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50 free Torah trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
48 free Torah trivia questions with answers, written for Hebrew school classrooms, synagogue quiz nights, bar and bat mitzvah parties and anyone brushing up on the Five Books of Moses. It covers what the word Torah means, the Hebrew names of Genesis through Deuteronomy and why they are called that, and the story arc from creation to Moses's death on Mount Nebo: Noah, Abraham, Jacob's wrestling match, the burning bush, the plagues, Sinai, the golden calf, the twelve spies, Balaam's donkey and the Shema. It also covers the Torah as an object and a practice: how a sofer writes a Sefer Torah on parchment, its 304,805 letters, what happens when a scribe misspells God's name, the yad, the ark and the parochet, the 54 weekly portions and the haftarah, Simchat Torah's seven circuits, the 613 mitzvot and the tzitzit gematria, and how the Torah reached the wider world through the Septuagint, the Samaritan Pentateuch and Targum Onkelos. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia before publishing and each question links to its source. Difficulty runs from easy questions about the five books to hard ones on chapters, scholarship and scribal law.
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Q 01How many books make up the Torah?
Five
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, which is why the Greek name is Pentateuch, 'five scrolls'.
Q 02The Hebrew word Torah is usually translated as what?
Instruction
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.
Q 03What does the Greek-derived word Pentateuch literally mean?
Five scrolls
Five scrolls: the Greek pentateuchos joins penta, 'five', to teuchos, a word for a scroll case or volume, and reached English through Latin.
Q 04Bereshit, the Hebrew name of Genesis, literally means what?
In the beginning
In the beginning is the literal sense of Bereshit, the very first word of Genesis, built on rosh, the Hebrew for 'head' or 'beginning'.
Q 05What is the Hebrew name of Leviticus, meaning 'And He called'?
Vayikra
Vayikra, 'And He called', is the book's opening word; the English Leviticus refers instead to the priestly laws that fill it.
Q 06Bamidbar, the Hebrew name for the fourth book, means what?
In the desert
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.
Q 07Devarim, the Hebrew name for Deuteronomy, means what?
Words
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.
Q 08What is a Chumash?
The Torah in bound book form
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.
Q 09According to traditional Jewish belief, who wrote the Torah?
Moses
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.
Q 10In rabbinic tradition, the Written Law is paired with what?
The Oral Law
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.
Q 11How many commandments does Jewish tradition count in the Torah?
613
The Hebrew shorthand is taryag mitzvot; the tassels of the tzitzit are said to add up to 613 by gematria.
Q 12Which medieval scholar's Sefer Hamitzvot is the most famous enumeration of the commandments?
Maimonides
Maimonides compiled Sefer Hamitzvot in the 12th century, using fourteen rules, the shorashim, to decide what counted as a commandment.
Q 13By gematria, the word tzitzit has a numerical value of 600; what brings the total to 613?
Eight threads and five knots
That is the traditional reason the fringes are said to remind the wearer of all the commandments.
Q 21What is the cabinet that houses the Torah scrolls in a synagogue called?
The ark
The ark (aron kodesh to Ashkenazim, hekhal to Sephardim) is the cabinet set into the wall facing Jerusalem, echoing the Ark of the Covenant.
Q 22What is the ornate curtain that hangs before the doors of the Torah cabinet called?
The parochet
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.
Q 23How many weekly portions divide the Torah for the annual reading cycle?
54
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.
Q 14How many letters are in a complete Sefer Torah?
304,805
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.
Q 15What is a scribe who writes a Torah scroll called?
A sofer
A sofer (sofer stam) is the trained scribe who hand-letters Torah scrolls, tefillin and mezuzot with a quill and specially prepared ink.
Q 16On what material is a Sefer Torah written?
Parchment from kosher animals
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.
Q 17What must happen if a scribe makes an error while writing God's name in a Torah scroll?
The whole sheet is removed and replaced
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.
Q 18Roughly how long can it take a scribe to complete a Torah scroll?
About a year and a half
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.
Q 19What is the pointer used to follow the text during a Torah reading called?
A yad
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.
Q 20Why is a pointer used rather than a finger during Torah reading?
So the parchment is not touched
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.
Q 24How does each weekly Torah portion get its name?
From its first distinctive Hebrew word or two
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.
Q 25What is the reading from the Prophets that follows the Torah portion on Sabbath mornings called?
The haftarah
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.
Q 26On which days of the week, besides the Sabbath, is the Torah read publicly in synagogue?
Monday and Thursday
Monday and Thursday readings are traced to Ezra, who instituted them for the days when villagers came to town for markets and courts.
Q 27On what date of the Hebrew month of Tishrei is Simchat Torah celebrated in Israel?
The 22nd
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.
Q 28How many hakafot, or circuits, are the Torah scrolls carried around the synagogue on Simchat Torah?
Seven
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.
Q 29In Hatan Torah, the Simchat Torah honour of reading the final portion, what does Hatan mean?
Groom
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.
Q 30In which two places do the Ten Commandments appear in the Torah?
Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5
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.