Terminology
Topic A:
How is the Torah divided?
The five books are subdivided into 54 smaller literary units called
a Parashah (Parashiyot, pl.), usually 3-6 chapters in length.
(VaYelech, Deut. 31 is the shortest parashah with 30 verses.)
The name of each Parashah comes from the first (important) word
just like the Hebrew name of the book. Typically, every Shabbat,
one parashah is read - in sequence - so in a year, the entire
Torah is read. Occasionally, two parashiyot are read, and when
holidays fall on Shabbat, additional readings that are out of
sequence are added as well.
The name of the Parashah also lends itself to that Shabbat (and the coming week), so each week has a 'name,' such as Shabbat Toledot, or Shabbat Yitro. You can find out what Parashah is being read this week (or any week) by using a Jewish Calendar. You can find Jewish Calendars on the Internet that list holiday dates, and here is a page that generates the Parasha for any month (or year).
The weekly readings can be seen in a chart. Some synagogues follow a triennial cycle, dividing each Parasha into thirds, so that it takes three years to complete reading the entire Torah.
What is the difference between Torah and Tanach?
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The word Bible (from the Greek, Biblia) means The Book (or books!). Actually, as we will see in topic D, the Bible is actually a library of books. Surprisingly, there is no word for 'Bible' as such in Hebrew! The word Tanach is actually an acronym, (like SCUBA, (who knows what SCUBA stands for?) or RADAR), that stands for Torah, Nevi'im (Prophets), and Ketuvim (Writings). After the Torah reading, a small portion from 'Nevi'im' is read, called the Haftarah. Unlike the Torah portions that are read sequentially, the Haftarah is a passage chosen by the Rabbis (of the Talmud) that in some way relates to the Torah reading. There is a word, Mikra, (from Reading) that would be like the English word: Scripture (from Writing), that has the sense of 'Holy Writ.' |
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So, to summarize: All of the Torah is in the Tanach (or Bible) but not all of the Tanach is in the Torah. To give some examples: The books of Isaiah, Psalms or Esther are in the Bible, but not in the Torah!
Why do Jews not use the term 'Old Testament?
The Tanach, or Hebrew Scriptures (from the root: script meaning
writing) is NOT the same as the Old Testament. The Old Testament
is a Christian term. The term 'Old Testament' implies a 'New Testament'
so it is commonly not used by Jews. But there are also important
differences between the two besides semantics. Chapter divisions
were a Christian innovation, and while Jewish Bibles have adopted
these Christian divisions, they do not always agree with Jewish
literary divisions. Even the way the Ten Commandments are divided
is different.
The books of the Bible are in a different order in the Christian
Old Testament and in the Jewish Bible. For example, the book of
Ruth is placed immediately after Judges in the Christian Bible,
(for chronological reasons) but in the Tanach in Writings as part
of the Five Scrolls (Megillot). The book of Daniel is considered
a prophet in the Christian Bible, but is in the Historical Writings
in the Tanach.
Finally, the Christian Bible includes several books in the Old
Testament that are not part of Tanach (such as the books of Judith,
Tobith and Maccabbees). These (later) books that are not considered
part of the Jewish canon are termed apocrypha.
What is the Oral Torah?
Now for the confusing part: (Be sure to read this)
While Torah can mean the five books of Moses, there is a much
wider meaning as well. What we would call culturally transmitted
ideas and practices, in ancient times was 'oral Torah.' Since
society changed much less rapidly than today, and valued the past
more, greater stock was placed in old traditions. Rabbinic tradition
refered to the written Bible as 'Torah Shebikhtav,' (often translated as the Written Law, or Written Tradition)
to distinguish it from 'Torah Sheb'al Peh,' the Oral tradition, or Oral Teaching.
The written Torah needs to be interpreted because it lacks many details for putting the laws into practice. For example, Deuteronomy mentions a 'sefer keritut' [a writ of divorce] required for a divorce, but nowhere hints at what might be in it. Surely the scribes of the times knew from tradition what this document contained. Or what, for example, constitutes the 'work' that is prohibited on Shabbat? At first interpretations were probably understood from established practice and legal precedents. In time, this material grew, as laws continued to adapt to changing conditions. This is the very nature of an oral tradition - being transmitted orally, it is not immutable and fossilized but alive and evolving.
As different interpretations and traditions developed, the rabbis faced the need to relate these independent 'oral' traditions to the written text. This was necessary both to respond to challenges from alternative, sectarian claims as well as to attest to the authority of the transmitted tradition. Just as the Oral Torah depends on the Written Torah, there can be no real existence for the Written Torah without an Oral tradition.
Initially, this growing oral tradition was indeed transmitted orally, and there was a reluctance to writing it down. Eventually, though, it was necessary to transcribe and codify this material, or it would have been forgotten. It was the Rabbis of the first and second centuries responsible for this first layer of 'Oral Torah,' known as the 'Mishnah,' (literally Recitation, or Recapitulation). While the Mishnah appears to systematize Jewish custom and law into a coherent legal system, it is not strictly a legal code, as it contains non-legal material, unresolved disputes and technical terms that are often assumed to be understood.
This newly compiled 'Oral Torah' itself now became the focus of oral discussions (Gemara, meaning learning), which, like the Mishnah, eventually were transcribed. The Gemara and the Mishnah are combined together in a 63 volume work called the Talmud (also from a root that means 'learning.' Do you get a sense of a pattern here?).
In the wonderful volume, Back to the Sources, (ed. Barry Holtz), he explains in the introduction, that all of Jewish literature can be seen as a kind of inverted pyramid, with Torah at its apex. Everything emanates from Torah.
"To the contemporary reader the Jewish textual tradition is unusual in that virtually all of it is based on the single originating pint of the inverted pyramid, the Bible. In that sense Jewish literature is strikingly unique: it is creative, original, and vibrant, and yet it presents itself as nothing more than interpretation, a vast set of glosses on the one true Book, the Torah."
Back to the Sources, (ed.) Barry Holtz, Summit Books, NY, 1984, pg. 13
Holtz continues to explain (quoting the scholar G. Scholem), that the Rabbis understood Torah as perfect Truth. Truth, therefore, only needed to be transmitted, and perhaps re-understood. The scholar may 're-discover' truth that was always there. All learning then is seen as a kind of commentary.
The point of all this is to explain that Oral Torah is not seen a separate work, but indeed like its name suggests, part of Torah itself. The Written Bible (i.e. the Tanach), (called 'Torah she-bikhtav') to distinguish it from the 'Oral Teaching (or Torah she'be'al peh) is sometimes referred to as simply 'Torah.' Torah can also mean 'learning' and as such can be used as a synonym for the entire Hebrew Bible, (which includes much more than these 5 books) or the entirety of Jewish literature! In fact, the totality of Jewish learning is termed Torah. The Rabbis of the Talmud, medieval commentaries, even today's scholars are all contributing to this 'Torah.' And in fact, what we are doing right now is all part of a greater 'Torah.'
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