the place.

Why is a pointer used rather than a finger during Torah reading?

So the parchment is not touched: oils and moisture from the skin would wear the parchment and ink, so the reader follows the line with a pointer instead.

What is the cabinet that houses the Torah scrolls in a synagogue called?

The ark (aron kodesh to Ashkenazim, hekhal to Sephardim) is the cabinet set into the wall facing Jerusalem, echoing the Ark of the Covenant.

What is the ornate curtain that hangs before the doors of the Torah cabinet called?

The parochet takes its name from the veil that screened the Holy of Holies in the Temple, and is often embroidered with lions, crowns and a donor's dedication.

How many weekly portions divide the Torah for the annual reading cycle?

54 portions (parashot) make up the annual cycle; in years with fewer available Sabbaths, pairs such as Tazria-Metzora are read together so the cycle finishes on time.

How does each weekly Torah portion get its name?

From its first distinctive Hebrew word or two: the cycle opens with the portion Bereshit and closes with V'Zot HaBerachah, read on Simchat Torah.

What is the reading from the Prophets that follows the Torah portion on Sabbath mornings called?

The haftarah is a passage from the Prophets chosen to echo the theme of the week's portion; it is chanted after the Torah reading on Sabbaths and festivals.

On which days of the week, besides the Sabbath, is the Torah read publicly in synagogue?

Monday and Thursday readings are traced to Ezra, who instituted them for the days when villagers came to town for markets and courts.

On what date of the Hebrew month of Tishrei is Simchat Torah celebrated in Israel?

The 22nd of Tishrei, the day of Shemini Atzeret, doubles as Simchat Torah in Israel; in the diaspora the celebration falls a day later, on the 23rd.

How many hakafot, or circuits, are the Torah scrolls carried around the synagogue on Simchat Torah?

Seven circuits, or hakafot, are made with the scrolls around the bimah, each introduced by its own verses of song, before the dancing spills into the street.

In Hatan Torah, the Simchat Torah honour of reading the final portion, what does Hatan mean?

Groom is the sense of Hatan, so the honouree is the 'bridegroom of the Torah'; a Hatan Bereshit then restarts the cycle with the creation story.

In which two places do the Ten Commandments appear in the Torah?

Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 both give the Decalogue: first at Sinai, then repeated in the farewell address four decades later, with small variations such as the Sabbath rationale.

Whose name is changed to Israel after wrestling with an angel in Genesis?

Jacob wrestles through the night at Peniel in Genesis 32 and is renamed Israel; his sons go on to give their names to the tribes.

Which cave-plot does Abraham buy as a family tomb, believed to be at modern Hebron?

Machpelah, bought from Ephron the Hittite for 400 shekels of silver in Genesis 23, became the burial place of Sarah and later of Abraham himself.

Whose flock is Moses tending when he encounters God in the burning bush?

Jethro's flock it is: he is shepherding for his Midianite father-in-law at Horeb when God speaks from the bush and sends him back to Egypt.

How many plagues does God send upon Egypt in the Book of Exodus?

Ten plagues strike Egypt, from the Nile turned to blood through frogs, lice, flies, pestilence, boils, hail, locusts and darkness to the death of the firstborn.

What structure does God instruct Moses to build in Exodus so that God may dwell among the people?

The Tabernacle (mishkan), a portable sanctuary, is described in Exodus 25 to 31 and built in chapters 35 to 40, after the covenant at Sinai.

Which chapter of Leviticus sets out the Day of Atonement, including the goat sent 'to Azazel'?

16 is the Yom Kippur chapter: Aaron enters the Holy of Holies once a year and two goats are chosen by lot, one for the Lord and one sent to Azazel.

Which two sons of Aaron are struck down in Leviticus for improper ritual conduct?

Nadab and Abihu offer 'strange fire' before the Lord in Leviticus 10 and are consumed by fire, leaving Eleazar and Ithamar as Aaron's surviving sons.

How many spies does Moses send into Canaan in the Book of Numbers?

Twelve spies, one from each tribe, scout Canaan for forty days in Numbers 13; only Joshua and Caleb urge the people to go up.

Which tribe is exempted from military service and left out of the census in Numbers?

Levi is set apart in Numbers 1 to carry and guard the sanctuary, so its men are counted separately and not mustered for war.

Which Moabite king hires the diviner Balaam to curse the Israelites in Numbers?

Balak, king of Moab, sends for Balaam in Numbers 22; the seer's donkey balks at an angel on the road, and he ends up blessing Israel instead.

What is made in Numbers to ward off the fiery serpents biting the Israelites?

A bronze snake set on a pole, later called Nehushtan, is made at God's command in Numbers 21; anyone bitten who looked at it lived.

On which mountain does Moses die at the end of the Torah?

Mount Nebo, opposite Jericho across the Jordan, is where he views the promised land from the Pisgah summit and dies in Deuteronomy 34, buried by God in an unknown grave.

Deuteronomy's three long speeches are delivered by Moses in which location?

The Plains of Moab, east of the Jordan opposite Jericho, are where the people camp at the end of Numbers and where the addresses of Deuteronomy are given before the crossing.

The Shema, the centrepiece of Jewish daily prayer, opens with a verse from which chapter of Deuteronomy?

Deuteronomy 6:4; the word Shema means 'hear', and the verses are written inside tefillin and mezuzah scrolls.

The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Torah, was produced in which city?

Alexandria, under Ptolemy II Philadelphus in the 3rd century BCE, is where tradition places the seventy-two translators whose work gave the Septuagint its name, 'Seventy'.

Targum Onkelos is a translation of the Torah into which language?

Aramaic, the everyday language of Jews in Babylonia and the Land of Israel after the exile, is the language of Targum Onkelos, which was read verse by verse beside the Hebrew.

In the documentary hypothesis, what do the letters J, E, D and P stand for?

Jahwist, Elohist, Deuteronomist, Priestly are the four proposed strands of the text; Julius Wellhausen's 1878 Prolegomena made the scheme the dominant academic account for a century.

By what name does Islamic tradition refer to the Torah?

Tawrat is the Quran's name for the scripture revealed to Musa, listed with the Zabur of David and the Injil of Jesus among God's earlier books.

According to the Talmud, Ezra changed the Torah's script from old Hebrew to one named after which empire?

Assyria gives the script its Talmudic name, ketav Ashuri; Sanhedrin 21b says Ezra brought this square script back from Babylonia, replacing the older Paleo-Hebrew letters.

Roughly how many differences exist between the Samaritan Pentateuch and the Jewish Masoretic Text?

About 6,000 variants separate the two texts, most of them spelling and grammar, with roughly 1,900 agreeing with the Septuagint against the Masoretic reading.