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129-467: In general, the Priestly work is concerned with priestly matters – ritual law, the origins of shrines and rituals, and genealogies – all expressed in a formal, repetitive style. It stresses the rules and rituals of worship, and the crucial role of priests, expanding considerably on the role given to Aaron (all Levites are priests, but according to P only the descendants of Aaron were to be allowed to officiate in

258-425: A chiastic structure based on how serious a crime they are viewed, as well as presenting the punishment deemed appropriate for each, ranging from excommunication to execution . Leviticus 20 also presents the list in a more verbose manner. Furthermore, Leviticus 22:11–21 parallels Leviticus 17, and there are, according to textual criticism , passages at Leviticus 18:26, 19:37, 22:31–33, 24:22, and 25:55, which have

387-457: A hypothesis continues to have adherents in Israel and North America. The majority of scholars today continue to recognize Deuteronomy as a source, with its origin in the law-code produced at the court of Josiah as described by De Wette, subsequently given a frame during the exile (the speeches and descriptions at the front and back of the code) to identify it as the words of Moses. However, since

516-463: A quill (or other permitted writing utensil) dipped in ink. Written entirely in Hebrew , a sefer Torah contains 304,805 letters, all of which must be duplicated precisely by a trained sofer ("scribe"), an effort that may take as long as approximately one and a half years. Most modern Sifrei Torah are written with forty-two lines of text per column ( Yemenite Jews use fifty), and very strict rules about

645-453: A Torah scroll ( Hebrew : ספר תורה Sefer Torah ). If in bound book form , it is called Chumash , and is usually printed with the rabbinic commentaries ( perushim ). In rabbinic literature , the word Torah denotes both the five books ( תורה שבכתב "Torah that is written") and the Oral Torah ( תורה שבעל פה , "Torah that is spoken"). It has also been used, however, to designate

774-690: A foreigner is never even considered a capital offence by the Holiness code (H). Rather, they had come too close to the holy Tabernacle , also called the 'Tent of the Congregation', an act which in previous episodes in the Book of Numbers (also probably authored by H) had also caused Yahweh to cast a plague on the Israelites, or to threaten doing so. Texts in the books of Exodus and Numbers which have so far been identified as H texts by scholars include: The Holiness Code

903-645: A great number of tannaim , the oral tradition was written down around 200 CE by Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi , who took up the compilation of a nominally written version of the Oral Law, the Mishnah ( משנה ). Other oral traditions from the same time period not entered into the Mishnah were recorded as Baraitot (external teaching), and the Tosefta . Other traditions were written down as Midrashim . After continued persecution more of

1032-512: A holy people; scholars accept it as a discrete collection within the larger Priestly source, and have traced similar holiness writings elsewhere in the Pentateuch. In Numbers the Priestly source contributes chapters 1–10:28, 15–20, 25–31, and 33–36, including, among other things, two censuses, rulings on the position of Levites and priests (including the provision of special cities for the Levites), and

1161-668: A new generation can grow up and carry out the task. The book ends with the new generation of Israelites in the " plains of Moab " ready for the crossing of the Jordan River . Numbers is the culmination of the story of Israel's exodus from oppression in Egypt and their journey to take possession of the land God promised their fathers . As such it draws to a conclusion the themes introduced in Genesis and played out in Exodus and Leviticus: God has promised

1290-523: A program of nationalist reform in the time of Josiah (late 7th century BCE), with the final form of the modern book emerging in the milieu of the return from the Babylonian captivity during the late 6th century BCE. Many scholars see the book as reflecting the economic needs and social status of the Levite caste, who are believed to have provided its authors; those likely authors are collectively referred to as

1419-611: A redactor: J, the Jahwist source, E, the Elohist source, P, the Priestly source , and D, the Deuteronomist source. The earliest of these sources, J, would have been composed in the late 7th or the 6th century BCE, with the latest source, P, being composed around the 5th century BCE. The consensus around the documentary hypothesis collapsed in the last decades of the 20th century. The groundwork

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1548-529: A similarity of structure with both the Covenant Code and the Deuteronomic Code . Like these, it opens with a law regulating ceremonies at the altar , lists a series of disparate laws, and then closes with a set of promises for obeying the law, and curses for failing to do so. While some of the laws appear more developed than Deuteronomy, for example, the law concerning weights and measures is more detailed,

1677-471: A woman as well as her daughter, with a ritually unclean woman, with the wife of a neighbor, with another man, or with an animal; and the sacrifice of children to Molech (numerated just prior to Lev.18:22. These prohibitions are listed in Leviticus 18, and again in chapter 20, both times with the warning "lest the land vomit you out." While Leviticus 18 presents them as a simple list, Leviticus 20 presents them in

1806-457: A world which is good and fit for mankind, but when man corrupts it with sin God decides to destroy his creation, using the flood, saving only the righteous Noah and his immediate family to reestablish the relationship between man and God. The Ancestral history (chapters 12–50) tells of the prehistory of Israel, God's chosen people. At God's command Noah's descendant Abraham journeys from his home into

1935-528: Is Targum . The Encyclopaedia Judaica has: At an early period, it was customary to translate the Hebrew text into the vernacular at the time of the reading (e.g., in Palestine and Babylon the translation was into Aramaic). The targum ("translation") was done by a special synagogue official, called the meturgeman ... Eventually, the practice of translating into the vernacular was discontinued. However, there

2064-522: Is a collection of many laws concerning several subjects. Critical scholarship therefore regards it as being generally a work constructed by the collecting together of a series of earlier collections of laws. One of the most noticeable elements of the work is a large section concerning various sexual activities, which are prohibited "lest the land vomit you out". These prohibitions include sexual relations with one's mother, step-mother, sister, step-sister, sister-in-law, aunt, granddaughter, daughter-in-law, with

2193-442: Is able to be read coherently even when devoid of H. Nevertheless, the presence of what appears to be a clear ending to H (specifically Leviticus 26, which would be expected to have been moved), such as to be after Leviticus 27, if H were the addition, rather than the original, has presented some problems for such revising of the theory. Israel Knohl (1995) argued that Numbers 25:6–18 and the entire chapter of Numbers 31 were part of

