Torah study

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Studying the Talmud

Torah study is the study by Jewish people of the Torah, Hebrew Bible, Talmud, responsa, rabbinic literature and similar works, all of which are Judaism's religious texts. Ideally within Judaism it is done for the purpose of the mitzvah ("commandment") of Torah study itself.

This practice is present to an extent in all branches of Judaism and is considered of paramount importance among traditional Jews. Torah study has evolved over the generations, as lifestyles changed and also as new texts were written.

Contents

[edit] Origins

Taurat


By Saleem Sulehria


To translate it by the words “The Old Testament” is obviously wrong. The “Old Testament” is a Christian term, applied to a body of old Jewish records. The Protestants and the Roman Catholics are not agreed precisely as to the number of records to be included in the canon of the “Old Testament.” They use the term in contradiction to the “New Testament.”

Nor is it correct to translate Taurat as the “Pentateuch,” a Greek term meaning the “Five Books.” These are the first five books of the Old Testament, known as Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. They contain a semi-historical and legendary narrative of the history of the world from the Creation to the time of the arrival of the Jews in the Promised Land. There are in them some beautiful idylls but there are also stories of incest, fraud, cruelty, and treachery, not always disapproved. A great part of the Mosaic Law is embodied in this narrative. The books are traditionally ascribed to Moses, it is certain that they were not written by Moses or in an age either contemporary with Moses or within an appreciable distance of time from Moses. They were in their present form probably compiled some time after the return of the Jews from the Babylonian Captivity. The decree of Cyrus permitting such return was in 536 B.C. Some books now include in the Old Testament, such as Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi were admittedly written after the return from the captivity. Malachi being as late a 420-397 B.C. The compilers of the Pentateuch of course used some ancient material: some of that material is actually named. Egyptian and Chaldaean terms are relics of local colour and contemporary documents.

But there are some ludicrous slips, which show that the compilers did not always understand their material. Modern criticism distinguishes two distinct sources among the documents used by the editors. For the sake of brevity and convenience they may be called (a) Jehovistic, and (b) Elohistic. Then there are miscellaneous interpolations. They sometimes overlap and sometimes contradict each other.

Logically speaking, the Book of Joshua, which describes the entry into the Promised Land, should be bracketed with the Pentateuch, and many writers speak of the six books together as the Hexateuch (Greek term for Six Books).

The Apocrypha contain certain Books which are not admitted as Canonical in the English Bible. But the early Christians received them as part of the Jewish Scriptures, and the Council of Trent (A.D. 1545-1563) seems to have recognised the greater part of them as Canonical. The statement in 2 Esdras (about the first century A.D.) that the law was burnt and Ezra (say, about 458-457 B.C.) was inspired to rewrite it, is probably true as to the historical fact that the law was lost, and that what we have now is no earlier than the time of Ezra, and some of it a good deal later.

So far we have spoken of the Christian view of the Old Testament. What is the Jewish view? The Jews divide their scripture into three parts: (1) the Law (Torah), (2) the Prophets (Nebiim), and (3) the Writings (kethubim). The corresponding Arabic words would be: (1) Taurat, (2) Nabiyin, and (3) Kutub. This division was probably current in the time of Jesus. In Luke xxiv, 44 Jesus refers to the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms. In other places (e.g., Matt. vii. 12) Jesus refers to the Law and the Prophets as summing up the whole Scripture. In the Old Testament Books, II. Chronicles xxxiv. 30), the reference to the Books of the Covenant must be to the Torah or the original Law. This is interesting. As the Qur’an frequently refers to the Covenant with reference to the Jews. The modern Christian term “Old Testament” and “New Testament” are substitutes for the older terms “Old Covenant” and “New Covenant.” The Samaritans, who claim to be the real Children of Israel and disavow the Jews as schismatics from their Law of Moses, only recognise the Pentateuch, of which they have their own version slightly different from that in the Old Testament. The view of the school of higher Criticism is radically destructive. According to Renan it is doubtful whether Moses was not a myth. Two versions of Sacred History existed, different in language, style, and spirit, and they were combined together into a narrative in the reign of Hezekiah (B.C. 727-697). This forms the greater part of the Pentateuch as it exists today, excluding the greater part of the Deuteronomy and Leviticus. In the reign of Josiah about 622 B.C. certain priests and scribes (with Jeremiah the Prophet) promulgated a new code, pretending that they had found it in the Temple (II. Kings, xxii. 8). This Law (Torah = Taurat) was the basis of Judaism, the new religion then founded in Palestine. This was further completed by the sacerdotal and Levitical Torah, compiled under the inspiration of Ezekiel, say, about 575 B.C., and contained mainly in the Book of Leviticus, with scattered fragments in Exodus, Numbers, and Joshua. We are entitles to accept the general results of a scientific examination of documents, probabilities, and dates; even though we reject the premise which we believe to be false, viz., that Allah does not send inspired Books through inspired Prophets. We believe that Moses existed; that he was an inspired man of God; that he gave a message which was afterwards distorted or lost; that attempts were made by Israel at various times to reconstruct that message; and that the Torah as we have it is (in view of the statement in 2 Esdras) no earlier than the middle of the fifth century B.C.

