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The Torah: The Five Books of Moses
The Torah is the essence of Jewish tradition; it inspires each successive generation. The current JPS translation, based on classical and modern sources, is acclaimed for its fidelity to the ancient Hebrew.
394 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 501
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* They are officially published under that name
* They are traditional stories not attributed to a specific author
* They are religious texts not generally attributed to a specific author
Books whose authorship is merely uncertain should be attributed to Unknown.
See also: Anonymous
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 188 reviews
January 20, 2010
I'm an atheist, but religion fascinates me, primarily as a manifestation of culture. I read the Torah as I would any ancient text, and found it an amazing and instructive document of nation-building. From the most pragmatic--laws and norms, historical lessons--to the most spiritual--a genesis story, a spiritual justification, a historical and cultural sense of the nation, what is the meaning of being human, what the limits, what the goals, what the good and bad relationships--, countless questions are answered, often in a satisfyingly absolute way (though questions linger at other times).
The narrative is uneven, sometimes mythical, sometimes action-packed, at times mind-numbingly detailed and repetitive (getting through the measurements of the temple, or the census was a real struggle), but all of it adds up to an unparalleled document of a newly forming nation.
There are many, many interesting features in the Torah as a whole, but one that stands out to me is that often motivations (human or godly) go unexplained...leading to the pragmatic (and true to life) conclusion that sometimes, things just are; the ultimate explanation does not always exist (or perhaps the religious would say does not always manifest to humans), even in a world with a divinity.
The narrative is uneven, sometimes mythical, sometimes action-packed, at times mind-numbingly detailed and repetitive (getting through the measurements of the temple, or the census was a real struggle), but all of it adds up to an unparalleled document of a newly forming nation.
There are many, many interesting features in the Torah as a whole, but one that stands out to me is that often motivations (human or godly) go unexplained...leading to the pragmatic (and true to life) conclusion that sometimes, things just are; the ultimate explanation does not always exist (or perhaps the religious would say does not always manifest to humans), even in a world with a divinity.
February 14, 2008
Scared the heck out of my parents during the couple weeks I was reading this baby. Oh, I read the Large Print edition. Much easier on the eyes.
From a literary perspective, it was in dire need of a good editor. I mean, every time God tells Moses something, we get the complete text of his speech. Then, we get the exact same text again when Moses tells everyone what God said. REDUNDANCY. Could have really tightened this piece up to make the plot move much swifter.
Had problems liking anyone in this book. God was a jerk. Moses wasn't so nice. And the rest were a bunch of gossipers, back-stabbers, and liars.
Also, could we limit the number of animals we have to slaughter? The gods must be crazy!
Some nice bits about how if your slave won't leave when you free him, take an awl and drive it through his ear into your door. That's awkward.
Actually, the best bit was toward the end when they talk about helping your friends and family. Those bits were quite lovely and rational & I got a sense of where the Jewish half of my family picked up their codes of generosity.
From a literary perspective, it was in dire need of a good editor. I mean, every time God tells Moses something, we get the complete text of his speech. Then, we get the exact same text again when Moses tells everyone what God said. REDUNDANCY. Could have really tightened this piece up to make the plot move much swifter.
Had problems liking anyone in this book. God was a jerk. Moses wasn't so nice. And the rest were a bunch of gossipers, back-stabbers, and liars.
Also, could we limit the number of animals we have to slaughter? The gods must be crazy!
Some nice bits about how if your slave won't leave when you free him, take an awl and drive it through his ear into your door. That's awkward.
Actually, the best bit was toward the end when they talk about helping your friends and family. Those bits were quite lovely and rational & I got a sense of where the Jewish half of my family picked up their codes of generosity.
August 31, 2007
Great job, God!
June 18, 2017
I am Muslim, I've read the holy Quran now finished the Torah then I will be continuing with Psalm and Bible as well. Firstly I need to say that as a pillar of Islam, we have to believe all the holy books that were revealed by Allah.
