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Torah or Law

The Torah or Law is divided into five books, and is therefore called Pentateuch (Fivefold or Fivebook). The names of the five books are: (1) Genesis (Creation); (2) Exodus (departure, of the Israelites from Egypt); (3) Leviticus (on the laws concerning the Levites or priests), also called "law of the priests;" (4) Numbers; (5) Deuteronomy, a Greek term denoting "second-law" or "repetition of the law". These names are derived from the beginnings of the books. The Hebrew names are either the first word of the book, as is the case in the first and the third books, or the first characteristic word, as is the case in the other three books. The English or Greek names describe the subject-matter of the first section of the book. This applies also to the rest of the Biblical writings.

The Pentateuch, according to the Rabbis, contains 613 laws, including 248 commands, and 365 prohibitions; but whatever may be the number of the laws, however minutely they may be anatomized, or into whatever form they may be thrown, there is nowhere an allusion to the duty of prayer, or to the doctrine of a future life. The absence of the doctrine of a future life has been made familiar to English theologians by the author of "The Divine Legation of Moses;" and the fact is so undeniable, that it is needless to dwell upon it farther. The absence of any injunction to pray has not attracted equal attention, but seems to be almost equally certain.

The contents of the five books are as follows :—

Genesis The first book begins with the important lesson, the basis of all that is taught in the whole Bible: that God is the Creator of the whole universe. Then follows an account of the Creation, the history of the first man and the first woman, their transition from the state of innocence and happiness to the state of sin and toil, their descendants, the beginnings of industry and civilisation, the deterioration of mankind, the flood, Noah, and the succeeding generations to Abraham; the history of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or Israel; the immigration of Jacob with his family into Egypt; and with the death of Joseph, the son of Jacob, the book concludes. The book contains principally history, but mention is made also of some religious institutions. Reference is thus made to the institution of marriage (ii. 23—25); Sabbath (ii. I-3); the Covenant of Abraham or the commandment of circumcision (xvii. I —14); the prohibition of eating flesh cut off from an animal while alive (ix. 4,), of murder (ix. 5-6), and of eating "the sinew that shrank" (xxxii. 33).

Exodus The second book continues the history of the family of Jacob, the Israelites: their sojourn in Egypt, the Exodus, the journey to Mount Sinai, the Revelation, the erection of the Tabernacle, and the events in the camp of the Israelites during their stay in the wilderness of Sinai. The Divine precepts take a more prominent place in this book. Chief among these are the institution of the Jewish Calendar, appointing the month of Abib — Nisan — to be the first month (xii. 2); the Sacrifice of the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread (chap, xii.); the Sabbath (xvi. 22—30); the Decalogue (chap. xx. I —12); civil legislation (xxi. to xxiii.); the year of release (xxiii. 10, 11); and the festivals of pilgrimage to the sanctuary of the Lord; viz., Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles (xxiii 14-17).

Leviticus The third book contains the laws revealed daring the stay of the Israelites near Mount Sinai. A few historical incidents are mentioned in illustration of the Law. Leviticus contains the laws concerning the sacrifices (i. to vii.); the initiation of Aaron and his sons as priests (viii. to x.); dietary laws (xi.); laws about cleanness and uncleanness in man and woman (xii. to xv.); the Day of Atonement (xvi.); prohibition of blood (xvii. 10—14); marriage laws (xviii. and xx. 10—22); laws concerning the holiness of man (xix.); laws concerning the priests (xxi., xxii. 16) and sacrifices (xxii. 17—33); tne Festivals of the Lord (xxiii.); the year of release and the year of jubilee, and land-laws connected with these (xxv.); laws concerning the transfer of property to the sanctuary and the priests.

Numbers The fourth book records the departure of the Israelites from Mount Sinai, their journeyings until they came to the east of the Jordan in the plains of Moab; the chief incidents during these travels, viz., the consecration of the altar, and the instalment of the Levites as assistants to the priests in the performance of the Divine Service; the first appointment of a council of seventy elders; the punishment of Miriam for slander; the spies; the rebellion of Korah; death of Miriam; Moses and Aaron's sin at Meribah, and their punishment; death of Aaron; wars with Sihon and Og; the blessings of Bileam instead of his intended cursings; the zeal and distinction of Phineas; war against Midian; the appointment of Joshua as future leader of Israel. There is also in the book a list of all the stations where the Israelites had encamped during their travels through the Arabian desert (chap. xxxiii.), and a minute description of the boundaries of the land of Canaan (chap. xxxiv.). The following are the principal laws mentioned in Numbers: the laws concerning Nazirites; concerning a woman suspected of faithlessness against her husband ; the second Passover for those who could not fulfil their duty on the 14th of Nisan; the law of fringes; the law of purification of persons who have become unclean through contact with the dead body of any person (chap. xix.); the law of inheritance (xxvii:); the sacrifices for the festivals (xxviii., xxix.); the laws of vows (xxx.); laws concerning murder and cities of refuge (xxxv.).

