Essential Torah: A Complete Guide to the Five Books of Moses - Hardcover

Robinson, George

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805241868 ISBN 13: 9780805241860

Verlag: Schocken, 2006

Inhaltsangabe

Whether you are studying the Bible for the first time or you're simply curious about its history and contents, you will find everything you need in this "accessible, well-written handbook to Jewish belief as set forth in the Torah" (The Jerusalem Post).

George Robinson, author of the acclaimed Essential Judaism, begins by recounting the various theories of the origins of the Torah and goes on to explain its importance as the core element in Jewish belief and practice. He discusses the basics of Jewish theology and Jewish history as they are derived from the Torah, and he outlines how the Dead Sea Scrolls and other archaeological discoveries have enhanced our understanding of the Bible. He introduces us to the vast literature of biblical commentary, chronicles the evolution of the Torah’s place in the synagogue service, offers an illuminating discussion of women and the Bible, and provides a study guide as a companion for individual or group Bible study. In the book’s centerpiece, Robinson summarizes all fifty-four portions that make up the Torah and gives us a brilliant distillation of two thousand years of biblical commentaries—from the rabbis of the Mishnah and the Talmud to medieval commentators such as Rashi, Maimonides, and ibn Ezra to contemporary scholars such as Nahum Sarna, Nechama Leibowitz, Robert Alter, and Everett Fox.

This extraordinary volume—which includes a listing of the Torah reading cycles, a Bible time line, glossaries of terms and biblical commentators, and a bibliography—will stand as the essential sourcebook on the Torah for years to come.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

GEORGE ROBINSON is the author of Essential Judaism: A Complete Guide to Beliefs, Customs, and Rituals. He is the film critic for the New York Jewish Week and is a contributor to the forthcoming revised edition of the Encyclopaedia Judaica. His writing appears frequently in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Newsday. He has received the Simon Rockower Award for excellence in Jewish journalism from the American Jewish Press Association. He lives in New York City.

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1

A TREE OF LIFE . . .

The Torah in Practice

It’s early morning, probably a Monday or a Thursday—a market day in ancient Jerusalem—and, although it is autumn, the weather is warm and dry. But then, the weather is usually warm and dry in Jerusalem in the month of Tishri. The year is 444 b.c.e., and most of the Jews gathering near one of the gates of the city have been back in Judah for only a few years. They have returned at last from galut/exile in Babylon at the behest of the great Persian kings: first Cyrus, who conquered Babylonia, and now his successor, Artaxerxes, ruler of the most formidable empire in the Middle East. It was Artaxerxes who sent the priest and scribe Ezra (a direct descendant of Moshe’s brother Aharon) back to Judah “to regulate Judah and Jerusalem according to the Law of your God, which is in your care” (Ezra 7:14). Now Ezra is going to fulfill that pledge.

Someone has erected a wooden tower at the square before Jerusalem’s Water Gate and the people have been gathering for some time, milling about, waiting to hear a man read from a document that they have all heard about but, in all probability, have neither read nor had read to them. Let an eyewitness tell what happens next.

All the people gathered themselves together as one man into the broad place that was before the water gate; and they spoke unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel. And Ezra the priest brought the Law before the congregation, both men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month. And he read therein before the broad place that was before the water gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women, and of those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the Law. . . .

And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people—for he was above all the people—and when he opened it, all the people stood up. And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God. And all the people answered: “Amen, Amen,” with the lifting up of their hands; and they bowed their heads, and fell down before the LORD with their faces to the ground. . . . And [the elders] read in the book, in the Law of God, distinctly; and they gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.

(Nekhemyah 8:1–3, 5–6, 8; 1917 Jewish Publication Society trans.)

Ezra read from the cool of first light that day into the blistering heat of midday. No one stirred from his place. The next day he did the same and the listeners were as rapt in their attention as before.

And so it began.

What is this book, this Law of Moshe, so powerful that the men and women who listened to it “fell down . . . with their faces to the ground” upon hearing it read aloud?

In a word, it is the Torah.

What Is the Torah?

The Torah, as contemporary Bible scholar James L. Kugel has written, is the “single term that might summon up the very essence of Judaism . . . [yet] it is an idea that defies easy summary.” As Kugel notes, the Hebrew word itself, torah, went through a complex evolution and is used in several quite disparate ways.