2322-472: Is also a great similarity between Ezekiel's writing and the hortatory elements, particularly the conclusion, of the Holiness Code. These strong similarities have led many critical scholars to question whether Ezekiel was the author of the code, or at least the collector, and it remains an open question whether the Holiness Code influenced Ezekiel, or Ezekiel influenced the Holiness Code. The Holiness Code has

2451-436: Is also alleged by critical scholarship that several additional laws, written with a style unlike that of the Holiness Code but like that of the remainder of Leviticus, were inserted into the body of the text by the Priestly source. These alleged additions are: The section concerning continual bread and oil is, in critical scholarship, viewed as part of the description of the structure of the tabernacle, and vestments, present at

2580-949: Is also considered a sacred book outside Judaism; in Samaritanism , the Samaritan Pentateuch is a text of the Torah written in the Samaritan script and used as sacred scripture by the Samaritans ; the Torah is also common among all the different versions of the Christian Old Testament ; in Islam , the Tawrat ( Arabic : توراة‎ ) is the Arabic name for the Torah within its context as an Islamic holy book believed by Muslims to have been given by God to

2709-545: Is arguably the most important book in the Bible, as it presents the defining features of Israel's identity: memories of a past marked by hardship and escape, a binding covenant with God, who chooses Israel, and the establishment of the life of the community and the guidelines for sustaining it. The Book of Leviticus begins with instructions to the Israelites on how to use the Tabernacle , which they had just built (Leviticus 1–10). This

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2838-534: Is called a Sefer Torah ("Book [of] Torah"). They are written using a painstakingly careful method by highly qualified scribes . It is believed that every word, or marking, has divine meaning and that not one part may be inadvertently changed lest it lead to error. The fidelity of the Hebrew text of the Tanakh, and the Torah in particular, is considered paramount, down to the last letter: translations or transcriptions are frowned upon for formal service use, and transcribing

2967-430: Is concerned with priestly matters – ritual law, the origins of shrines and rituals, and genealogies – all expressed in a formal, repetitive style. It stresses the rules and rituals of worship, and the crucial role of priests, expanding considerably on the role given to Aaron (all Levites are priests, but according to P only the descendants of Aaron were to be allowed to officiate in the inner sanctuary). P's God

3096-472: Is dated to the early Persian period (end of the 6th century or beginning of the 5th century BCE), and as the rites highlighted there, circumcision and Sabbath , do not need a temple, the text shows its "universalist, monotheistic and peaceful vision." Buhler et al. (2023) also concluded that P texts correspond to around 20% of the narrative in Genesis (292/1533 verses), 50% of that in Exodus (596/1213 verses), and 33% in both (888/2746 verses). The Priestly work

3225-508: Is done with painstaking care. An error of a single letter, ornamentation, or symbol of the 304,805 stylized letters that make up the Hebrew Torah text renders a Torah scroll unfit for use, hence a special skill is required and a scroll takes considerable time to write and check. According to Jewish law, a sefer Torah (plural: Sifrei Torah ) is a copy of the formal Hebrew text handwritten on gevil or klaf (forms of parchment ) by using

3354-562: Is followed by rules of clean and unclean (Leviticus 11–15), which includes the laws of slaughter and animals permissible to eat (see also: Kashrut ), the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16), and various moral and ritual laws sometimes called the Holiness Code (Leviticus 17–26). Leviticus 26 provides a detailed list of rewards for following God's commandments and a detailed list of punishments for not following them. Leviticus 17 establishes sacrifices at

3483-454: Is found neither in the Torah itself, nor in the works of the pre-Exilic literary prophets . It appears in Joshua and Kings , but it cannot be said to refer there to the entire corpus (according to academic Bible criticism). In contrast, there is every likelihood that its use in the post-Exilic works was intended to be comprehensive. Other early titles were "The Book of Moses" and "The Book of

3612-467: Is governed by the covenants, and P's God is concerned that Israel should preserve its identity by avoiding intermarriage with non-Israelites. P is deeply concerned with "holiness", meaning the ritual purity of the people and the land: Israel is to be "a priestly kingdom and a holy nation" (Exodus 19:6), and P's elaborate rules and rituals are aimed at creating and preserving holiness. Cases have been made for both exilic and post-exilic composition, leading to

3741-542: Is majestic, and transcendent, and all things happen because of his power and will. He reveals himself in stages, first as Elohim (a Hebrew word meaning simply "god", taken from the earlier Canaanite word meaning "the gods"), then to Abraham as El Shaddai (usually translated as "God Almighty"), and finally to Moses by his unique name, Yahweh . P divides history into four epochs from Creation to Moses by means of covenants between God and Noah , Abraham and Moses. The Israelites are God's chosen people , his relationship with them

3870-454: Is no suggestion that these translations had been written down as early as this. There are suggestions that the Targum was written down at an early date, although for private use only. The official recognition of a written Targum and the final redaction of its text, however, belong to the post-Talmudic period, thus not earlier than the fifth century C.E. Holiness Code The Holiness code

3999-416: Is punctuated by a series of covenants with God , successively narrowing in scope from all mankind (the covenant with Noah ) to a special relationship with one people alone (Abraham and his descendants through Isaac and Jacob). The Book of Exodus is the second book of the Torah, immediately following Genesis. The book tells how the ancient Israelites leave slavery in Egypt through the strength of Yahweh ,

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4128-448: Is regardless of whether that yod appears in the phrase "I am the LORD thy God" ( אָנֹכִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ , Exodus 20:2) or whether it appears in "And God spoke unto Moses saying" ( וַיְדַבֵּר אֱלֹהִים, אֶל-מֹשֶׁה; וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו, אֲנִי יְהוָה. Exodus 6:2). In a similar vein, Rabbi Akiva ( c.  50  – c.  135 CE ), is said to have learned a new law from every et ( את ) in

