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?