The primitive Torah must have been in old Hebrew, but there is no Hebrew manuscript of the Old Testament which can be dated with certainty earlier than 916 A.D. Hebrew ceased to be spoken language with the Jews during or after the Captivity, and by the time we come to the period of Jesus, most cultivated Hebrew used the Greek language, and others used Aramaic (including Syriac and Chaldee), Latin, or local dialects. There were also Arabic versions. For historical purposes the most important versions were the Greek versions. Known as the Septuagint, and the Latin version, known as the Vulgate. The Septuagint was supposed to have been prepared by 70 or 72 Jews (Latin, septuaginta = seventy) working independently and at different times, the earliest portion dating from about 284 B.C. This version was used by the Jews of Alexandria and the Hellenized Jews who were spread over all parts of the Roman Empire. The Vulgate was a Latin translation made by the celebrated Father of the Christian Church, St. Jerome, from Hebrew, early in the fifth century A.D., superseding the older Latin versions. Neither the Septuagint nor the Vulgate an absolutely fixed or certain text. The present standard text of the Vulgate as accepted by the Roman Catholic Church was issued by pope Clement VIII (A.D. 1592-1605).

It will be seen therefore that there is no standard text of the Old Testament in its Hebrew form. The versions differ from each other frequently in minor particulars and sometimes in important particulars. The Pentateuch itself is only a small portion of the Old Testament. It is in narrative form, and includes the laws and regulations associated with the name of Moses, but probably compiled and edited from older sources by Ezra (or Esdras Arabic, ‘Uzair) in the 5th century B.C. As Renan remarks in the preface to his History of the people of Israel, the “definite constitution of Judaism” may be dated only from the time of Ezra. The very early Christians were divided into two parties. One was a judaizing party, which wished to remain in adherence to the Jewish law and customs while recognising the mission of Jesus. The other, led by Paul, broke away from Jewish customs and tradition. Ultimately Pauline Christianity won. But both parties recognised the Old Testament in its present form (in one or another of its varying versions) as Scripture. It was the merit of Islam that it pointed out that as scripture it was of no value, although it recognised Moses as an inspired messenger and his original Law as having validity in his period until it was superseded. In its criticism of the Jewish position it said in effect: “You have lost your original Law; even what you have now as its substitute, you do not honestly follow; is it not better, now that an inspired Teacher is living among you, that you should follow him rather than quibble over uncertain texts?”

But the Jews in the Prophet’s time (and since) went a great deal by the Talmud, or a body of oral expression, reduced to writing in different Schools of doctors and learned men. “Talmud” in Hebrew is connected with the Arabic root in Tilmiz, “disciple” or “student.” The Talmudists took the divergent texts of the Old Testament and in interpreting them by a mass of traditional commentary and legendary lore, evolved a standard body of teaching. The Talmudists are of special interest to us, as, in the sixth century A.D., just before the preaching of Islam, they evolved the Massorah, which may be regarded as the body of authoritative Jewish Traditions, to which references are to be found in passages addressed to the Jews in the Qur’an.

The first part of the Talmud is called the Mishna, - a collection of traditions and decisions prepared by the Rabbi Judah about 150 A.D. He summed up the results of a great mass of previous rabbinical writings. The Mishna is the “Second Law”: Cf. the Arabic Than-in = second. “It bound heavy burdens, grievous to be borne, and laid them on men’s shoulders”: Matt. xxiii. 4.

There were also many Targums or paraphrases of the Law among the Jews. “Targum” is connected in root with Arabic Tarjama, “he translated.” There were many Targums, mostly in Aramaic, and they constituted the teaching of the Law to the masses of the Jewish people.

The correct translation of the Taurat is therefore “The Law.” In its original form it was promulgated by Moses, and is recognised in Islam as having been an inspired Book. But it was lost before Islam was preached. What passed as “The Law” with the Jews in the Prophet’s time was the mass of traditional writing which I have tried to review in this paper.