4257-474: Is the Arabic name for the Torah, which Muslims believe is an Islamic holy book given by God to the prophets and messengers amongst the Children of Israel . The Torah starts with God creating the world , then describes the beginnings of the people of Israel , their descent into Egypt, and the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai . It ends with the death of Moses , just before the people of Israel cross to

4386-506: Is the fifth book of the Torah. Chapters 1–30 of the book consist of three sermons or speeches delivered to the Israelites by Moses on the plains of Moab , shortly before they enter the Promised Land. The first sermon recounts the forty years of wilderness wanderings which had led to that moment, and ends with an exhortation to observe the law (or teachings), later referred to as the Law of Moses ;

4515-504: Is used in biblical criticism to refer to Leviticus chapters 17–26, and sometimes passages in other books of the Pentateuch , especially Numbers and Exodus . It is so called due to its highly repeated use of the word holy ( Hebrew : קדוש qəḏōš or kadash ). Kadash is usually translated as "holy", but originally meant "set apart", with "special", "clean/pure", "whole" and "perfect" as associated meanings. The term Holiness Code

4644-567: Is widely seen as a product of the Persian period (539–332 BCE, probably 450–350 BCE). This consensus echoes a traditional Jewish view which gives Ezra , the leader of the Jewish community on its return from Babylon, a pivotal role in its promulgation. Many theories have been advanced to explain the composition of the Torah, but two have been especially influential. The first of these, Persian Imperial authorisation, advanced by Peter Frei in 1985, holds that

4773-501: The parashot for the Torah on the Aleppo Codex . Conservative and Reform synagogues may read parashot on a triennial rather than annual schedule, On Saturday afternoons, Mondays, and Thursdays, the beginning of the following Saturday's portion is read. On Jewish holidays , the beginnings of each month, and fast days , special sections connected to the day are read. Jews observe an annual holiday, Simchat Torah , to celebrate

4902-672: The Deuteronomist . One of its most significant verses is Deuteronomy 6:4, the Shema Yisrael , which has become the definitive statement of Jewish identity : "Hear, O Israel: the L ORD our God, the L ORD is one." Verses 6:4–5 were also quoted by Jesus in Mark 12:28–34 as part of the Great Commandment . The Talmud states that the Torah was written by Moses, with the exception of the last eight verses of Deuteronomy, describing his death and burial, being written by Joshua . According to

5031-570: The Hebrew Bible , namely the books of Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy . In Christianity , the Torah is also known as the Pentateuch ( / ˈ p ɛ n t ə tj uː k / ) or the Five Books of Moses . In Rabbinical Jewish tradition it is also known as the Written Torah ( תּוֹרָה שֶׁבִּכְתָב , Tōrā šebbīḵṯāv ). If meant for liturgic purposes, it takes the form of

5160-663: The Jerusalem Talmud . Since the greater number of rabbis lived in Babylon, the Babylonian Talmud has precedence should the two be in conflict. Orthodox and Conservative branches of Judaism accept these texts as the basis for all subsequent halakha and codes of Jewish law, which are held to be normative. Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism deny that these texts, or the Torah itself for that matter, may be used for determining normative law (laws accepted as binding) but accept them as

5289-433: The Mishnah one of the essential tenets of Judaism is that God transmitted the text of the Torah to Moses over the span of the 40 years the Israelites were in the desert and Moses was like a scribe who was dictated to and wrote down all of the events, the stories and the commandments. According to Jewish tradition , the Torah was recompiled by Ezra during Second Temple period . The Talmud says that Ezra changed

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5418-591: The Oral Torah which comprises the Mishnah , the Talmud , the Midrash and more. The inaccurate rendering of "Torah" as "Law" may be an obstacle to understanding the ideal that is summed up in the term talmud torah ( תלמוד תורה , "study of Torah"). The term "Torah" is also used to designate the entire Hebrew Bible . The earliest name for the first part of the Bible seems to have been "The Torah of Moses". This title, however,

5547-461: The Persian period , with possibly some later additions during the Hellenistic period. The words of the Torah are written on a scroll by a scribe ( sofer ) in Hebrew. A Torah portion is read every Monday morning and Thursday morning at a shul (synagogue) but only if there are ten males above the age of thirteen. Reading the Torah publicly is one of the bases of Jewish communal life. The Torah

5676-502: The Promised Land of Canaan . Interspersed in the narrative are the specific teachings (religious obligations and civil laws) given explicitly (i.e. Ten Commandments ) or implicitly embedded in the narrative (as in Exodus 12 and 13 laws of the celebration of Passover ). In Hebrew, the five books of the Torah are identified by the incipits in each book; and the common English names for

5805-438: The Tabernacle , and all the teachings were written down by Moses , which resulted in the Torah that exists today. According to the Midrash, the Torah was created prior to the creation of the world , and was used as the blueprint for Creation. Though hotly debated, the general trend in biblical scholarship is to recognize the final form of the Torah as a literary and ideological unity, based on earlier sources, largely complete by

5934-487: The Tabernacle , the means by which he will come from heaven and dwell with them and lead them in a holy war to possess the land, and then give them peace. Traditionally ascribed to Moses himself, modern scholarship sees the book as initially a product of the Babylonian exile (6th century BCE), from earlier written and oral traditions, with final revisions in the Persian post-exilic period (5th century BCE). Carol Meyers , in her commentary on Exodus suggests that it

6063-412: The documentary hypothesis , the Holiness Code represents an earlier text that was edited and incorporated into the Priestly source and the Torah as a whole, although some scholars, such as Israel Knohl , believe the Holiness Code to be a later addition to the Priestly source. This source is often abbreviated as "H". A date generally accepted by the proponents of the four-source hypothesis is sometime in

6192-584: The people of Israel with some specified as applicable for Proselytes . Some of its teachings are still in practice in the evangelical church, however see Leviticus 18 and Biblical law in Christianity for details. Among Mainline Protestants , there is debate about how much of this passage can be applicable today since the Levitical priesthood and animal sacrifice ended in AD 70, with the destruction of Jerusalem by