The first time the word occurs in the Hebrew Bible is in Shemot 12:49: “There shall be one Torah for [both] you and for the stranger that dwells in your midst.”

Teaching? Law? Each is used by translators. Each fits.

Like almost all Hebrew words, torah has a three-letter root, which it shares with the verb horah (a different word from the familiar circle dance of the same name, which is Roumanian in origin), meaning “teach.” (See “A Quick Introduction to the Hebrew Language,” page 7.) Literally, torah is a teaching.

This theory of the derivation of the word, while consistent with its uses and meanings, is not universally accepted. Philologists have long debated the origins of the word torah. Some have suggested that it is not derived from horah but is, rather, a formation influenced by other ancient Near Eastern words like the Akkadian tertu, meaning “oracle.” Another theory posits torah as a derivation from the Hebrew yarah, meaning “to cast,” as in lots that are used to predict the future.

Faced with this uncertainty, all we can do is focus on how the word’s usage evolved and what it has come to mean to us. As noted above, torah is often used to mean a teaching, law, or precept. For example, the rules governing Nazirites—men and women who dedicated periods of their lives to God by vowing to abstain from cutting their hair and consuming intoxicants, Samson being the most famous example—can be found in a section of B’midbar/6, which is often referred to as the torah of the Nazirite. Colloquially, a teaching by a contemporary rabbi may be called a torah, too.

For our purposes, the most salient meaning of the word torah is the Pentateuch (from the Greek meaning “five pieces”), that is, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. It is the first of the three scriptural divisions whose initials form the acronym that gives the Hebrew Bible its other name, TaNaKh (for Torah, Nevi’im/the Prophets, Ketuvim/the Writings). The Pentateuch is also called the Five Books of Moses for their putative author, and is often referred to as a Khumash, from the Hebrew word for “five.”

This is the meaning of torah that is most often encountered in popular Jewish writing and, for reasons that will become apparent shortly, the meaning with which most Jews are familiar.

The Pentateuch, or Torah, consists of:

1. Genesis/Bereishit, also called Sefer Ha’Yetzirah/the Book of Creation

2. Exodus/Shemot, also called Sefer Ha’Ge’ulah/the Book of Redemption

3. Leviticus/Vayikra, also called Torat Kohanim/Instructions of the Priests

4. Numbers/B’midbar, also called Khumash Ha’Pekudim/the Book of the Censuses

5. Deuteronomy/Devarim, also called Mishneh Torah/the Repetition of the Law

The Hebrew name of each book is derived from the first significant word of each book: Bereishit/Beginning, Shemot/Names, Vayikra/And He Called, B’midbar/In the Wilderness, and Devarim/Words. The commonly used names—Genesis and so on—are derived from Greek and reflect the content of the books. Bereishit recounts the Creation, the origins of humanity, and the origins of the Jewish people; Shemot tells the story of the departure of the Jews from bondage in Egypt, the Revelation on Mount Sinai, and the beginning of the Hebrews’ time in the desert; Vayikra is a compendium of laws; B’midbar continues the story of the Israelite wanderings in the desert, enumerates the twelve tribes, and sets down additional laws; and Devarim repeats the laws mentioned in the previous three books (hence its Greek name Deuteronomy, “second law”), prepares the Israelites for entry into the Promised Land, and ends with the death of Moshe.

As we will see throughout the remainder of this book, the Torah—the Pentateuch—is the heart of Judaism, whether one is Orthodox or Reform or anything in between. The “laws and precepts” on which Judaism—and by extension, Christianity and Islam—is based are to be found in the Torah.

But the meaning of the Torah is not transparent.

It’s actually anything but. The Torah is often frustratingly opaque, and to base one’s conduct on its prescriptions and proscriptions alone would be difficult at best. As time passed, the Jews moved farther away from the origins of this sacred text. Their language underwent the evolutionary changes...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Schocken
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2006
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0805241868
• ISBN 13: 9780805241860
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 624
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Schocken; https://agu.com/; ; Attn: Andrea T Sheridan 1745 BROADWAY; New York; NY; 10019; USA
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar