Torah

The Torah (Hebrew: תּוֹרָה, "Instruction," "Teaching" or "Law") is the central reference of the religious Judaic tradition. It has a range of meanings. It can refer to the five books of Moses (the Pentateuch): Bereshit (Genesis), Shemot (Exodus), Vayikra (Leviticus), Bamidbar (Numbers), and Devarim (Deuteronomy). It can also mean the continued narrative from the Book of Joshua to the end of the Second Book of Chronicles, which brings the history of the Israelites to the building of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. In rabbinic literature the word "Torah" denotes both the written Torah (the Pentateuch) and the Oral Torah (the Tosefta, Mishnah, Talmud, and Midrash). In the widest sense, "Torah" signifies the entire spectrum of normative Jewish law, the meaning of the Hebrew word being "instruction," "teaching." Translations of the word Torah to other relevant languages include: Arabic: التوراة (al-Tawrah), Greek: η Τόρα (i Tora), and Latin: Lex ("Law"). The Torah is traditionally held to have been revealed by God to Moses, although the exact process and authorship of the Torah's composition is a topic of significant debate within Judaism. The Torah is the foundational text of Judaism, and has exerted a significant influence on Western thought, culture, and law.