| The Torah | |
| What is it? | |
| Why is it so important to the | |
| Jewish people? | |
| Introduction | |
| The Torah is the | |
| sacred text of the | |
| Jewish people. | |
| Traditional Jewish | |
| people believe that | |
| God told Moses all of | |
| the Torah on Mount | |
| Sinai, and that Moses | |
| wrote down his exact | |
| words. | |
| Introduction | |
| Less traditional Jewish | |
| people believe that | |
| people inspired by | |
| God wrote the Torah. | |
| Almost all Jewish | |
| people believe that | |
| God gave Moses the | |
| ten commandments. | |
| Can you name any? | |
| What’s in the Torah? | |
| The word Torah actually means ‘teaching’. | |
| The Torah is made up of five books, also | |
| known as the five books of Moses. | |
| These books are called: Genesis, Exodus, | |
| Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. | |
| When Jewish people talk about the Torah, | |
| they sometimes include other important | |
| books written by people to help explain the | |
| Jewish laws. | |
| What’s in the Torah? | |
| The Torah is a mixture | |
| of stories and | |
| teachings. | |
| One famous story is | |
| about how God | |
| created the first human | |
| beings. Can you | |
| remember what this | |
| story is called? | |
| Book of rules | |
| The Torah contains | |
| lots of instructions | |
| about how Jewish | |
| people should live. | |
| Altogether, there are | |
| 613 commandments | |
| like this. | |
| What do you think “Kosher” Means? | |
| They tell Jewish people how to pray, what to eat | |
| and which festivals to celebrate. | |
| The Torah Scroll | |
| The Torah that is read | |
| in the Synagogue is | |
| written on a scroll. | |
| They are made by | |
| specially trained | |
| people, written on | |
| parchment. | |
| They are not allowed | |
| to leave in any | |
| mistakes! | |
| When they are | |
| finished, the scrolls a | |
| decorated as | |
| beautifully as possible. | |
| The decorated Torah | |
| What does the Torah teach? | |
| In the Torah, rules for everyday life are only | |
| talked about very briefly. | |
| Over thousands of years, Rabbis have | |
| talked about what the Torah meant and | |
| came up with details of how Jewish people | |
| should live their lives. | |
| Lots of these ideas can be seen on the next | |
| page. | |
| Conclusion | |
| The Torah is the “instruction manual” for | |
| being Jewish. Not every Jewish person | |
| follows all the rules, but all Jews see the | |
| Torah as being sacred and special. | |
| It has lots of stories in it that make up the | |
| ‘Old Testament’ for Christians and Muslims | |
| too. | |
| What do you think about the Torah? | |