In our belief( Islam) the 3 books were changed by people thats why the last one Quran was revealed and Allah has given a promise that he is going to save it until the doomsday (nobody will dare to change it)
After these informations, my evaluation about the Torah is that I've found it as a story book. I am just comparing it with the Quran, and it seems its just a story book. There is only 2-3 pages which I can truly say that they are the words of Allah. The other chapters were like stories, poems by human being.
And also, holy books must need to be as guidance right? They need to guide us in any way. From daily life to prayer or how should we act and etc. but I could not find these informations there.
What I've found wrong is that Prophet David has been expressed as sinner. It was saying that "he had sexual relationship with a woman"
I am strongly against this argument because of the fact that prophets are the pure & innocent people. Thats why they are Prophet. They have no sin. They may be mistaken but this is not sin, although in torah it was mentioned as one of the biggest sin which is adultery.
And also the situation of people of Israel. Now I understand the zionist's people mentality better. They seem themselves as chosen race. Yes they were because they were under harsh working condition in Egypt under Pharaoh's period. Allah has promised them, he saved them from Egypt and given them to holy land where al-Quds. But after that, they have not kept their promises although they've swear.
They've killed the lots of prophets who were sent by Allah in order to warn them to the path of him, but they kept continue to worship to the idols. I could not find these informations in there, thats the clue that torah has been changed by people. Otherwise we were not be able to explain the new people, new prophets. There would be only people of Israel.
As conclusion, there is nothing wrong to learn new things :) I've learnt and compared them with my belief. Try it, it will broaden your horizon.
In our belief( Islam) the 3 books were changed by people thats why the last one Quran was revealed and Allah has given a promise that he is going to save it until the doomsday (nobody will dare to change it)
After these informations, my evaluation about the Torah is that I've found it as a story book. I am just comparing it with the Quran, and it seems its just a story book. There is only 2-3 pages which I can truly say that they are the words of Allah. The other chapters were like stories, poems by human being.
And also, holy books must need to be as guidance right? They need to guide us in any way. From daily life to prayer or how should we act and etc. but I could not find these informations there.
What I've found wrong is that Prophet David has been expressed as sinner. It was saying that "he had sexual relationship with a woman"
I am strongly against this argument because of the fact that prophets are the pure & innocent people. Thats why they are Prophet. They have no sin. They may be mistaken but this is not sin, although in torah it was mentioned as one of the biggest sin which is adultery.
And also the situation of people of Israel. Now I understand the zionist's people mentality better. They seem themselves as chosen race. Yes they were because they were under harsh working condition in Egypt under Pharaoh's period. Allah has promised them, he saved them from Egypt and given them to holy land where al-Quds. But after that, they have not kept their promises although they've swear.
They've killed the lots of prophets who were sent by Allah in order to warn them to the path of him, but they kept continue to worship to the idols. I could not find these informations in there, thats the clue that torah has been changed by people. Otherwise we were not be able to explain the new people, new prophets. There would be only people of Israel.
As conclusion, there is nothing wrong to learn new things :) I've learnt and compared them with my belief. Try it, it will broaden your horizon.
Read
November 15, 2017I've seen the Torah/Pentateuch classified as an epic, but to me the genre seemed much less straightforward than in Homer. After Exodus, what story there is often gets lost in endless demographic info, rules for hygiene, and of course constant threats by god to kill everyone.
All this has something to do with the forging of a collective identity in the desert. The making of a people is an extremely cruel and arduous process, and YHWH is not very helpful in this respect. He offers only brute domination. Moses has to do practically all the work to instill hegemony, and by the end of Deuteronomy it's by no means clear he's been successful.
Most the Israelites, it must be said, did not even particularly want to leave Egypt. They constantly complain, and often with good reason. Rumors of god's barbarism turn out to be well founded.
*
Mind confronting formlessness. Here I think I have to side with Genesis over the likes of Lucretius and Karl Marx, formidable though they may be. I can't see the world as a random accretion of atoms in a void. Mind must be present in some sense from the beginning (for a contemporary, secular argument along these lines I've got to recommend the philosopher Thomas Nagel, especially The View from Nowhere and Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False).
In what sense? That is difficult to say, and I'm afraid that after this the Pentateuch does not seem to offer a very plausible account of the mysteries of the universe.
