What is the Torah?
By Anakata2007
@Anakata2007 (1785)
Canada
April 19, 2007 10:45pm CST
I heard that it is the first four books of the Bible - Genesis, Deuteronomy and ? and ? and that it also has other writings from ancient Jewish elders who included specific ways to follow God's laws. Am I correct?
4 responses
@SEOGUY (906)
• United States
20 Apr 07
You are correct the writings were the law. It was a theocricy at first with the priest or "judjes" as rulers, There wre laws on everything. And the point was realy a picture image on how to live rightous, however it was impossible to keep the laws. When Peole talk about Jesus not sinning, They do not understand that it means he kept the law, or torah, compleatly. So if you were to read the torah or the first four books of the bible and keep saying jesus kept this law, you will come to a marvalous descovery about him becouse you can't then say well he didn't keep this one.
@Anakata2007 (1785)
• Canada
21 Apr 07
thats interesting. How do you know so much? Are you jewish? Have you read the Torah? I got the impression that the jewish elders who followed the Torah thought that Jesus was breaking all their laws, by "working" on the Sabbath, and going into the homes of tax collectors, etc. As for me, I'm not jewish, but I'm not a christian. I do believe that Jesus was the son of God though. I'm just not sure how to become a Christian, but this is a topic for another discussion.
@SEOGUY (906)
• United States
22 Apr 07
Yeah it's funny they accused Jesus,(Yeshua) of working on the Sabath (Shabot) becoused he healed a man. Interesting they didn't know how to refuditate a miricle so they attaked him for doing it on Shabot. While it is also law that you may not travle more than a certain distance from their house, the Pharcies would take things from their house and place them every so many feet, so that they could justify being further away from their house than the law provided. This was why Yeshua said you swallow a camle and strain at a nat. Like wise they were very strict with the jews while they looked for loopholes in the laws for themself. "the words from your lips flatter me but your heart is far from me. And your other reader is correct, it is Five books, and is devided between the law the sacread writings and prophicy. The Talmud is a colection of leters and descusions (comentary) from the Rabin elders and leaders, about the law, and does also mention Yesuah, People who may want proof of his existanse outside the bible may want to go to the libray and comb the volumes of the Talmud, Ofcourse it does not claim his divenity but does discuss some of his teachings.
@JennyLeah (190)
• United States
20 Apr 07
The word Torah in Hebrew more or less means "teachings" or "instructions". More loosely, it can mean "law" which makes sense because these books were, essentially, the constitution of the nation of Israel back in the days of Moses (and continues to be today).
It has many parts - there is the written law, or the Sefer Torah, which is actually the first five books of the Bible (not four), including Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. It also includes the Oral Law which is the authoritative Jewish religious teachings throughout history, most notably including the Mishnah, the Talmud, and the Midrash. There are others, but these are the biggies.
Collectively these are referred to as halacha, which translates loosely to "Jewish law," although it's more accurate to say it's "the way of walking" as a Jew.
@xParanoiax (6987)
• United States
21 Apr 07
I vaguely remember reading somewhere about the word 'torah', I thought it was related to one of the Egyptian deities, as well as one of the root words for the word "Tarot"..but my memory's kinda fuzzy, so who knows..maybe I'm wrong.
If I'm right though..that's a funny coincidence, isn't it..hm..
@Alinabrandon (53)
•
22 Jun 08
Yes you are right. I am jewish italian. For all christians, you guys have the bible. We have the torah, which we read every friday night and saturday during the day as for religious jews, they don't use electricity or money on friday and saturday.
Hope this helped.