Authorities: Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Bible”: Helps to the Study of the Bible, Oxford University Press; A.F. Kirkpatrick. Divine Library of the Old Testament: C.E Hammond, Outline of Textual Criticism: E. Renan, History of Israel; G.F, Moore, Literature of the Old Testament, and the bibliography therein (Home University Library); Sir Frederic Kenyon, The Story of the Bible. 1936.


Injil

Just as the Taurat is not the Old Testament, or the Pentateuch, as now received by the Jews and Christians, so the Injil mentioned in the Qur-an is certainly not the New Testament, and it is not the four Gospels, as now received by the Christian Church, but an original Gospel which was promulgated by Jesus as the Taurat was promulgated by Moses and the Qur-an by Muhammad Al-Mustapha.

The New Testament as now received consists of (a) four Gospels with varying contents (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John); and other miscellaneous matters; viz., (b) the Acts of Apostles (probably written by Luke and St Paul from the supposed Crucifixion of Jesus to about 61 A.D.): (c) twenty-one Letters or Epistles (the majority written by St. Paul to various churches or individual. But a few written by other Disciples, and of a general nature); and (d) the Book of Revelation or Apocalypse (ascribed to St. John, and containing mystic visions and prophecies, of which it is difficult to understand the meaning).

As Prof. F.C. Burkitt remarks (Canon of the New Testament), it is an odd miscellany. “The four biographer of Jesus Christ… are not all independent to each other, and neither of them was intended by its writer to form one of a quartette. But they are all side by side, unharmonised, one of them being actually imperfect at the end, and one being only the first volume of a larger work.” All this body of unmethodical literature was casual in its nature. No wonder, because the early Christians expected the end of the world very soon. The four canonical Gospels were only four out of many, and some others besides the four have survived. Each writer just wrote down some odd sayings of the Master that he recollected. Among the miracles described there is only one which is described in all the four Gospels, and others were described and believed in other Gospels, which are not mentioned in any four canonical Gospels. Some of the Epistles contain expositions of doctrine, but this has been interpreted differently by different Churches. There must have been hundreds of such Epistles, and not all the Epistles now received as canonical were always so received or intended to be received. The Apocalypse also was not the only one in the field. There were others. They were prophecies of “things which must shortly come to pass”: they could not have been meant for long preservation, “for the time is at hand.”

When were these four Gospels written? By the end of the second century A.D. they were in existence, but it does not follow that they had been selected by that date to form a canon. They were merely pious productions comparable to Dean Farrar’s Life of Christ. There were other Gospels besides. And further, the writers of two of them, Mark and Luke, were not among the Twelve Disciples “called” by Jesus. About the Gospel of St. John there is much controversy as to authorship, date, and even as to whether it was all written by the person. Clement of Rome (about 97 A.D.) and Polycarp (about 112 A.D.) quote sayings of Jesus in a form different from those in the present canonical Gospel. Polycarp (Epistle vii) inveigh much against men “who pervert the sayings of the Lord to their own lusts,” and he wants to turn “to the Word handed down to us from the beginning,” thus referring to a Book (or a tradition) much earlier than the four orthodox Gospels. An Epistle of St. Barnabas and an Apocalypse of St. Peter were recognised by presbyter Clement of Alexandria (flourished about 180 A.D.). The Apocalypse of St. John, which is a part of the present Canon in the West, forms no part of the Peshitta (Syriac) version of the Eastern Christian, which was produced about 411-433 A.D., and which was used by the Nestorian Christians. It is possible that the Peshitta was the version (or an Arabic form of it) used by the Christians in Arabia in the time of the Prophet. The final form of the New Testament canon for the West was fixed in the fourth century A.D. (say, about 367 A.D.) by Athanasius and the Nicene creed. The beautiful Codex Sinaiticus which was acquired for the British Museum in 1934, and is one of the earliest complete manuscripts of the Bible, may be dated about the fourth century. It is written in the Greek language. Fragments of unknown Gospels have also been discovered, which do not agree with the received canonical Gospels.

The Injil (Greek. Evangel = Gospel) spoken of by the Qur-an is not the New Testament. It is not the four Gospels now received as canonical. It is the single Gospel which, Islam teaches, was revealed to Jesus, and which he taught. Fragments of it survive in the received canonical Gospels and in some others, of which traces survive (e.g., the Gospel of Childhood or the Nativity, the Gospel of St. Barnabas, etc.). Muslims are therefore right in respecting the present Bible (New Testament and Old Testament), though they reject the peculiar doctrine taught by orthodox Christianity or Judaism. They claim to be in the true tradition of Abraham, and therefore all that is of value in the older revelation, it is claimed, is incorporated in the teaching of the Last of the Prophets.