*
By what bizarre dialectical inversion does the same divinity worshiped here by Moshe (Moses) later become a god of peace? Paul Ricoeur would say that the fact that the church fathers never did the obvious and simply repudiate the old testament means that Christianity has always been a hermeneutic religion. Despite the tedium and sheer awfulness of much of the Pentateuch, I am nonetheless still anxious to keep reading, to get to the later prophets and the gospels.
All this has something to do with the forging of a collective identity in the desert. The making of a people is an extremely cruel and arduous process, and YHWH is not very helpful in this respect. He offers only brute domination. Moses has to do practically all the work to instill hegemony, and by the end of Deuteronomy it's by no means clear he's been successful.
Most the Israelites, it must be said, did not even particularly want to leave Egypt. They constantly complain, and often with good reason. Rumors of god's barbarism turn out to be well founded.
*
when the earth was wild and waste
darkness over the face of Ocean
rushing-spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters -
Mind confronting formlessness. Here I think I have to side with Genesis over the likes of Lucretius and Karl Marx, formidable though they may be. I can't see the world as a random accretion of atoms in a void. Mind must be present in some sense from the beginning (for a contemporary, secular argument along these lines I've got to recommend the philosopher Thomas Nagel, especially The View from Nowhere and Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False).
In what sense? That is difficult to say, and I'm afraid that after this the Pentateuch does not seem to offer a very plausible account of the mysteries of the universe.
*
And Moshe was furious with the commanders of the military,
the officers of thousands and the officers of hundreds,
who had come back from the armed-force in war;
Moshe said to them:
You have left alive all the females! - Numbers 31: 14-15
By what bizarre dialectical inversion does the same divinity worshiped here by Moshe (Moses) later become a god of peace? Paul Ricoeur would say that the fact that the church fathers never did the obvious and simply repudiate the old testament means that Christianity has always been a hermeneutic religion. Despite the tedium and sheer awfulness of much of the Pentateuch, I am nonetheless still anxious to keep reading, to get to the later prophets and the gospels.
October 26, 2020
I actually have the audio files of the entire NIV Bible read by David Suchet from the library - 83 hours (and 14 minutes). No Kindle stuff, but I've got many Bibles in various translations around the house as well as three in my Kindle library. So.
I'm here for David Suchet who, four chapters into Genesis, is helping me hear details I hadn't noticed before. Part of that is doubtless because I've not read the NIV translation before. However, it is equally due to the fact that listening to a book makes you notice new details.
As a sidenote, I only discovered this reading after learning Suchet (who definitively played Hercule Poirot in BBC productions) became a Christian at 40 and then wanted to record the Bible. He did it in between shooting schedules and in his off time for over 200 hours of personal dedication. So inspirational!
I will use this for another reread of the entire Bible in chronological order. Except, of course, for the books the Protestants took out. Those aren't included in this. Those I'll have to read the old fashioned way out of one of my Catholic Bibles.
FINAL - this is going to be my continual morning listening. So I won't be "done" for a long time, if ever. But there's no need for it to sit in my ongoing book list.
I'm here for David Suchet who, four chapters into Genesis, is helping me hear details I hadn't noticed before. Part of that is doubtless because I've not read the NIV translation before. However, it is equally due to the fact that listening to a book makes you notice new details.
As a sidenote, I only discovered this reading after learning Suchet (who definitively played Hercule Poirot in BBC productions) became a Christian at 40 and then wanted to record the Bible. He did it in between shooting schedules and in his off time for over 200 hours of personal dedication. So inspirational!
I will use this for another reread of the entire Bible in chronological order. Except, of course, for the books the Protestants took out. Those aren't included in this. Those I'll have to read the old fashioned way out of one of my Catholic Bibles.
FINAL - this is going to be my continual morning listening. So I won't be "done" for a long time, if ever. But there's no need for it to sit in my ongoing book list.
June 16, 2021
I couldn't find the entire Bible read by David Suchet, except for a chronological version. So this represents all the books of the Bible. I read this as part of the Bible Reading Challenge. And most of my listening came while I walked.