6321-651: The prophets and messengers amongst the Children of Israel . The word "Torah" in Hebrew is derived from the root ירה , which in the hif'il conjugation means 'to guide' or 'to teach'. The meaning of the word is therefore "teaching", "doctrine", or "instruction"; the commonly accepted "law" gives a wrong impression. The Alexandrian Jews who translated the Septuagint used the Greek word nomos , meaning norm, standard, doctrine, and later "law". Greek and Latin Bibles then began

6450-484: The synagogue in the Ark known as the "Holy Ark" ( אֲרוֹן הקֹדשׁ aron hakodesh in Hebrew.) Aron in Hebrew means "cupboard" or "closet", and kodesh is derived from "kadosh", or "holy". The Book of Ezra refers to translations and commentaries of the Hebrew text into Aramaic , the more commonly understood language of the time. These translations would seem to date to the 6th century BCE. The Aramaic term for translation

6579-481: The 'priestly base text' ( Priesterliche Grundschrift ), as running, though not continually, from Genesis 1 to Exodus 40, and "characterized by an inclusive monotheism, with the deity gradually revealing itself to humanity and to the people of Israel in particular," beginning in Genesis 1-11, where God is called Elohim, and ending "with the construction of the tent of meeting (Exodus 25–31*; 35–40*)," reflecting, along with cult, "a progressive revelation of YHWH." This text

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6708-424: The 1990s, the biblical description of Josiah's reforms (including his court's production of a law-code) have become heavily debated among academics. Most scholars also agree that some form of Priestly source existed, although its extent, especially its end-point, is uncertain. The remainder is called collectively non-Priestly, a grouping which includes both pre-Priestly and post-Priestly material. The final Torah

6837-406: The 19th and 20th centuries CE, new movements such as Reform Judaism and Conservative Judaism have made adaptations to the practice of Torah reading, but the basic pattern of Torah reading has usually remained the same: As a part of the morning prayer services on certain days of the week, fast days, and holidays, as well as part of the afternoon prayer services of Shabbat, Yom Kippur, a section of

6966-717: The Exodus from Egypt and the encounter with God in the wilderness. The books contain many inconsistencies, repetitions, different narrative styles, and different names for God. John Van Seters notes that within the first four books, the Tetrateuch – that is, omitting Deuteronomy – "there are two accounts of creation, two genealogies of Seth, two genealogies of Shem, two covenants between Abraham and his God, two revelations to Jacob at Bethel, two calls of Moses to rescue his people, two sets of laws given at Sinai, two Tents of Meeting/Tabernacles set up at Sinai." The repetitions, styles and names are not random, but follow identifiable patterns, and

7095-511: The Exodus story was composed to serve the needs of a post-exilic Jewish community organised around the Temple, which acted in effect as a bank for those who belonged to it. A minority of scholars would place the final formation of the Pentateuch somewhat later, in the Hellenistic (332–164 BCE) or even Hasmonean (140–37 BCE) periods. Russell Gmirkin, for instance, argues for a Hellenistic dating on

7224-427: The God who has chosen Israel as his people. Yahweh inflicts horrific harm on their captors via the legendary Plagues of Egypt . With the prophet Moses as their leader, they journey through the wilderness to Mount Sinai , where Yahweh promises them the land of Canaan (the " Promised Land ") in return for their faithfulness. Israel enters into a covenant with Yahweh who gives them their laws and instructions to build

7353-473: The God-given land of Canaan , where he dwells as a sojourner, as does his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob . Jacob's name is changed to Israel, and through the agency of his son Joseph , the children of Israel descend into Egypt, 70 people in all with their households, and God promises them a future of greatness. Genesis ends with Israel in Egypt, ready for the coming of Moses and the Exodus . The narrative

7482-457: The Holiness Code (H) was the appendage, and the Priestly Code (P) the original. This view also identifies passages outside the traditional area of H, specifically in Exodus and Numbers, as belonging to the Holiness Code rather than P, such as the order to sound a trumpet on certain dates. In consequence, this view sees the author of H as the editor of P, rather than the reverse, in particular as P

7611-509: The Holiness Code, we have texts that come closer to the idea that Israel itself is holy by virtue of the fact that God has set Israel apart from the nations to himself, to belong to him, just as he set apart the seventh day to himself to belong with him. Initially, the Holiness Code was considered part of the Priestly source by some scholars holding to the documentary hypothesis . However, other scholars generally believed it to have been an originally separate legal code (referred to as "H") which

7740-594: The Holiness Code. Two of which contain a list of sexual prohibitions, and one of which was a development of the Ritual Decalogue . Most critical scholars and religious commentaries regard the Holiness Code as bearing strong resemblance, in several places, to the writing of Ezekiel . Ezekiel dwells repeatedly on offences which the Holiness Code condemns, and spends little time concerned with those outside it (e.g. Leviticus 18:8–17 in comparison with Ezekiel 22:10–11), and several extensive lists of such parallels exist. There

7869-538: The Holiness code (H), which was later added to the Priestly source. He pointed to similarities in content, such as the focus on purification in Numbers 5:1–4, chapter 19 and 31:19–24, as well as in linguistics in Numbers 10:9, 27:17, 31:6,19 and Exodus 40:15, all of which had been previously identified with the Holiness School (HS) by other scholars. Some linguistic and theological features also distinguish Numbers 31 from

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7998-420: The Israelites that they shall become a great (i.e. numerous) nation, that they will have a special relationship with Yahweh their god, and that they shall take possession of the land of Canaan. Numbers also demonstrates the importance of holiness, faithfulness and trust: despite God's presence and his priests , Israel lacks faith and the possession of the land is left to a new generation. The Book of Deuteronomy

8127-574: The Jahwist nor the Elohist had ever existed as sources but instead represented collections of independent fragmentary stories, poems, etc. No new consensus has emerged to replace the documentary hypothesis, but since roughly the mid-1980s an influential theory has emerged which relates the emergence of the Pentateuch to the situation in Judah in the 5th century BCE under Persian imperial rule. The central institution in

