Torah History - Research Paper Example

?Torah History Introduction Nearly, all religions have a history and every one can envision how such faiths started. At least one or two people have a revelation and persuade others to follow them, integrity of such belief resting on the credibility of the leaders. This is so for Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, and other recent cults. For Judaism, this is not the case. The only claim that exists to explain the history of Torah is a declaration by God thousands of years ago (Telushkin, 2008). This is so because Jews ignored, and distorted their past while in exile to explain the new ideas of enlightenment and patriotism of the 20th and 19th century. This paper discusses the probable history of Torah, a holy book of the Jews. In Hebrew, Torah means to demonstrate belief or decree. In general, terms “Torah” means Judaism written law and oral law. Torah first originated with Moses when God first spoke to him from the mount of Sinai, 50 days after their escape from Egyptian slavery. Jewish tradition believed that the book was dedicated to Moses except the last eight verses of Deuteronomy that talks of Moses death. According to Telushkin (2008), Torah shows how God wants Jews to live, and it contains 613 commandments that guide Jews way of life. Torah is written in Jewish language, which is the oldest Jewish language. It consists of the first five books of the Jewish bible also called the Pentateuch. However, some scholars believe that Torah has multiple authors, and it is a blend of four separate sources. It is believed that it was written in the 450 BCE and its sources include the Jahwist, Elohist, the Deutronomist and the priestly source. There is no deduction for this since many other authors have come up with their hypothesis of the evolution of Torah with no one consensus reached for it (Telushkin, 2008). Another theory of the history of Torah states that, after Moses receiving of Torah from God, it was destroyed in 6 BC at the time of the sack of Bait-ul-Maqdas. Other scriptures of earlier prophets were destroyed, as well. After Israel’s liberation from Babylonians captivity, Prophet Ezra together with others prepared a biography of Moses together with the history of Israel. They incorporated the teachings of Torah and places as they could remember. Between fourth and second BC unknown authors came up and wrote about some prophets who had preceded them in many centuries. For instance, the book of Psalms, Jonah and Proverbs could not connect to the prophets they ascribed. Thus, the oldest part of Manual dates back 916 AD. In the second century Ad, some Jewish leaders incorporated all the materials they could find and prepared a Jewish bible. The Jewish oral laws remained unwritten until the third century Ad when Yahudah committed them into writing with a title “Mishnah.” Jews believed that together with the Torah Moses received from God as written law, he received some unwritten law that Jews needed to move from generation to generation. They called it Torah She bal Pei or Torah from the mouth. In Hebrew language, Pei numerically stands for 80 years, which is the age that Moses was when he led the Jews out of slavery. Torah from the mouth helped Jews to understand the method to observe the written law. According to Rhodes Jewish Museum, the oldest written Torah is about 800 years old. A comparison of the oldest Torah in the world with the current Torah reveals the following differences. First, the 800 year-old Torah has 45 lines per column while the present Torah has 42 lines per column. Secondly, the 800 year-old Torah consists of elongated letters while in the present Torah only certain letters are elongated. Thirdly, the 800 year-old Torah was written using an clear style that was last used about 400 years ago called “Petuhot.” Current Torahs use closed system between words called “stumot.” Fourthly, the primordial Torah has the word “yud” with an extra point or protrusion, which is absent in the current Torah, (Rhodes Jewish Museum, 2012). To establish a Torah, one needed to prepare several skins of animals, dry them, and then start ascribing letters on the dry skins. This is how the oldest Torah was constructed. The process of preparation of the skin to the last letters would take about 1 year and six months. The writer needed to operate the writing with great care because a single mistake would lender the whole scroll useless. An entire scroll was called a Sefer Torah, which means a book in Hebrew and contained approximately 304,805 words. A Sefer Torah is a holy book that is held is such high regard that if it happens to fall while in use in the synagogue, the whole congregation would fast for forty days. Over the years, Jews had to suffer tyranny in order to protect Torah (Telushkin, 2008) Torah could serve different purposes. Jewish congregants would read Portions of the Torah scroll three times each week. That is on Mondays, Thursdays, and during the Sabbath. The reading on Sabbath was much longer than the weekday’s readings. In the course, of the year that started after autumn festival, the whole scroll of Torah would be covered. A portion of a reading (parshioth), composed of three to five chapters in length. Usually, an ancient song was used to sing the piece other than being spoken. A religious leader called Rabi was trained to perform this job and occasionally would a person who is not a Rabi read the scroll (BBC, 2012) Conclusion Torah is a holy book of the Jews that contained 613 commandments that guided Jewish way of life. The oldest Torah dates back 800 years-ago. Jews believe that Torah was first given to Moses 50 days after their escape from Egyptians slavery and together with it Moses received some unwritten laws. The oral laws help the Jews in the observance of the written laws and they pass them from generation to the other through the word of the mouth. This happened until the second century AD when it was committed into writing. Other scholars have come up with other theories of the history of Torah, which leaves an indeterminate evidence of Torah’s origin. References BBC. (2012). “What is the Torah?” Retrieved From, http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/judaism/texts/Torah.shtml Rhodes Jewish Museum (2012) “800 year-old Torah” Retrieved From, http://www.rhodesjewishmuseum.org/history/the-800-year-old-Torah Telushkin, J. (2008). Jewish Literacy Revised Ed: The Most Important Things to Know About the Jewish Religion, Its People, and Its History, USA, Harper Collins. Read More