I began listening to some random chap on an app; but things changed and then the reader had background music, something to which I violently object. I found Suchet while cycling through the Psalms and was hooked. He is the most expressive reader in a way that enhances instead of distracting. Words of life.
I listened using Hoopla and also on YouTube.
I began listening to some random chap on an app; but things changed and then the reader had background music, something to which I violently object. I found Suchet while cycling through the Psalms and was hooked. He is the most expressive reader in a way that enhances instead of distracting. Words of life.
I listened using Hoopla and also on YouTube.
October 12, 2012
WORD OF G-D ENOUGH SAID!!!!!!!!!!!!
August 3, 2021
Why do I hate myself
August 13, 2014
Genesis: In which God creates the world, and then destroys it, because, you know, it wasn't quite right. But at no point does he actually change or improve anything about it.
Exodus: In which God terrorizes and slaughters the Egyptians because he seems to prefer the Israelites a bit more, for whatever reason.
Leviticus: In which God makes his culinary and interior design tastes known to the "Chosen People."
Numbers: In which Yaweh, the Most High One, and part-time war general, takes roll call. Also, he slaughters some more people.
Deuteronomy: In which God cares about the poor. Poor Israelites I mean. Jesus, don't get confused. All those other poor people can die as tribute. Worship Me perfectly and I'll make you rich. Fail to do so, and I'll fucking kill you all.
I don't know much about religion or history, but this seems to be more a political collection of books than a religious one. I actually have a hard time finding anything timelessly useful in any of these books. The Ten Commandments are nice, but maybe 100 times more emphasis is put on obtaining the Promised Land of Canaan. That is the end game. Not to live a certain way, but to live in a certain place, with a certain people. Their own people. No other tribes. The Commandments merely keep order. And the Torah unites different Hebrew factions together in order to consolidate power for...someone. Probably some political/religious leaders. I'm not schooled enough to know exactly who. What I do know is that I'd have to have a stroke of some kind in order for these books to have a profound meaning to me. And I curse the day that they actually have some instructive value in my life.
Deuteronomy 2:34
Exodus: In which God terrorizes and slaughters the Egyptians because he seems to prefer the Israelites a bit more, for whatever reason.
Leviticus: In which God makes his culinary and interior design tastes known to the "Chosen People."
Numbers: In which Yaweh, the Most High One, and part-time war general, takes roll call. Also, he slaughters some more people.
Deuteronomy: In which God cares about the poor. Poor Israelites I mean. Jesus, don't get confused. All those other poor people can die as tribute. Worship Me perfectly and I'll make you rich. Fail to do so, and I'll fucking kill you all.
I don't know much about religion or history, but this seems to be more a political collection of books than a religious one. I actually have a hard time finding anything timelessly useful in any of these books. The Ten Commandments are nice, but maybe 100 times more emphasis is put on obtaining the Promised Land of Canaan. That is the end game. Not to live a certain way, but to live in a certain place, with a certain people. Their own people. No other tribes. The Commandments merely keep order. And the Torah unites different Hebrew factions together in order to consolidate power for...someone. Probably some political/religious leaders. I'm not schooled enough to know exactly who. What I do know is that I'd have to have a stroke of some kind in order for these books to have a profound meaning to me. And I curse the day that they actually have some instructive value in my life.
Deuteronomy 2:34
June 25, 2013
It was pretty good, but the sequel didn't even come close.
November 18, 2017
Pretty weird. Pretty boring. I️ would recommend everyone of any religion read it sometime before they die.
June 30, 2022
A little cliché at times
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December 7, 2021To be politically incorrect but completely honest, I have never read a book in which both the content and the “prose” were so bad that you couldn’t decide which is worse.
Beliefs aside, this is arguably the worst book I have ever read not only because its so unethical and vile but also because it was just so b o r i n g I got constipated from the amount of times I had to get up “and make some tea” just to escape it for a couple of more minutes.
Golden Lessons from the Torah:
1 - God’s chosen people have the right to kill anyone God hasn’t chosen, kids included, because God says so.
“Put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’”
“Save alive nothing that breathes.”