8256-700: The Jahwistic source), Martin Rose (1981, proposing that the Jahwist was composed as a prologue to the history which begins in Joshua), and Van Seters ( Abraham in History and Tradition , proposing a 6th-century BCE date for the story of Abraham, and therefore for the Jahwist). as well as Rolf Rendtorff ( The Problem of the Process of Transmission in the Pentateuch , 1989), who argued that neither

8385-551: The Lord your God am holy," they find their fullest expression in the block of text; Leviticus 17 through 26 that's referred to as the Holiness Code. There's an important difference between Leviticus 1 through 16 and the Holiness Code. According to Leviticus 1 through 16, Israel's priests are designated as holy: a holy class within Israel, singled out, dedicated to the service of God and demarcated by rules that apply only to them. Israelites may aspire to holiness, but it’s not assumed. However, in

8514-642: The Oral Law was committed to writing. A great many more lessons, lectures and traditions only alluded to in the few hundred pages of Mishnah, became the thousands of pages now called the Gemara . Gemara is written in Aramaic (specifically Jewish Babylonian Aramaic ), having been compiled in Babylon. The Mishnah and Gemara together are called the Talmud. The rabbis in the Land of Israel also collected their traditions and compiled them into

8643-460: The Oral and the written Torah were transmitted in parallel with each other. Where the Torah leaves words and concepts undefined, and mentions procedures without explanation or instructions, the reader is required to seek out the missing details from supplemental sources known as the Oral Law or Oral Torah. Some of the Torah's most prominent commandments needing further explanation are: According to classical rabbinic texts this parallel set of material

8772-489: The Pentateuch is read from a Torah scroll. On Shabbat (Saturday) mornings, a weekly section (" parashah ") is read, selected so that the entire Pentateuch is read consecutively each year. The division of parashot found in the modern-day Torah scrolls of all Jewish communities (Ashkenazic, Sephardic, and Yemenite) is based upon the systematic list provided by Maimonides in Mishneh Torah , Laws of Tefillin, Mezuzah and Torah Scrolls , chapter 8. Maimonides based his division of

8901-442: The Persian authorities required the Jews of Jerusalem to present a single body of law as the price of local autonomy. Frei's theory was, according to Eskenazi, "systematically dismantled" at an interdisciplinary symposium held in 2000, but the relationship between the Persian authorities and Jerusalem remains a crucial question. The second theory, associated with Joel P. Weinberg and called the "Citizen-Temple Community", proposes that

9030-572: The Priestly Torah (PT) text, such as the wrath of God , which is mentioned several times by HS but never by PT. Some scholars think that the text of Numbers 25:6–18 was written at a time when the priestly line of Phinehas ' descendants was being challenged. Sarah Shectman (2009) agreed with Knohl and other scholars that Numbers 25:6–18 is to be identified as an H text, and argued that traditional interpretations of verse 25:6 as an act of sexual transgression were incorrect. In fact, Zimri and Kozbi were not guilty of sexual transgressions at all; sex with

9159-626: The Priestly source edited and chose to embed into their writing after. Some such editing is simply the addition of phrases such as And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, designed to put the code into the context of the remainder of a code being given by God, as is the case for the remainder of Leviticus. By 1955, scholars agreed that the Holiness Code consisted of at least Leviticus 17–26, but some twenty passages outside of it were also identified as H, including Leviticus 11 (verses 1f. and 25–40 being contested), Numbers 15:34–41 and Exodus 31:13f.. It

9288-487: The Tabernacle as an everlasting ordinance, but this ordinance is altered in later books with the Temple being the only place in which sacrifices are allowed. The Book of Numbers is the fourth book of the Torah. The book has a long and complex history, but its final form is probably due to a Priestly redaction (i.e., editing) of a Yahwistic source made some time in the early Persian period (5th century BCE). The name of

9417-480: The Torah (Talmud, tractate Pesachim 22b); the particle et is meaningless by itself, and serves only to mark the direct object . In other words, the Orthodox belief is that even apparently contextual text such as "And God spoke unto Moses saying ..." is no less holy and sacred than the actual statement. Manuscript Torah scrolls are still scribed and used for ritual purposes (i.e., religious services ); this

9546-502: The Torah and its laws first emerged in 444 BCE when, according to the biblical account provided in the Book of Nehemiah (chapter 8), a priestly scribe named Ezra read a copy of the Mosaic Torah before the populace of Judea assembled in a central Jerusalem square. Wellhausen believed that this narrative should be accepted as historical because it sounds plausible, noting: "The credibility of

9675-405: The Torah has multiple authors and that its composition took place over centuries. The precise process by which the Torah was composed, the number of authors involved, and the date of each author are hotly contested. Throughout most of the 20th century, there was a scholarly consensus surrounding the documentary hypothesis , which posits four independent sources, which were later compiled together by

9804-567: The Torah was introduced by Ezra the Scribe after the return of the Jewish people from the Babylonian captivity ( c.  537 BCE ), as described in the Book of Nehemiah . In the modern era, adherents of Orthodox Judaism practice Torah-reading according to a set procedure they believe has remained unchanged in the two thousand years since the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem (70 CE). In

9933-400: The Torah") is a Jewish religious ritual that involves the public reading of a set of passages from a Torah scroll . The term often refers to the entire ceremony of removing the Torah scroll (or scrolls) from the ark , chanting the appropriate excerpt with traditional cantillation , and returning the scroll(s) to the ark. It is distinct from academic Torah study . Regular public reading of

10062-518: The Torah", which seems to be a contraction of a fuller name, "The Book of the Torah of God". Christian scholars usually refer to the first five books of the Hebrew Bible as the 'Pentateuch' ( / ˈ p ɛ n . t ə ˌ t juː k / , PEN -tə-tewk ; Ancient Greek : πεντάτευχος , pentáteukhos , 'five scrolls'), a term first used in the Hellenistic Judaism of Alexandria . The " Tawrat " (also Tawrah or Taurat; Arabic : توراة‎ )

10191-458: The Torah, should be the source for Jewish behavior and ethics. Kabbalists hold that not only do the words of Torah give a divine message, but they also indicate a far greater message that extends beyond them. Thus they hold that even as small a mark as a kotso shel yod ( קוצו של יוד ), the serif of the Hebrew letter yod (י), the smallest letter, or decorative markings, or repeated words, were put there by God to teach scores of lessons. This

