Torah is the first 5 books of The Bible and of Tanakh (sometimes called the Hebrew Bible). "Torah" literally means "Instruction", but is often described as "The Law" or "Mosaic Law".
Jews and Christians use these 5 books. Jews are required to follow the regulations found within them religiously. Christians are required to follow only 4 of the regulations of Mosaic Law, (and also the Noahide Laws - but that's too complicated to get in to). However, many Christians believe that several additional regulations of the Mosaic Law must be followed - but not all.
The word "Torah" in Hebrew "is derived from the root S's which in the huffily conjugation means "to teach" (cf. Lev. 10:11). The meaning of the word is therefore "teaching," "doctrine," or "instruction"; the commonly accepted "law" gives a wrong impression."[11] Other translational contexts in the English language include custom, theory, guidance,[12] or system.[13] The term "Torah" is therefore also used in the general sense to include both Judaism's written law and oral law, serving to encompass the entire spectrum of authoritative Jewish religious teachings throughout history, including the Mishnah, the Talmud, the Midrash and more, and the inaccurate rendering of "Torah" as "Law"[14] may be an obstacle to "understanding the ideal that is summed up in the term Talmud Torah (S'sS'S's, "study of Torah,"), characterized in Jewish tradition as excelling all things."[15]
Within the Hebrew Bible,
"The earliest name for the first part of the Bible seems to have been "The Torah of Moses." This title, however, is found neither in the Torah itself, nor in the works of the Prue-Exilic literary prophets. It appears in Joshua (8:31?32; 23:6) and Kings (I Kings 2:3; II Kings 14:6; 23:25), but it cannot be said to refer there to the entire corpus. In contrast, there is every likelihood that its use in the post-Exilic works (Mal. 3:22; man. 9:11, 13; Ezra 3:2; 7:6; Neh. 8:1; II Chron. 23:18; 30:16) was intended to be comprehensive. Other early titles were "The Book of Moses" (Ezra 6:18; Neh. 13:1; II Chron. 35:12; 25:4; cf. II Kings 14:6) and "The Book of the Torah" (Neh. 8:3) which seems to be a contraction of a fuller name, "The Book of the Torah of God" (Neh. 8:8, 18; 10:29?30; cf. 9:3)."[16]
al manner by a specially trained Torah scribe under very strict requirements.
Islam refers to the Torah as "Tawrat" (?????, "Law"), an Arabic word for the revelations given to the Islamic prophet "Musa" (????, Moses in Arabic).
The Torah is the five books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. It is the first book of the Tanakh, which Christians call the Old Testament. It is always handwritten (at least, official ones that synagogues use) and a single letter hasn't been changed.
It's more than a book. Surprised nobody stated that.
In addition to the written scriptures there's an "Oral Torah," a tradition explaining what the above scriptures mean and how to interpret them and apply the Laws.
Orthodox Jews believe G-d taught the Oral Torah to Moses, and he taught it to others, down to the present day.
This tradition was maintained only in oral form until about the 2d century C.E., when the oral law was compiled and written down in a document called the Mishnah.
The Torah (literally instruction) is the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, but it is also sometimes used to describe the entire Tanakh (the books of the Hebrew Bible that Christians renamed and re-interpreted as the "old" testament). You might think of it as the "original" and the Christian Bible (NT) as the sequel.
Jews never refer to it as the "old" testament because there's nothing "old" about it. It is an contemporary now as it was 2500 years ago. It contains God's instructions for how to live our lives, even today.
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What is the Torah and what religion uses this book?
