Judaism - The Torah

1. Torah, means teaching and the Torah is God’s instructions to the Jewish people on how to live their lives.

2. The Torah teaches Jews how to act and think and how they should feel about life and death.

3. The Torah is the most important Jewish document and is written in Hebrew.

4. The Torah contains six hundred and thirteen commandments.

5. The ten commandments, given to Moses on Mount Sinai, are considered to be the most important commandments of the Torah.

6. The Torah also contains stories about God’s relationship with the Jewish people.

7. The Torah scrolls are hand-written in Hebrew, on parchment, by a sofer or scribe.

8. They may take up to eighteen months to complete.

9. The Torah has two parts, written and oral.

10. The written Torah contains the five books of Moses, given to Moses at Mount Sinai.

11. The oral Torah was passed down verbally from generation to generation until the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.

12. After the destruction of the temple it was decided to write it down.

13. The stone tablets that were given to Moses were placed in a chest, called the Ark of the Covenant.

14. The Ark of the Covenant was used to keep the tablets safe on the journey to the Promised Land.

15. The Israelites carried this box with them wherever they went.

16. A covenant is an agreement and Moses had promised God that the Israelites would keep all of the commandments.

17. Nowadays, every synagogue has a special cupboard called an Ark, where the Torah scrolls are kept.

18. The light above the Ark stays on at all times, symbolising God’s presence.

19. The Torah scrolls are taken out of the Ark and read in the synagogue three times each week.

20. The main reading, which is sung rather than spoken, takes place on the morning of the Sabbath.

21. The Torah scrolls are not directly touched when they are unfurled on the bimah, a raised platform in the middle of a synagogue.

22. A yad, or silver pointer is used to follow the words in the copies of the Torah scroll as it is being read.

23. The word yad in Hebrew means hand, and the yad ends in a tiny hand with a pointing finger.

24. The yad is used to stop the Torah being damaged as it is so special to Jewish people.