The Torah for Dummies

The Torah is both the most sacred object and the most sacred text inJudaism. It consists of the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus,Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The word “Torah” comes from the sameroot as the Hebrew word hora’ah (hoe-rah-ah), which means “instruction” or“teaching.” The Torah’s purpose, simply stated, is to provide people withinstructions for finding and following the path of God and the path to God.Although the words in the Torah, which is also known as the Five Books ofMoses, consists of exactly 304,805 letters, the great sages of Jewish traditionteach that all the wisdom in the universe is hidden within these letters. Jewishtradition looks carefully at these letters and at the words they form, and greatsages throughout history have provided — and continue to provide — theproper instruction for analyzing the Torah text and revealing its divine messages.