Contents
- Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 14: Simony-Tournon
- New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge [Dictionary edition]
« Hugh Tootell | Torah | Francesco Torbido » |
Torah
Torah
I. USE OF WORD
Torah,
(cf. Hiph. of
), signifies first
"direction, instruction", as, for instance, the instruction of parents
(Prov., i, 8), or of the wise (Prov., iii, 1). It is used chiefly in
reference to the Divine instruction, especially through the revelation
to Moses, the "Law", and to the teaching of the Prophets concerning the
will of God. In the sense of law "Torah" refers only to the Divine
laws. "Torah" is applied to the books containing the teaching of the
Mosaic revelation and the Law, that is, the Pentateuch. In Jewish
theology Torah signifies, first, the totality of Jewish doctrine,
whether taken as a basis for religious knowledge and conduct, or as a
basis for study. The body of Biblical writings, especially the
Pentateuch, being the source of religious teaching and law, the term
"Torah" is applied also to the entire Scriptures (cf. Blau, "Zur
Einleitung in die hl. Schrift", Budapest, 1894, 16 sq.), or to passages
from the Prophets and the Hagiographa, for instance, "Ab. zara", 17a,
in reference to Prov., v, 8, and "Sanh." 91b, in connexion with Ps.
lxxxiv, 5. The expression, however, generlly signifies the Pentateuch.
In passages like
("the Scriptures
[Torah] consist of three parts, Torah, Prophets, and Hagiographa"
[Midrash Tanchuma to Ex., xix, 1]) "Torah" is used in two
senses–one general, meaning the whole Scriptures, the other
special, signifying the Pentateuch. Elsewhere (Siphre to 32, 13-135b
24) the Torah is plainly distinguished from the non-Pentateuchal books
by the comparison of
miqra
(
) and Torah. Besides
the "written" Torah,
, the Judaism which
holds to tradition speaks of an "oral" Torah,
, the commentaries and
the ordinances which put into effect the laws contained in the
Pentateuch. This oral Torah, it is claimed, was revealed to Moses and
has been preserved in Israel by tradition (see Talmud.)
II. TORAH IN THE RESTRICTED SENSE OF PENTATEUCH
The Torah relates the preparatory measures for and the establishment
of the Old-Testament theocracy, and contains the institutions and laws
in which this theocracy found its visible expression. The old Testament
itself calls the entire work after its main contents
(ha)
tora or
sefer
(),
ha-tora, that is, "the book of the Torah", as in II Esd. viii,
2; to emphasize its Divine origin it is called
torath Yahwe, sefer torath Yahwe (I Esd., vii, 10; I Par., xvi,
40; II Esd., viii, 8), and
sefer torath Yahwe Elohim (II Esd. ix, 3); while
sefer torath Moshe (II Esd., viii, 1),
sefer Moshe (I Esd., vi, 18; II Esd., xiii, 1; II Par., xxv, 4;
xxxv, 12) indicate its author. The Talmud and later Jewish writings
call the Pentateuch
sefer (ha) tora; the name is always used if the whole work were
written as a scroll
(megilla) for use in the Divine service. If the work is written
in five scrolls or in book form it is called
h
amisha hum
eshe (ha)tora
(
), "the five- fifths of
the law". This division into five parts is old, and in the time of
Nehemias served as a model for the division of the Psalter into five
books. The Jews generally named the individual books after the first
word: (1)
b
ereshith,
; (2)
sh
emath or
w
e’elle sh
emoth,
or
; (3)
wayyiqra,
; (4)
b
emidbar or
wayy
edabber,
,
; (5)
d
ebarim or
’elle had
ebarim,
(cf. as early a writer
as Origen on Ps. 1:
Bresith, O’, O’uikra, ’Elle ‘addebarim).
There are also names indicating the main contents of the books given to
Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy:
torah koh
anim,
, "law of the priests",
for instance in "Meg.", iii, 6;
homesh ha-piqqudim,
, "the fifth of the
numberings", as in "Yoma", vii, 1,
mishne tora
(
), i. e., Deuteronomy,
as in Masorah to Deut., xvii, 18. On the other hand
sefer yeçira,
, "book of the
Creation", in Sanh., 62
b, and
n
eziqin,
, "injuries", Masorah
to Gen., xxiv, 8, are not to be applied, as is often done, to Genesis
and Exodus; they refer only to the account of the Creation and to Ex.,
xxi, 22.
Another method of division is that by which the paragraphs, or
parashiyyoth
(, sing.