DeuteronomyThe fifth book contains speeches of Moses which he addressed to the Israelites during the last year of his life, reminding them of their repeated disobedience to the Divine command, and their want of confidence in Him, and exhorting them to be faithful to God. He frequently emphasises the truth that blessing and happiness can only be obtained through obedience, trouble and curses being the certain result of sin and transgression. Chapter xxviii., called "exhortation" or "rebuke" (see also Lev. xxvi.), is especially devoted to this principle. In the song (chap, xxxii.) which all the people were to learn by heart, Moses rebukes his brethren for their ingratitude to God, and foretells them that, in the remote future, similar conduct will be visited severely, and that after a period of punishment God will show mercy to them, and again restore them to a state of happiness and glory. Before his death he gives a special blessing to each tribe. The book concludes with the death of Moses, the succession of Joshua, and the praise of Moses as the greatest of all prophets. Many of the commandments are repeated in the course of the exhortations: the Decalogue, the laws concerning the three agricultural and national festivals and such other laws as Moses considered necessary to impress on the heart of the Israelites before he departed from among them. The Israelites being near Jordan, and about to take possession of the promised land, their attention is called to such laws as would then come into practice, e.g., those which refer to the political and judicial arrangements of the country (xvi. to xviii.); and the solemn declaration of allegiance to the Will of God (xxvii.).

The main source of Jewish creed is the Bible, and among the Biblical books, chiefly the Pentateuch. The characteristic difference between Judaism and Christianity is that Judaism has no revealed religion in the sense in which Christianity has. The Jews have a revealed legislation which instructs them in the divinely ordained means by which they may attain the eternal bliss. Laws and rules for conduct in life were revealed to Moses in a supernatural way, but no doctrines, no saving truth, and no general laws of logic. "The Torah," Ibn Ezra remarks in his Commentary on Ps. xix. 8, "is perfect in itself; it requires no evidence from without for the truths which it teaches."

During the Babylonian Exile the prophetic word became the source of comfort and rejuvenation for the Jewish people. Now in its place Ezra the Scribe made the Book of the Law of Moses the pivot about which the entire life of the people was to revolve. By regular readings from it to the assembled worshipers, he made it the source of common instruction. Instead of the priestly Law, which was concerned only with the regulation of the ritual life, the Law became the people's book of instruction, a Torah for all alike, while the prophetic books were made secondary and were employed by the preacher at the conclusion of the service as "words of consolation."

Upon the Pentateuch was built up the divine service of the Synagogue as well as the whole system of communal life, with both its law and ethics. The prophets and other sacred books were looked upon only as means of "opening up" or illustrating the contents of the Torah. These other parts of the Mikra ("the collection of books for public reading") were declared to be inferior in holiness, so that, according to the Rabbinical rule, they were not even allowed to be put into the same scroll as the Pentateuch.

Moreover, neither the number, order, nor the division of the Biblical books was fixed. The Talmud gives 24, Josephus only 22. Tradition claims a completely divine origin only for the Pentateuch or Torah, while the rabbis often point out the human element in the other two classes of the Biblical collection.

The central idea in Jewish life is Torah. In legend and in literature, it is for the sake of the Torah that Israel was called into being; it is for the sake of the Torah that Israel has been spared annihilation. Torah is a word of many connotations, ranging from the usual designation of the Pentateuch to the whole spiritual life. It was the Torah that was revealed from Sinai. It was for the sake of the Torah that Israel entered the Promised Land. It was because Israel sinned against the Torah that he was exiled. It was for teaching the Torah that Akibah was flayed alive by the Romans. It was the Torah that was burned during the persecution in the mediaeval dark ages. It was for the Torah that the youth of the Russian Jewish ghetto gave up all worldly interests in a singlehearted devotion to learning. It is the Torah ultimately that is to go forth from Zion, and bring about Peace and the Messianic Age for the nations of the earth. Torah is the basis and the goal of Jewish life. Interpret it as narrowly or as broadly as you please, the central idea is Torah. It is Jewishness, the spiritual life, and Godliness.

Religion for the Jew was not an affair of Sabbaths and holydays; it entered into his everyday life and regu1lated the minutest action. The influence of his religion on the Jew was therefore apparent. Indeed, all human actions were sanctified by religion. In every course of conduct the Jew asked himself whether it would tend to the glory of God, or to the profanation of His name. And Jewish law regulated not only the relationship between God and man, but also every possible relationship between man and the natural world. Jewish law, it must be remembered, is as much a part of the Jewish religious system as are Jewish ethics. For the law is from God; it is morally right. Moral laws and Divine ordinances are inseparable terms in the Jewish outlook.

No other people had taken so great a care that the tenets of their faith shall be generally known among them. Jewish education is proverbial for its excellence. Even divine service is to a large extent instruction in religion. Passages from Holy Writ are publicly read and explained, in accordance with a cycle whereby the whole of the Torah [Pentateuch] is gone through in the course of the year. Moreover, the duty of Torah study is inculcated in the Jew as a prime necessity.