Authorities: The first two mentioned in the paper on Taurat, and in addition: Prof. F.C. Burkitt, on the Cannon of the New Testament, in Religion, June 1934, the journal of Transactions of the Society for Promoting the study of Religions: R.W. Mackay. Rise and progress of Christianity: G.R.S. Mead. The Gospel and the Gospels: B.W. Bacon. Making of the New Testament, with its Bibliography: Sir Frederick Kenyon. The Story of the Bible; R. Hone. The Apocryphal New Testament, London 1820: H.I. Bell and T.C Skeat. Fragments of an Unknown Gospel and other Christian Papyri, published by the British Museum. 1935. See also chapter 15 of Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, where the genesis of the early churches and sects in the Roman Empire is briefly reviewed.


Torah study is counted amongst the 613 mitzvot ("[Biblical] commandments"), finding its source in the verse (Deuteronomy 6:7): "And you shall teach it to your children," upon which the Talmud comments that "Study is necessary in order to teach." The importance of study is attested to in another Talmudic discussion (Kiddushin 40b) about which is preferred: study or action. The answer there, a seeming compromise, is "study that leads to action."

Although the word "Torah" refers specifically to the Five Books of Moses, in Judaism the word also refers to the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), the Talmud and other religious works, even including the study of Kabbalah, Hasidism, Mussar and much more.

[edit] Traditional view of Torah study

In rabbinic literature, the highest ideal of all Jews is Torah study. This literature teaches an eagerness for such study and a thirst for knowledge that expands beyond the text of the Tanakh to the entire Oral Torah. According to many historians, this carried over into the general characteristics of Jewish society, both religious and non-religious, down to the present. Some examples of traditional teachings:

  • The study of Torah is considered to outweigh a number of mitzvot, such as visiting the sick, honouring one's parents, and bringing peace between people (Shabbat 127a). This paragraph was incorporated in the daily prayer service.
  • A number of Talmudic rabbis consider Torah study as being greater than the rescue of human life, than the building of the Temple in Jerusalem, and than the honor of father and mother (Megilah 16b), provided that the individual's life will be saved by someone else.[citation needed]
  • As the child must satisfy its hunger day by day, so must the grown man busy himself with the Torah each hour (Yerushalmi Berakhot ch. 9).
  • Torah study is of more value than the offering of daily sacrifice (Eruvin 63b).
  • A single day devoted to the Torah outweighs 1,000 sacrifices (Tractate Shabbat 30a; comp. Tractate Menachot 100a).
  • The fable of the Fish and the Fox, in which the latter seeks to entice the former to dry land, declares Israel can live only in the Law as fish can live only in the ocean.
  • Whoever learns Torah at night is granted grace during the day and whoever neglects it will be fed burning coals in the World to Come. (Avodah Zarah 3b).
  • God weeps over one who might have occupied himself with Torah study but neglected to do so (Tractate Hagigah 5b).
  • The study must be unselfish: one should study the Torah with self-denial, even at the sacrifice of one's life; and in the very hour before death one should devote himself to this duty (Tractate Shabbat 83b).
  • All, even lepers and the ritually unclean, are required to study the Torah (Tractate Berakhot 22a).
  • It is the duty of everyone to read the entire weekly portion twice (the law of shnayim mikra ve-echad targum, Tractate Berakhot 8a).
  • According to R. Meir, a Gentile who studies the Torah (for the purpose of finding out about the Noachide Laws) is as great as the High Priest (Tractate Avodah Zarah 3a).
  • According to R. Yehudah, God Himself studies the Torah for the first three hours of every day. (Tractate Avodah Zarah 3b).

[edit] Forms of traditional Jewish Torah study

The Talmud (Tractate Kiddushin 30a) comments: "The words of Torah shall be sharp in your mouth so that if someone asks you something, you shall not fumble and then tell it to him, rather you shall tell it to him immediately." In yeshivas ("Talmudical schools"), rabbinical schools and kollels ("[post-graduate] Talmudical schools") the primary ways of studying Torah include study of:

Other less universally studied texts include the Nevi'im and Ketuvim, other rabbinic literature (such as midrash) and works of religious Jewish philosophy.

Most Orthodox Jews study the text of the Torah on four levels as described in the Zohar:

  • Peshat, the plain (simple) or literal reading;
  • Remez, the allegorical reading through text's hint or allusion
  • Derash, the metaphorical reading through a (rabbinic sermon's) comparison/illustration (midrash)
  • Sod, the hidden meaning reading through text's secret or mystery (Kabbalah).