10320-451: The Yahwist (the narrative strand) and the Priestly material (a mix of narrative and legal material) in the late Neo-Babylonian or Persian periods. Liane M. Fieldman (2023) considers the composition of the Pentateuch “in the fifth through fourth centuries BCE,” and Priestly source being the last addition, could have been added around fourth century BCE. While most scholars consider P to be one of

10449-439: The Yahwist and P's additions are relatively minor, noting Israel's obedience to the command to be fruitful and the orderly nature of Israel even in Egypt. P was responsible for chapters 25–31 and 35–40, the instructions for making the Tabernacle and the story of its fabrication. Leviticus 1–16 sees the world as divided between the profane (i.e., not holy) masses and the holy priests. Anyone who incurs impurity must be separated from

10578-401: The appearance of once standing at the end of independent laws or collections of laws as colophons . For this reason, several scholars view the five sections preceding between each of these passages as deriving from originally separate documents. In particular, the two segments containing the sexual prohibitions, Leviticus 17:2–18:26 and Leviticus 20:1–22:33, are seen as being based on essentially

10707-412: The authentic and only Jewish version for understanding the Torah and its development throughout history. Humanistic Judaism holds that the Torah is a historical, political, and sociological text, but does not believe that every word of the Torah is true, or even morally correct. Humanistic Judaism is willing to question the Torah and to disagree with it, believing that the entire Jewish experience, not just

10836-467: The basis that the Elephantine papyri , the records of a Jewish colony in Egypt dating from the last quarter of the 5th century BCE, make no reference to a written Torah, the Exodus , or to any other biblical event, though it does mention the festival of Passover . In his seminal Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels , Julius Wellhausen argued that Judaism as a religion based on widespread observance of

10965-424: The book comes from the two censuses taken of the Israelites. Numbers begins at Mount Sinai , where the Israelites have received their laws and covenant from God and God has taken up residence among them in the sanctuary . The task before them is to take possession of the Promised Land. The people are counted and preparations are made for resuming their march. The Israelites begin the journey, but they "murmur" at

11094-583: The books are derived from the Greek Septuagint and reflect the essential theme of each book: The Book of Genesis is the first book of the Torah. It is divisible into two parts, the Primeval history (chapters 1–11) and the Ancestral history (chapters 12–50). The primeval history sets out the author's (or authors') concepts of the nature of the deity and of humankind's relationship with its maker: God creates

11223-431: The completion and new start of the year's cycle of readings. Torah scrolls are often dressed with a sash, a special Torah cover, various ornaments, and a keter (crown), although such customs vary among synagogues. Congregants traditionally stand in respect when the Torah is brought out of the ark to be read, while it is being carried, and lifted, and likewise while it is returned to the ark, although they may sit during

11352-424: The conclusion of a law code, despite the presence of further laws afterward, such as at Leviticus 27, giving the Holiness Code the appearance of a single distinct unit. Professor Christine Hayes discusses a difference between the Holiness Code and the rest of Leviticus: in the Holiness Code, Israel itself is regarded as holy, not just the priestly class: This theme, and the exhortation, "you shall be holy, for I

11481-435: The conclusion that it has at least two layers, spanning a broad time period of 571–486 BCE. This was a period when the careful observance of ritual was one of the few means available which could preserve the identity of the people, and the narrative of the priestly authors created an essentially stable and secure world in which Israel's history was under God's control, so that even when Israel alienated itself from God, leading to

11610-449: The custom of calling the Pentateuch (five books of Moses) The Law. Other translational contexts in the English language include custom , theory , guidance , or system . The term "Torah" is used in the general sense to include both Rabbinic Judaism 's written and oral law , serving to encompass the entire spectrum of authoritative Jewish religious teachings throughout history, including

11739-413: The death of Moses and succession of Joshua ("Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo..."), but when Deuteronomy was added to the Pentateuch this was transferred to the end of Deuteronomy. Torah The Torah ( / ˈ t ɔːr ə / or / ˈ t oʊ r ə / ; Biblical Hebrew : תּוֹרָה Tōrā , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of

11868-468: The destruction of Jerusalem and the exile in Babylon, atonement could still be made through sacrifice and ritual. Julius Wellhausen , the 19th century German scholar who formulated the documentary hypothesis , fixed the chronological order of its sources as the Yahwist and Elohist , followed by the Deuteronomist , and last the Priestly. At the end of the 20th century a growing number of scholars placed both

11997-401: The end of Exodus, which has accidentally become inserted at this point due to scribal error. The case law example of blasphemy is believed to be the work of one of the later editions of the Priestly source, in which several other case law examples were added, such as that concerning the daughters of Zelophehad ( Numbers 36). The remainder of the alleged additions arguably deform the laws from

12126-425: The entire Hebrew Bible . The Oral Torah consists of interpretations and amplifications which according to rabbinic tradition have been handed down from generation to generation and are now embodied in the Talmud and Midrash . Rabbinic tradition's understanding is that all of the teachings found in the Torah (both written and oral) were given by God through the prophet Moses , some at Mount Sinai and others at

12255-515: The first four books of the Pentateuch, (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers). The Priestly source makes evident four covenants , to Adam, Noah, Abraham, and Moses, as God reveals Himself progressively as Elohim , El Shaddai , and Yahweh. Fragments belonging to the Priestly source known as the P texts, whose number and extent have achieved a certain consensus among scholars (e.g. Jenson 1992, Knohl 2007, Römer 2014, and Faust 2019). Recently Axel Buhler et al. (2023), to apply an algorithm, considered

12384-534: The following forty years, though many non-Orthodox Jewish scholars affirm the modern scholarly consensus that the Written Torah has multiple authors and was written over centuries. All classical rabbinic views hold that the Torah was entirely Mosaic and of divine origin. Present-day Reform and Liberal Jewish movements all reject Mosaic authorship, as do most shades of Conservative Judaism . Torah reading ( Hebrew : קריאת התורה , K'riat HaTorah , "Reading [of]