2 - Whenever he reaches a new city, Abraham cowardly lies and says that Sarah is his sister and when he’s believed and Sarah is taken to be another man’s wife, God punishes the new oblivious husband instead thus proving that God does work in very mysterious ways.
3 - Hebrews are so much cooler than Egyptians that god will kill even Egyptian babies just to win the Hebrews’ love and admiration.
Yet the Israelites won’t stop whining and blaming Moses and his god for taking them out of Egypt which must be so hard for God after all that he had done for them. (Killing innocent people and stuff)
4- Women suck, rape is more forgivable than homosexuality, and having slaves is kinda cool.
5- God is very detail-oriented and likes random things done in very specific ways so you better pay attention.
6. If a damsel gets raped in the city, kill her and her rapist because her screams weren’t heard whereas if a damsel gets raped in the countryside and her screams are heard, then only kill her rapist.
Well, guess who’s moving to the country!!
I sincerely don’t enjoy either preaching or shaming but people condoning nazism/racism/sexism/speciesm/terrorism or any other form of extremism while holding even the slightest respect for this book are either hypocritical, severely delusional, or they obviously have never even read the book.
Beliefs aside, this is arguably the worst book I have ever read not only because its so unethical and vile but also because it was just so b o r i n g I got constipated from the amount of times I had to get up “and make some tea” just to escape it for a couple of more minutes.
Golden Lessons from the Torah:
1 - God’s chosen people have the right to kill anyone God hasn’t chosen, kids included, because God says so.
“Put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’”
“Save alive nothing that breathes.”
2 - Whenever he reaches a new city, Abraham cowardly lies and says that Sarah is his sister and when he’s believed and Sarah is taken to be another man’s wife, God punishes the new oblivious husband instead thus proving that God does work in very mysterious ways.
3 - Hebrews are so much cooler than Egyptians that god will kill even Egyptian babies just to win the Hebrews’ love and admiration.
Yet the Israelites won’t stop whining and blaming Moses and his god for taking them out of Egypt which must be so hard for God after all that he had done for them. (Killing innocent people and stuff)
4- Women suck, rape is more forgivable than homosexuality, and having slaves is kinda cool.
5- God is very detail-oriented and likes random things done in very specific ways so you better pay attention.
6. If a damsel gets raped in the city, kill her and her rapist because her screams weren’t heard whereas if a damsel gets raped in the countryside and her screams are heard, then only kill her rapist.
Well, guess who’s moving to the country!!
I sincerely don’t enjoy either preaching or shaming but people condoning nazism/racism/sexism/speciesm/terrorism or any other form of extremism while holding even the slightest respect for this book are either hypocritical, severely delusional, or they obviously have never even read the book.
February 1, 2008
This is the beginning and basis of all Western culture and literature. The book of Genesis is the richest and most complex writing humans have ever done.
July 1, 2019
One of the biggest cons in human history
April 21, 2020
Though overabundant at times, aptly placed commentary elucidated the text the way it has not been done before; because it is fresh, full of new historical evidences and scholarly research. The reading experience is fluid and allusive resonances of the words of the original Hebrew scrupulously kept in order to show the links and the web of intertextuality that is carefully interwoven throughout the whole five books. Splendid and a truly remarkable achievement of an objective and erudite writer. Mr. Alter achieved to be a poet, a scholar and a critic at once and carefully assigned himself which one to become throughout the text.
February 6, 2023
I loved this book, the authors usage of storytelling in a historical piece caught my attention from the start. Fantastic book its a must read
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April 11, 2024Read the New International Version.
Review to follow later.
Review to follow later.
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September 11, 2023genesis & exodus
January 23, 2024
Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.
Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.
We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.
Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied.
Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.
Thou hast made us as the off-scouring and refuse in the midst of the people.
All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.
Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.
Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission,
Till the Lord look down, and behold from heaven.
The Torah, or the Hebrew Bible, is the cornerstone of the Jewish religion and law.
This “Torah of Moses” came to be known in Greek as the “five-volumed book,” which we know in English as the Pentateuch.
