The Written Law - Torah. Reading the Torah. How to Properly Study the Torah. In Jewish practice, Torah study often takes on a ritualized role similar to that of prayer.
A specific place — the beit midrash, or "house of study" — is a designated room set aside in many Jewish communal buildings. Many Jews carve out set times during the day or week for Torah study. Torah study may begin with the recitation of a prayer thanking God for “commanding us to occupy ourselves with the words of Torah” and another asking God to enable us and our descendants to enjoy knowledge of God through the study of Torah. The Talmud even records specific prayers for entering and leaving a beit midrash. Jewish study focuses not on simple absorption of material, but on a dialogue among students and between students and text. The traditional mode of Jewish study maintains an emphasis on dialogue and disagreement. Judaism. Religions - Judaism: The Torah. Religion: Judaism.
Torah. The word "Torah" is a tricky one, because it can mean different things in different contexts.
In its most limited sense, "Torah" refers to the Five Books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. But the word "torah" can also be used to refer to the entire Jewish bible (the body of scripture known to non-Jews as the Old Testament and to Jews as the Tanakh or Written Torah), or in its broadest sense, to the whole body of Jewish law and teachings. Written Torah To Jews, there is no "Old Testament. " The books that Christians call the New Testament are not part of Jewish scripture. Judaism 101. Judaism 101 is an online encyclopedia of Judaism, covering Jewish beliefs, people, places, things, language, scripture, holidays, practices and customs.
My goal is to make freely available a wide variety of basic, general information about Judaism, written from a traditional perspective in plain English. This web site has grown continually for more than 10 years and continues to be updated periodically. The information in this site is written predominantly from the Orthodox viewpoint, because I believe that is a good starting point for any inquiry into Judaism.
As recently as 300 years ago, this was the only Judaism, and it still is the only Judaism in many parts of the world. Be aware, however, that many Jews do not follow all of the traditions described here, or do not follow them in the precise form described here. Where to Start There are over eighty web pages on this site, comprising over 300 pages of text, a virtual book of information on Judaism. Just browsing? Texts of Judaism. Sacred-texts home Journal Articles: Judaism ORCT: Judaism Jewish DateSamaritans Buy CD-ROM Buy books about Judaism Tanakh Talmud Haggada Kabbalah Midrash Haggadah Prayer Books (Siddur) Ancient/Medieval Modern Links Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) The Tanakh is the Hebrew Bible, the quintessential sacred text.
The first five books of this comprise the Torah (or Pentateuch), the core sacred writings of the ancient Jews, traditionally written by Moses under divine inspiration. Tanakh (Hebrew Bible).Unicode with vowels. Talmud and Mishna The Babylonian Talmud Translated by M.L. Eighteen Treatises from the Mishna by D. The Wisdom of the Talmud by Ben Zion Bokser [1951]A great introduction to the Talmud for contemporary readers. The Talmud by Joseph Barclay [1878]Seventeen representative tracts from the Talmud. The Talmud: Selections by H. The Babylonian Talmud in Selection by Leo Auerbach [1944]An original mid-20th century translation of selections from the Talmud. Judaism. "It has been estimated that one-third of our Western civilization bears the marks of its Jewish ancestry.
" -- Huston Smith, The World's Religions Judaism began as early as 2000 BCE as the religion of Abraham and of the small nation of the Hebrews. Through thousands of years of suffering, persecution, dispersion, and the occasional victory, Jewish religion and culture has been profoundly influential. Today, about 14 million people identify themselves as Jews, and nearly 3.5 billion others follow belief systems directly influenced by Judaism (including Christianity, Islam, and the Bah'ai Faith). Modern Judaism is a complex phenomenon that incorporates both a nation and a religion, and often combines strict adherence to ritual laws with a more liberal attitude towards religious belief.
The central religious belief of Judaism is that there is only one God. Aside from its staunch monotheism, Judaism has few essential beliefs.