Torah
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Torah is the Hebrew name for the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. These five books are the beginning of both Jewish and Christian holy writings.
The five books are:
- Genesis (in Hebrew Bereishit בראשית),
- Exodus (in Hebrew Shemot שמות),
- Leviticus (in Hebrew Vayikra ויקרא),
- Numbers (in Hebrew Bemidbar במדבר) and
- Deuteronomy (in Hebrew Devarim דברים).
Other names for this set of books are the "Five Books of Moses," or "Pentateuch" (a Greek word).
Some people may use the word Torah as a name for all the main Jewish teachings.
Each of the books in the Torah are seperated into parts called "Parshiyot." Parsha is a hebrew word meaning "portion." Every Shabbat one parsha is read in the synagogue, but sometimes two are read. This is so that all the parshiyot are finished every year, on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah.
