The Torah

Torah refers to the Five Books of Moses, the entire Hebrew Bible, and the entire corpus of religious Jewish knowledge. Torah is how the Creator shares the purpose, intent, and desire behind all that exists.

Dictated by G-d and transcribed by Moses, these books convey G-d’s instructions on how we can fulfill our life’s mission.

Since it has entered the common parlance, let’s discuss what people mean when they use the term.

More than Torah is about keeping rules, it’s about breaking them. Torah is about transcending the rules of the universe and creating freedom.

Experts have compared the Bible to other writings of 3,000 years ago . . .

The greatest conspiracy theory of all time is materialism. The second greatest conspiracy theory is that the Jews invented the Torah...

I’m kinda disappointed about this Torah. I keep reading on your site about it being the ultimate divine wisdom. To me, it reads like a book of stories. If it’s really a divine document, shouldn’t it read more like one of those ancient mystical texts, like the wild and wonderful Zohar or the cryptic and mystical Book of Formation?

The Torah’s commandments are brief and sometimes cryptic. As recorded in the Talmud, rabbinic tradition and scholarship unpacks, elucidates, and expands them into Judaism as we know it.

How can we rely on these rabbis if they can’t even agree with one another?

G‑d told Moses that he will give him "the Torah and the commandments." Why did G‑d add the word "commandments?" Are there any commandments which are not included in the Torah?

Our sages tell us that Torah can be interpreted in four different general ways: peshat, remez, drush and sod.

Imagine Albert Einstein walking down the street and dropping a pen. As he bends down to pick it up, the unfortunate occurs. His pants split. He heads back home, and mends the pants...

It seems like every story in the Torah needs to be edited for children.

To explain that, I would need a long conversation with you about what is G-d and how G-d talks to people and why....

There are so many differences of opinion as to what happened and what it means--how can they all be right?

We claim to believe in the Bible, but it seems to me that in reality we're controlled by a small group of old men and their Talmud...

Why do the rabbis add so many laws to the Torah? Isn't that what caused Adam and Eve to sin--the fact that Eve made unwarranted additions to G‑d's law?

In what way are the laws of the Talmud "the wisdom and will of G-d"? What's so "wise" about the how to divide a garment that two people are fighting over? Why G-d would "will" the procedures for buying a donkey?

Why are there two Talmuds? And why is the "Babylonian Talmud" considered more authoritative than the "Jerusalem Talmud"?

Is Torah really absolute, all-encompassing Truth? Do the rabbis never disagree? Could we have invented Teflon™ and Superglue™ just by reading Torah?

How could Jacob have studied the Torah, if it was given to Moses centuries later? Did he learn, in advance, how Laban would trick him on his wedding night or how Joseph would thrown in a pit and sold as a slave by his brothers?

I wonder about how the Orthodox view the fluidity of the Torah and the teachings of the past. Clearly there are aspects of the Torah that have been outdated since it was written, such as stoning etc.

Democracy and human rights are cornerstones of our moral vision in the modern era. Where do we Jews fit--historically and ideologically--into this picture?

Yes, there's tension here, and as every good dramatist and massage therapist knows, tension is a good point to play with

Didn’t G‑d give Moses the Torah while he was on top of Mount Sinai away from the rest of the Jews who were waiting down below? Isn’t this similar to the stories of Jesus and Mohammad, because no one was actually there to verify that anything was unequivocally given from G‑d to Moses?

I find studying Torah to be very inspirational, exciting, and mostly enjoyable. Can you please explain the meaning of “toiling in the study of Torah”?

The black are the letters we see, while the white, the inverse space between the black, are the letters we don't see. Some souls, like the black letters of the Torah, have a clear purpose and focus. Others are more like the white letters...

You think that wisdom flows in one direction only. The supplicant asks, and the rabbi answers.

Why is that? Is it just to make it super-hard to become a Jewish adult?

I recently had occasion to pray in a Sephardic synagogue, and they kept the Torahs in some kind of ornamental cylindrical case with the scroll in the upright position. Then, when it came time to read the Torah, they simply set it on a flat table and cracked open the case.

Why does a Torah scroll have two poles or rollers, while the Megillah (Book of Esther), which is also read from a scroll of parchment, only has one rollers (or none at all)?

If you're going to bring the ultimate divine wisdom into the world, why are shattered souls the channel for its reception?

A beit midrash (בֵּית מִדְרָשׁ), literally “house of study,” or “study hall,” is the traditional Jewish space devoted to Torah study.

A distinct style of Torah study, pilpul (פִּלְפּוּל) is a Hebrew term that literally means “sharpness” or “pepperiness.”

Maimonides teaches that the reason the Torah forbade the destruction of the beard is because shaving was a practice of ancient idol-worshippers.