Torah

"Torah," from the Hebrew root YRH ("teach"), has had a variety of meanings in the history of Judaism. In biblical contexts, "torah" meant simply "the teaching/law of so-and-so" (e.g., see Joshua 24:26) or "the law of such-and-such" (as at Leviticus 14:2). Later Torah came to refer in particular to the Torah of Moses (Genesis through Deuteronomy). But "Torah" had far broader meanings for certain Jewish groups, and for the rabbis, the term came to refer to any teaching accepted within the canonical rabbinic tradition. In fact, the rabbis claimed that two Torahs were revealed at Sinai—one written (the entire Hebrew Bible) and one "oral" (rabbinic teachings). When the rabbis spoke of the obligation to study Torah, they meant study of either.

In our age, "Torah" is used primarily to refer to the Five Books of Moses (the Pentateuch). Because this Torah is the first part of the Bible, Christian or Jewish, it is read and taught as scripture throughout the United States and beyond. However, in Christian tradition the Torah is part of the "Old Testament," yielding privilege of place to the New Testament. Furthermore, Paul's insistence on reading the commandments of the Torah allegorically, preferring their spiritual to their literal meanings, meant that, in Christianity, the extensive legal portions of the Torah are distinctly less significant. Hence, in Christianity the Torah has a secondary status. By contrast, in Judaism it is primary, and for many contemporary Jews, the Torah is the only part of the Hebrew Bible they have ever read.

In the late twentieth century, study of Torah among Jewish adults is an increasingly common phenomenon—an expression of renewed concern for Jewish continuity. For many Jews, though, the Torah scroll remains more a symbol than a source of instruction—an emblem of Jewish history, identity, and contributions to world culture.

See alsoBible; Judaism; Judeo-Christian Tradition.

Bibliography

Holtz, Barry, ed. BacktotheSources. 1984.

Neusner, Jacob. Torah:FromScroll to Symbolin FormativeJudaism. 1985.

David Kraemer