12513-449: The hardships along the way, and about the authority of Moses and Aaron . For these acts, God destroys approximately 15,000 of them through various means. They arrive at the borders of Canaan and send spies into the land. Upon hearing the spies' fearful report concerning the conditions in Canaan, the Israelites refuse to take possession of it. God condemns them to death in the wilderness until

12642-664: The hypothesis, is based on JE , which already possessed a legal code, namely the Covenant Code and Ritual Decalogue . The majority of critical scholars thus support the position that, while the Ritual Decalogue was replaced by the Ethical Decalogue , the Holiness Code was chosen, or designed, to replace the Covenant Code. The Holiness Code is believed to have been written as a form to avoid sexual deviations, sexually transmittable diseases and other forms of physical illness for

12771-499: The inner sanctuary). The history of exilic and post-exilic Judah is little known, but a summary of current theories can be made as follows: The Pentateuch or Torah (the Greek and Hebrew terms, respectively, for the Bible's books of Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy ) describe the prehistory of the Israelites from the creation of the world, through the earliest biblical patriarchs and their wanderings, to

12900-438: The landowners was based on the old Deuteronomistic tradition, which had existed since at least the 6th century BCE and had its roots even earlier; that of the priestly families was composed to "correct" and "complete" the landowners' composition. In the final document Genesis 1–11 lays the foundations, Genesis 12–50 defines the people of Israel, and the books of Moses define the community's laws and relationship to its God. Since

13029-401: The late-dating of P is due in large part to a Protestant bias in biblical studies which assumes that "priestly" and "ritualistic" material must represent a late degeneration of an earlier, "purer" faith. These arguments have not convinced the majority of scholars, however. While most scholars agree on the identification of Priestly texts in Genesis through Exodus, opinions are divided concerning

13158-446: The latest strata of the Pentateuch, post-dating both J and D, since the 1970s a number of Jewish scholars have challenged this assumption, arguing for an early dating of the Priestly material. Avi Hurvitz, for example, has forcefully argued on linguistic grounds that P represents an earlier form of the Hebrew language than what is found in both Ezekiel and Deuteronomy , and therefore pre-dates both of them. These scholars often claim that

13287-492: The majority show less development, and the implication of multiple sanctuaries implied by the Holiness Code's laws, concerning altar ceremonies, is usually understood to imply a date prior to the banning of sanctuaries outside the temple at Jerusalem. A similar comparison with the Covenant Code implies that the date of the Holiness Code is between that of the Covenant Code, and that of the Deuteronomic Code, highly suitable for

13416-496: The manner they would otherwise have, to the laws supported by the Priestly Code . Whether these represent alterations to the law over time, lawmaking by the writer of the political faction supported by the Priestly source, or simply details present but not originally thought worth mentioning, is a matter of some debate. More recent critical scholarship, particularly that of Israel Knohl , and Jacob Milgrom , has argued instead that

13545-637: The middle of the 2nd century BCE. Adler explored the likelihhood that Judaism, as the widespread practice of Torah law by Jewish society at large, first emerged in Judea during the reign of the Hasmonean dynasty , centuries after the putative time of Ezra. By contrast, John J. Collins has argued that the observance of the Torah started in Persian Yehud when the Judeans who returned from exile understood its normativity as

13674-431: The narrative appears on the face of it." Following Wellhausen, most scholars throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries have accepted that widespread Torah observance began sometime around the middle of the 5th century BCE. More recently, Yonatan Adler has argued that in fact there is no surviving evidence to support the notion that the Torah was widely known, regarded as authoritative, and put into practice prior to

13803-523: The narrative sections traditionally ascribed to P should be connected with H instead. Many scholars attribute the laws in the P source to the desire to glorify the Aaronide priestly caste responsible for their composition. The Priestly source begins with the narrative of the creation of the world and ends at the edge of the Promised Land, telling the story of the Israelites and their relationship with their god, Yahweh , encompassing, though not continuously,

13932-464: The observance of selected, ancestral laws of high symbolic value, while during the Maccabean revolt Jews started a much more detailed observance of its precepts. Rabbinic writings state that the Oral Torah was given to Moses at Mount Sinai , which, according to the tradition of Orthodox Judaism , occurred in 1312 BCE. The Orthodox rabbinic tradition holds that the Written Torah was recorded during

14061-558: The original ending of the separate P document. Suggested endings have been located in the Book of Joshua , in Deuteronomy 34 , Leviticus 16 or 9:24, in Exodus 40, or in Exodus 29:46. P is responsible for the first of the two creation stories in Genesis (Genesis 1), for Adam's genealogy, part of the Flood story , the Table of Nations , and the genealogy of Shem (i.e., Abraham's ancestry). Most of

14190-514: The passing of the mantle of leadership from Moses to Joshua and, finally, the death of Moses on Mount Nebo . Presented as the words of Moses delivered before the conquest of Canaan, a broad consensus of modern scholars see its origin in traditions from Israel (the northern kingdom) brought south to the Kingdom of Judah in the wake of the Assyrian conquest of Aram (8th century BCE) and then adapted to

14319-531: The position and appearance of the Hebrew letters are observed. See for example the Mishnah Berurah on the subject. Any of several Hebrew scripts may be used, most of which are fairly ornate and exacting. The completion of the Sefer Torah is a cause for great celebration, and it is a mitzvah for every Jew to either write or have written for him a Sefer Torah. Torah scrolls are stored in the holiest part of

14448-528: The position it finds itself within the Torah. In the documentary hypothesis, the Priestly source is a work which, after its initial edition, suffered under the hand of several later, less skilled, editors, who each variously inserted documents, added additional laws, or expanded on the laws already present. Thus the original narrative, and the legal code within it, became surrounded by an extensive body of legal, and ritual, elements, as well as numerical, genealogical, and geographic, data. The underlying narrative, in

14577-454: The post-Exilic Persian province of Yehud (the Persian name for the former kingdom of Judah) was the reconstructed Second Temple , which functioned both as the administrative centre for the province and as the means through which Yehud paid taxes to the central government. The central government was willing to grant autonomy to local communities throughout the empire, but it was first necessary for

