Have you heard of the Torah? Maybe you know a lot about it and it’s a part of your life. Perhaps you’ve heard the word and know it to be a symbol of Judaism but that’s about it. Either way, the following list will boost your Torah trivia quotient to Ninja status.
1. The Torah is what people of the Jewish faith call the Bible. Others call it the Old Testament, but to us it is the Bible in it’s entirety . Bible means “book” and testament means “covenant,” but the word Torah actually means a whole different thing - it means guidance. The Torah is a book of guidance, providing us with a clear directive how to live our lives.
The Jewish mystics explain that the Torah is actually G-d’s blueprint for creation. Therefore, if you want to understand how the world was intended to work, you need only delve into Torah teaching to discover it. This will then provide guidance to the best and most fulfilling way to live.
2. The Torah begins with the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Bet. With all the details of the Torah being so precise, why not begin with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Aleph? One explanation is that the Aleph refers to The One who created the world, G-d. That’s the first entity (Aleph is also numerically equal to the number one) in the world and the second is the Torah. The Torah therefore begins with the second letter (and numerically equivalent to two), Bet.
3. The last words of the Torah are a reference to Moses’breaking the Tablets after descending from Mount Sinai and seeing the Jewish people worshiping an idol in the shape of a Golden Calf. I’ll bet you didn’t know that G-d actually commends and thanks him for doing it!
4. The Torah was the first legal document that recognized human rights, and is the precursor to today’s moral and legal codes. It was first introduced to the world 3326 years ago, during the mass revelation at Mount Sinai. This was at a time when human sacrifice was commonplace and idol worship and slave ownership were status symbols.
5. At the very center point of the Torah (in words) are the words “Inquire he inquired.” The word “inquire” is on one side and “he inquired’ is on the other side. It is of no small significance that the very center of the Torah is “inquire he inquired;” when approaching Torah study one must continuously be inquiring and asking questions, always searching to understand the concept in the best and deepest way.
6. All Hebrew letters are consonants, the vowels are separate symbols that appear under (or over) the letter. Only the letters themselves, i.e. only the consonants, are inscribed in the Torah. In addition, many laws found in the Torah are written in the most succinct and precise manner. These two facts make it virtually impossible to study the Torah without being privy to the Oral Torah, an oral tradition that was taught by Moses and transmitted through the generations until eventually being committed to writing by Rabbi Judah Hanassi (135-217 CE). This tradition includes the details of how to pronounce each word, where the verses begin and end, and the specific details of each particular law.
7. Although the word “Torah” most literally refers to what’s sometimes known as The Five Books of Moses, it is used colloquially when referring to the entire corpus of Jewish teaching i.e. the entire Written Law (comprising of the first five books, the books of the prophets and the writings), and Oral Law (comprising of the entire Mishnah and Talmud). The word “Torah” will even sometimes be used in reference to the scholarly works of commentary in later generations.
8. Here’s something that you may find refreshingly honest. The Sages tell us that the Jewish people cried when they were told about about one of the laws. Which do you think it was? Was it the Kosher laws? Was it the laws of Shabbat? No, it actually was the laws prohibiting sexual immorality. That was the biggest temptation then, as it is today.
9. There are exactly 304,805 letters in the Torah. There are 42 lines on each page or column, and there are 248 columns. Roughly 80 sheets of parchment (made from the hide of a Kosher animal) are sewn together to create one long scroll. Each letter has to be individually inscribed by hand by a trained scribe (using a quill made of the feather of a kosher bird, usually a turkey) and it takes roughly one year to complete. If even one letter is deformed or missing, the entire Torah scroll is invalid.
10. Over 3300 years ago, Moses wrote the very first Torah scroll. Actually, he wrote the first 13 Torah scrolls. He distributed one to each of the Twelve Tribes, and one he stored in the Ark in the Temple. This made it difficult to mistakenly (or purposely) alter the text. The meticulous details associated with writing a Torah Scroll are amazing, and contribute in no small part to it’s accuracy today.
In fact, the Torahs of the Jewish community of Yemen, that for over 1000 years was disconnected from the rest of the Jewish world, have only 9 slight differences. And all of them are differences in spelling, which have no effect on the meaning of the words (similar to the different spellings of color in the US and colour in the UK).
And one final point - now that you know a little more about the Torah, go to your local Chabad Rabbi and start to learn it regularly! Oh and of course, if you’re in the Sacramento area on April 6th, join us as we welcome a brand new Torah at the Torah Dedication Ceremony and community procession in Folsom.