The initial letters of the words Peshat, Remez, Derash, Sod, forming together the Hebrew word PaRDeS (also meaning "orchard"), became the designation for the four-way method of studying Torah, in which the mystical sense given in the Kabbalah was the highest point.

In some traditional circles, most notably the Orthodox and Haredi, Torah study is a way of life. In some communities, men forego other occupations and study Torah full-time.

Haredi Israelis often choose to devote many years to Torah study, often studying at a Kollel. National Religious Israelis often choose to devote time after high school to Torah study, either during their army service at a Hesder yeshiva, or before their service at a Mechina.

[edit] D'var Torah

A D'var Torah (Heb: דבר תורה) (Plural: Divrei Torah) is a talk on topics relating to a section (parashah) of the Torah – typically the weekly Torah portion. In respect to its place in synagogues, rabbis will often give their D'var Torah after the Torah service. Divrei Torah can range in length, depending on the rabbi and the depth of the talk. In most congregations, it will not last much longer than fifteen minutes, but in the case of Rebbes or special occasions, a Dvar Torah can last all afternoon.

It is extremely likely that a D'var Torah will carry a life lesson, backed up by passages from certain Jewish texts like the Talmud or Mishnah.

It is also known as a Drasha in Ashkenazic communities.

There are many Torah sites on the web that contain Divrei Torah to help people learn Torah. One of these sites provides users the ability to post their own Dvar Torah help others who are learning Torah.

[edit] Torah study by other Jewish denominations

Like Orthodox Jews, other Jewish denominations may use any or all of the traditional areas and modes of Torah study. They study the weekly Torah portion, the Talmud, ethical works, and more. They may study simply the peshat of the text, or they may also study, to a limited extent, the remez, derash and sod, which is found in Etz Hayyim: A Torah Commentary (Rabbinical Assembly), used in many Conservative congregations. It is common in Torah study among Jews involved in Jewish Renewal. Some level of PaRDeS study can even be found in forms of Judaism that otherwise are strictly rationalist, such as Reconstructionist Judaism. However, non-Orthodox Jews generally spend less time in detailed study of the classical Torah commentators, and spend more time studying modern Torah commentaries that draw on and include the classical commentators, but which are written from more modern perspectives. Furthermore, works of rabbinic literature (such as the Talmud) typically receive less attention than the Tanakh.

Before the Enlightenment, virtually all Jews believed that the Tanakh was written by the prophets who heard it from God, and that it directly reflected God's intentions in human language. They also believed that as both divine intentions and human language are complex, the Torah required interpretation. After the Enlightenment, many Jews began to participate in wider European society, where they learned critical methods of textual study, the modern historical method, hermeneutics, and fields relevant to Bible study such as near-Eastern archaeology and linguistics. Many Jews found the findings of these disciplines compelling and considered them relevant to Torah study. According to this view, the Bible was written by different people who may have been "divinely inspired", but who lived at different times and in different societies; and these factors should be taken into account when studying their works. Consequently, one way to add more to Torah study would be to learn more about the intentions of these people, and the circumstances in which they lived. This type of study depends on evidence external to the text, especially archeological evidence and comparative literature. See the entries on Biblical Higher criticism and the Documentary hypothesis.

Today, Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist rabbis draw on the lessons of modern critical Bible scholarship as well as the traditional forms of Biblical exegesis. Orthodox rabbis reject most or all critical Bible scholarship considering it highly speculative or simply false.

Religious Jews of all denominations hold as a belief that one must constantly strive to engage in Torah study.

[edit] Torah study in the Land of Israel

Devoting a year to Torah study in the modern Land of Israel is a common practice among American, and, to a lesser extent, European and South African Modern Orthodox Jews. Young adults spend a year studying Torah in the Land of Israel. It is common both among males and females, with the boys normally going to a yeshiva and the girls to a midrasha (often called seminary or seminaria). Common Yeshivot with year-in-Israel programs include: Yeshivat Har Etzion, Yeshivat HaMivtar, Machon Meir, Aish HaTorah. Common seminaries or midrashot include: Midreshet Lindenbaum, Migdal Oz, Nishmat, Bnos Chava. Chasidic and Charedi boys from abroad often spend many years studying in the Land of Israel. Bnei Akiva offers a number of options to spend a year of study in Israel, as part of their Hachshara programs.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Bibliography

  • A Practical Guide to Torah Learning, D. Landesman, Jason Aronson 1995. ISBN 1-56821-320-4

[edit] Wikimedia Torah study projects

Text study projects at Wikisource. Please note that in many instances, these projects proceed much faster in Hebrew than in English!


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