The Torah consists of five books – Bereshit, Shemot, Vayikra, Bamidbar and Devarim – which correspond to the first five books of the Christian Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The books describe the origin of mankind in the Garden of Eden and the early leaders of the tribe of Israel, including Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
It describes the escape from Egypt to Mount Sinai; the delivery of the Torah, including the Ten Commandments and other instructions; and the punishment for not obeying them. The Torah concludes with the death of Moses and the entry of the Israelites into Canaan, the land promised to them by God.
The Torah encompasses the whole of the Hebrew Bible (the body of scripture known to non-Jews as the Old Testament and to Jews as the Tanakh or Written Torah), together with the Talmud (Oral Law).
An ever-expanding source of intellectual and emotional insight, the Written Torah provides knowledge to those who study it, and leads to a solid relationship with God for those who take it to heart and make it their own.
The Hebrew Bible as it appears in our texts today is an anthology of thirty-nine books, reckoned as twenty-two, written for the most part in Hebrew, a little of it in Aramaic. (The uncanonized apocryphal sections are in Greek as well as Hebrew.)
There is hardly any doubt that these books were written over a time stretching more than a thousand years. A much larger segment than commonly supposed is written in poetic and aphoristic form. In this sense the Torah is to be considered one of the world's greatest collections of pure literature.
Basically it contains five types of material:
(1) The legendary tales, frequently influencing faraway Asian story writers, as in India and Persia;
(2) The historical books (of remarkable accuracy, as shown by recent archaeological findings);
(3) The ritualistic codes with their 613 commandments and prohibitions as to diet, habitat, marriage, prayer service, sacrifices and legal procedure;
(4) The prophetic sermons on current political and social issues;
(5) The philosophical and poetical works.
The Torah is still transcribed by hand onto scrolls. Tradition demands strict accuracy of the 304,805 Hebrew characters that make it up.
It is a painstaking process, a work of profound faith and calligraphic art, executed according to precise rules of style and lettering, which can take eighteen months to complete.
It is a requirement of Judaism that every Jew own such a copy of the Torah. For at least two thousand years Jews have heard or spoken the same prescribed passage of the Torah on the same day in a year-long cycle of readings.
The Torah not only embodies the tenets of the Jewish religion but emphasizes its ancient tradition. It is, with Hinduism and Zoroastrianism, one of the oldest systems of principle in the world, and the Torah is its book.
I read it again.
Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.
Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.
We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.
Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied.
Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.
Thou hast made us as the off-scouring and refuse in the midst of the people.
All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.
Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.
Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission,
Till the Lord look down, and behold from heaven.
The Torah, or the Hebrew Bible, is the cornerstone of the Jewish religion and law.
This “Torah of Moses” came to be known in Greek as the “five-volumed book,” which we know in English as the Pentateuch.
The Torah consists of five books – Bereshit, Shemot, Vayikra, Bamidbar and Devarim – which correspond to the first five books of the Christian Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The books describe the origin of mankind in the Garden of Eden and the early leaders of the tribe of Israel, including Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
It describes the escape from Egypt to Mount Sinai; the delivery of the Torah, including the Ten Commandments and other instructions; and the punishment for not obeying them. The Torah concludes with the death of Moses and the entry of the Israelites into Canaan, the land promised to them by God.
The Torah encompasses the whole of the Hebrew Bible (the body of scripture known to non-Jews as the Old Testament and to Jews as the Tanakh or Written Torah), together with the Talmud (Oral Law).
An ever-expanding source of intellectual and emotional insight, the Written Torah provides knowledge to those who study it, and leads to a solid relationship with God for those who take it to heart and make it their own.
The Hebrew Bible as it appears in our texts today is an anthology of thirty-nine books, reckoned as twenty-two, written for the most part in Hebrew, a little of it in Aramaic. (The uncanonized apocryphal sections are in Greek as well as Hebrew.)
There is hardly any doubt that these books were written over a time stretching more than a thousand years. A much larger segment than commonly supposed is written in poetic and aphoristic form. In this sense the Torah is to be considered one of the world's greatest collections of pure literature.