), are indicated in the
scrolls of the Torah used in the synagogues. In the older Midrashim
these divisions are called
parashiyyoth p
ethuhoth,
, "open
parashiyyoth"; or
parashiyyoth s
ethumoth,
, "closed
parashiyyoth". In the former, the portion of the line following
the last word is left blank; in the latter the termination of the
paragraph is indicated by leaving only part of the line blank. Such
paragraphs are called "small
parashiyyoth" and they are generally indicated in the printed
editions of the Bible by
or
. The Pentateuch has
altogether 290 open and 379 closed parashiyyoth. In quoting they are
generally called after main contents (as
Baba bathra 14a:
that is, Num., xxii,
2-xxiv, 25), but sometimes after the first words (as
Ta'anith iv, 3, the first six
parashiyyoth of Genesis). The
parashiyyoth are regarded as the arrangement of the divisions of
the Pentateuch according to contents; but the basis of the distinction
between open and closed
parashiyyoth is not known with certainty.
Another division of the Torah is connected with the reading of
lessons read in the synagogue on the Sabbath, a practice referred to in
Acts, xv, 21,
’ek geneôn ’archaíon as being ancient (cf.
also Josephus, "Contra Apion.", II, xvii). It was customary in
Palestine to have a three years' cycle of these lessons (Meg., 29
b); some writers say there was also a cycle of three years
and a half. The Pentateuch, therefore, was divided into 154-175
sections or
s
edarim
(, sing.
). These
s
edarim though not indicated in our Bibles, are important
for understanding the structure of the old Midrashim (cf. Büchler,
"The Reading of the Law and Prophets in a Triennial Cycle" in "Jew.
Quart. Rev.", V, 420 sqq., VI, 1 sqq., VIII, 528 sq.). In the course of
time an annual cycle, which first acquired authority among the
Babylonian Jews, and is now accepted by nearly all Jewish communities,
was adopted. Maimonides (Hilhoth Tephilla, XIII, 1) calls it the
prevailing custom of his era (twelfth century), but says that some read
the Pentateuch in three years, which, according to Benjamin of Tudela,
was the practice about 1170 among scattered communities in Egypt (cf.
Jew. Quart. Rev., V, 420). In this one-year cycle the Pentateuch is
divided into fifty-four Sabbath lessons generally called large
parashiyyoth. A Jewish intercalary year consisting of thirteen
lunar months contains fifty-three sabbaths, and the final section is
always read on the day of the "joy of the Law"
(
), that is, the ninth
day after the feast of booths (twenty-third day of
Tishri). In ordinary years, when there are forty-seven sabbaths,
two
parashiyyoth are joined on each of seven sabbaths in order to
complete the number. In Genesis there are twelve sabbath
parashiyyoth, in Exodus eleven, in Leviticus and Numbers ten
each, and in Deuteronomy eleven. They are named from and quoted by the
first words. In the printed editions of the Bible they are indicated,
as they are also the opening words the open or closed
parashiyyoth, by
or
, with exception of the
twelfth lesson, at the beginning of which (Gen., xlvii, 28) only the
breadth of a letter should remain blank. Concerning the distribution of
the fifty-four
parashiyyoth for the year, cf. Loeb, "Rev. des études
juives", VI, 250 sqq.; Derenbourg, ibid., VII, 146 sqq.; Schmid,
"Überverschiedene Einteilungen der hl. Schrift" (Graz, 1892), 4
sqq.
The Old Synagogue and the Talmud firmly maintain the Mosaic authorship of the Torah, but doubts are entertained regarding a number of passages. In "Baba bathra" 15 e only the last eight verses of Deuteronomy, which speak of the death and burial of Moses, are assigned to another author. On the other hand Simeon (loc. cit.) teaches, referring to Deut., xxxi, 26, that these verses were also written by Moses under Divine direction (cf. also Josephus, "Antiq Jud.", IV, viii, 48). During the Middle Ages doubts were exprerssed as to the possibility of Moses writing certain sentences; for instance, by Rabbi Yishaq (to Gen., xxxvi, 11) who was opposed by Aben Ezra, and as well by Aben Ezra himself (to Gen., xii, 6; Ex., xxv, 4; Deut., i, 1; xxxi, 22). Taken altogether, even in the succeeding period the belief in the Mosaic authorship remained undisputed, at least by the orthodox Jews. They hold, moreover, the Divine origin of the entire Torah, and the eighth of the thirteen articles of faith formulated by Maimonides and incorporated into the prayer-book reads: "I believe with full faith that the entire Torah as it is in our hands is the one which was given to our teacher Moses, to whom be peace." (See Pentateuch .)
F. SCHÜHLEIN.
« Hugh Tootell | Torah | Francesco Torbido » |