Judaism

Sacred Texts

Alia Dessouki Noelle Riad

HRT3M

His Greatness Jason Brazeau

Learning Goals

The origins of the Torah

Different types of sacred texts

Contents of the Torah

Significance to Judaism

Comparisons of the three religions of Abraham

Key Terms

• Tanakh

• Torah

• Mishnah

• Midrash

• Talmud

The Tanakh

Origins of the Torah

Origins of the Torah

What does Torah mean?

Law but a more accurate translation, revelation or

teaching.

The Torah is the collection of the first five texts of

the Hebrew Bible

Moses received it on mount Sinai from God.

The Five Contents

THE TORAH IS COMPRISED OF

FIVE BOOKS WHICH PRESENT US

WITH A COMPLETE NARRATIVE,

FROM CREATION TO THE DEATH

OF MOSES ON THE BANKS OF THE

JORDAN RIVER.

Genesis

Genesis

God's creation of the world and the first humans, the

stories of Adam, Eve Cain and Abel, the flood, the

tower of Babel, and the invention of various human

Abraham and Sarah

The descent of the Jacob's son Joseph into Egypt,

his rise to power and the eventual arrival of all of the

Israelites in Egypt

Exodus

• The story of Moses and the Ten Commandements

• The Jewish people’s escape from Egypt

• Includes instructions for the construction of God's

tabernacle.

Leviticus

Numbers

• Preparation for the promise land

• Disobedience of the Jewish people

• God’s punishment for their disobedience

• Moses is banned from entering the promise land

Deuteronomy

• Deuteronomy means second law, Moses is giving

them the law for the second time

• Consists of 3 speeches given by Moses before they

enter the promise land reminding them of God’s

commandments.

The prophets(NEVI'IM)

• The different prophets throughout Jewish history

and their stories.

• Narrative History of great men that influenced

Jewish history

The Writings(KETUVIM)

• Poems, songs, religious sayings

and praises to God.

Oral Torah

• The oral law

• Instructions on how you should follow the Torah

• Jews believed that teachers are better than books,

that if they kept the oral law alive, the community

will have to stay intact.

Mishnah

• After the death of many Jewish teachers, and the

destruction of the second temple, leaders started

putting the oral laws into writings.

• Mishnah had writings called

Midrash; a collection of commentaries

on the Bible and interpretations done

by philosophers, Rabbis, and Cohens.

Gemara

• Also a collection of all legal and

non-legal commentaries done

on the Bible.

Talmud

• This is a book combining the Mishnah and the

Gemera. This book is basically the oral Torah

written down. So if the Torah contains the rules and

laws, the Talmud is the book containing the

instructions on how to follow these laws.

ACTIVITY

Rules

To start the game, press the “Timer” button. Once the Timer button has been

pressed, you cannot select another category, nor see the scores. Pressing Advance

will display the next word in the game.

Once a word is displayed, the goal is to give clues that will allow your team to guess

the word. Per Catchphrase rules, this can be verbal clues or physical gestures. As

soon as the the word has been guessed, hand the game unit to the next player (on the

other team). Do not press Advance. This allows the other team to see the word and

verify it was correctly guessed.

There are three things you may not give as a

clue:

1) A word that rhymes with the word.

2) The first letter of the word.

3) Part of the word (ie shoe for shoe horn)