Basically it contains five types of material:
(1) The legendary tales, frequently influencing faraway Asian story writers, as in India and Persia;
(2) The historical books (of remarkable accuracy, as shown by recent archaeological findings);
(3) The ritualistic codes with their 613 commandments and prohibitions as to diet, habitat, marriage, prayer service, sacrifices and legal procedure;
(4) The prophetic sermons on current political and social issues;
(5) The philosophical and poetical works.
The Torah is still transcribed by hand onto scrolls. Tradition demands strict accuracy of the 304,805 Hebrew characters that make it up.
It is a painstaking process, a work of profound faith and calligraphic art, executed according to precise rules of style and lettering, which can take eighteen months to complete.
It is a requirement of Judaism that every Jew own such a copy of the Torah. For at least two thousand years Jews have heard or spoken the same prescribed passage of the Torah on the same day in a year-long cycle of readings.
The Torah not only embodies the tenets of the Jewish religion but emphasizes its ancient tradition. It is, with Hinduism and Zoroastrianism, one of the oldest systems of principle in the world, and the Torah is its book.
I read it again.
Read
February 17, 2008Recently a friend asked me if I ever skimmed when reading a book; I have to say that the book of Numbers really demands some skimming! I think you'd have to be so devoted to the sacredness of scripture to read every word in the Torah that you could compete with an Orthodox rabbi. Having naturally read these five books as part of the OT before, I thought it would be fun to read a self-contained translation of these scriptures as the Jewish Torah - sort of a companion to the Koran or the Gospels. There are many things I just did not remember: stories like Balaam's talking ass and the bloodshed required by God of the wandering tribe. It's impossible to rate it, because it's too important and fundamental (and holy) a book for that sort of evaluation. The hardest thing for me as a Christian to understand is, how could God be understood as the One who gives the command to slaughter whole peoples to provide the Chosen with a place to stay? How could God enjoin them to enslave women and children? It is a view of the Almighty we don't like to think about, but I don't see how to get around it.
February 2, 2017
this has seriously become my most worn-out resource for preparing sermons on my shelf! Generally, I use the computer Bibles to prepare sermons, but whenever I am getting into the first five books, I take the time to go out and sit and soak up this book for the passage I'm using. It often captures the Hebrew poetry and gives many new insights.
I occasionally disagree with this choice of words, and occasionally he misses things that I would think are important, so 4.5. This book is a tremendous thing to read to your children for devotions because it will get them pronouncing names in Hebrew.
I occasionally disagree with this choice of words, and occasionally he misses things that I would think are important, so 4.5. This book is a tremendous thing to read to your children for devotions because it will get them pronouncing names in Hebrew.
January 8, 2013
I was going to add 'The Bible.' But then it came to which one. If you don't know, the Torah is the Old Testament and the common ground for Judeo-Christian-Muslim world.
Simply put, it's the greatest story ever told. And it is retold on a weekly basis in synogogues and churches, and mosques around the world. It is the moral compass used to teach ethics. It is the foundation for our value system. The impact of this book is immeasurable and incomprehensible. Yet it is profoundly felt by all, whether believer or not.
Simply put, it's the greatest story ever told. And it is retold on a weekly basis in synogogues and churches, and mosques around the world. It is the moral compass used to teach ethics. It is the foundation for our value system. The impact of this book is immeasurable and incomprehensible. Yet it is profoundly felt by all, whether believer or not.
July 23, 2014
Everything is G-dliness, G-dliness is Everything.
G-d created the world from the Letters of the Torah.
If you want to know what is happening in the world this day ... read the Torah parsha for this day, the day is woven from the Torah portion.
Such insight to what we are experiencing every day.
G-d created the world from the Letters of the Torah.
If you want to know what is happening in the world this day ... read the Torah parsha for this day, the day is woven from the Torah portion.
Such insight to what we are experiencing every day.
February 20, 2008
For all of you that think you know your bible. Don't take it for granted - really take the time to read this.
Read
March 30, 2011I read the Torah. It was good. Cannot give a rating because Adonai is watching me!!
September 14, 2017
A waste of time, a book telling boring, unreliable stories.
July 7, 2020
Boring, mainly because its a poor translation
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