(Hebrew. ‘Teaching’) The teaching of *God to the *Jews. The term ‘Torah’ is used in several ways. Firstly it can refer to the *Pentateuch, the five books of Moses (see *TANAKH). It can mean all the laws on a particular subject; it can mean the total of all Jewish law, both *Written and *Oral. Although the *sages taught that *Moses received the Torah from God on Mount *Sinai (see *TORAH MISINAI), they also taught that the Torah was pre-existent to the *Creation of the World.
The philosopher *Philo identified it with the divine logos and Rav Hoshaiah equated it with the *Wisdom discussed in the Book of *Proverbs. Rabbi *Hillel summarized the entire Torah by saying ‘What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow’. According to the Book of *Deuteronomy, Ch. 33, the purpose of Torah was to make the *Israelites a holy nation and a kingdom of *priests. One of *Maimonides’ *thirteen principles was that the Torah was given in its entirety to *Moses and it can never be changed. The *Orthodox still insist on the absolute authority of both the Written and Oral Law; the *Karaites however rejected the validity of the Oral Law and *Progressive Jews, who accept the findings of *biblical criticism, (see *DOCUMENTARY HYPOTHESIS) tend to distinguish between the moral and the ritual law. The *synagogue *liturgy emphasizes the joy and sweetness in keeping the Torah.
This is the complete article, containing 235 words
(approx. 1 page at 300 words per page).