14706-461: The priests and the Temple until purity is restored through washing, sacrifice, and the passage of time. According to Nihan, the purification ritual of Leviticus 16 formed the conclusion of the original Priestly document; in this and similar views, all P-like texts after this point are post-Priestly additions. Leviticus 17–26 is called the Holiness code , from its repeated insistence that Israel should be

14835-409: The reading itself. The Torah contains narratives, statements of law, and statements of ethics. Collectively these laws, usually called biblical law or commandments, are sometimes referred to as the Law of Moses ( Torat Moshɛ תּוֹרַת־מֹשֶׁה ), Mosaic Law , or Sinaitic Law . Rabbinic tradition holds that Moses learned the whole Torah while he lived on Mount Sinai for 40 days and nights and both

14964-464: The remainder of Genesis is from the Yahwist, but P provides the covenant with Abraham (chapter 17) and a few other stories concerning Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The book of Exodus is also divided between the Yahwist and P, and the usual understanding is that the Priestly writer(s) were adding to an already-existing Yahwist narrative. Chapters 1–24 (from bondage in Egypt to God's appearances at Sinai) and chapters 32–34 (the golden calf incident) are from

15093-678: The same law code, with Leviticus 20:1–22:33 regarded as the later version of the two. Chapter 19, which ends in a colophon, has a similarity with the Ten Commandments (Ethical Decalogue), although presenting a more detailed and expanded version, leading critical scholars to conclude it represents a much later version of that decalogue. Notably, it contains the commandment popularly referred to as love thy neighbour as thyself (the Great Commandment ). By this reckoning, there are thus at least five earlier law collections which were redacted together, with an additional hortatory conclusion, to form

15222-400: The scope and protection of the Promised Land . The Priestly themes in Numbers include the significance of the priesthood for the well-being of Israel (the ritual of the priests is needed to take away impurity), and God's provision of the priesthood as the means by which he expresses his faithfulness to the covenant with Israel. The Priestly source in Numbers originally ended with an account of

15351-443: The script used to write the Torah from the older Hebrew script to Assyrian script, so called according to the Talmud, because they brought it with them from Assyria. Maharsha says that Ezra made no changes to the actual text of the Torah based on the Torah's prohibition of making any additions or deletions to the Torah in Deuteronomy 12:32 . By contrast, the modern scholarly consensus rejects Mosaic authorship, and affirms that

15480-451: The second Priestly. By contrast, John Van Seters advocates a supplementary hypothesis , which posits that the Torah was derived from a series of direct additions to an existing corpus of work. A "neo-documentarian" hypothesis, which responds to the criticism of the original hypothesis and updates the methodology used to determine which text comes from which sources, has been advocated by biblical historian Joel S. Baden, among others. Such

15609-452: The second half of the 20th century, views on the relative age of P and the Holiness Code (H) have undergone major revision. Scholars including Karl Elliger  [ de ] , Israel Knohl , and Christophe Nihan have argued for the younger age of H compared to P. Together with Jacob Milgrom , Knohl also identifies passages related to H elsewhere in the Pentateuch. Authors such as Bill T. Arnold and Paavo N. Tucker have argued that most of

15738-500: The second reminds the Israelites of the need to follow Yahweh and the laws (or teachings) he has given them, on which their possession of the land depends; and the third offers the comfort that even should Israel prove unfaithful and so lose the land, with repentance all can be restored. The final four chapters (31–34) contain the Song of Moses , the Blessing of Moses , and narratives recounting

15867-451: The seventh century BC, when it presumably originated among the priests in the Temple in Jerusalem. The Holiness Code also uses a noticeably different choice of vocabulary, repeating phrases such as I, Yahweh , am holy ; I am Yahweh ; and I am Yahweh, who makes you holy , an unusually large number of times. Additionally, Leviticus 17 begins with This is the thing which Yahweh has commanded, saying ... , and Leviticus 26 strongly resembles

15996-481: The study of these patterns led scholars to the conclusion that four separate sources lie behind them. The 19th century scholars saw these sources as independent documents which had been edited together, and for most of the 20th century this was the accepted consensus. But in 1973 the American biblical scholar Frank Moore Cross published an influential work called Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic , in which he argued that P

16125-497: The would-be autonomous community to present the local laws for imperial authorisation. This provided a powerful incentive for the various groups that constituted the Jewish community in Yehud to come to an agreement. The major groups were the landed families who controlled the main sources of wealth, and the priestly families who controlled the Temple. Each group had its own history of origins that legitimated its prerogatives. The tradition of

16254-546: Was first coined as the Heiligkeitsgesetz (literally "Holiness Law"; the word 'code' therefore means criminal code ) by German theologian August Klostermann in 1877. Critical biblical scholars have regarded it as a distinct unit and have noted that the style is noticeably different from the main body of Leviticus. Unlike the remainder of Leviticus, the many laws of the Holiness Code are expressed very closely packed together, and very briefly. According to most versions of

16383-417: Was laid with the investigation of the origins of the written sources in oral compositions, implying that the creators of J and E were collectors and editors and not authors and historians. Rolf Rendtorff , building on this insight, argued that the basis of the Pentateuch lay in short, independent narratives, gradually formed into larger units and brought together in two editorial phases, the first Deuteronomic,

16512-410: Was not an independent document (i.e., a written text telling a coherent story with a beginning, middle and end), but an editorial expansion of another of the four sources, the combined Jahwist/Elohist (called JE). Cross's study was the beginning of a series of attacks on the documentary hypothesis, continued notably by the work of Hans Heinrich Schmid ( The So-called Jahwist , 1976, questioning the date of

16641-435: Was originally transmitted to Moses at Sinai, and then from Moses to Israel. At that time it was forbidden to write and publish the oral law, as any writing would be incomplete and subject to misinterpretation and abuse. However, after exile, dispersion, and persecution, this tradition was lifted when it became apparent that in writing was the only way to ensure that the Oral Law could be preserved. After many years of effort by

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