II. Sacred Scriptures
J
ews are referred to as the “People of the Book”
because after the destruction of the Second
Temple and their subsequent exile they could not
practice sacrifices, so their religious life turned
into the study of their scriptures and praying at the
synagogue. Since then the study of Torah and other
Jewish texts has been the center of their religious
life (“Jewish sacred texts”, n.d.).
Jewish scriptures are inestimable sources
of their history and their divine commandments;
both of them play an important role in Judaism. To
remember what God has done for them and what
He wants from them in return, selections of the
Torah and The Prophets are read several times per
week at the synagogue. To interpret, practice and
apply properly what is in the texts some rabbi have
developed some writings. The study of the Torah
is done usually in Hebrew and it is an integral part
of the Jewish children’s education (“Jewish sacred
texts”, n.d.).
The Tanakh is the Jewish sacred text and it
consists of the same books present in the Christian
Old Testament but in a slightly different order and
with other minor differences. Tanakh is an acro-
nym of Torah, but Torah only includes the first five
books, even though sometimes Torah is believed to
be the entire Tanakh (“Jewish sacred texts”, n.d.).
Although the Torah includes only the first
five books (The Pentateuch) of the Jewish bible it is
the central and the most important document for
the Jews and has been used by them for over cen-
turies. Jews believe that God dictated it to Moses
in Mount Sinai and they believe that it shows them
how God wants them to live. The Torah contains
613 commandments, which include the 10 state-
ments that are the 10 best known of them. It is writ-
ten in Hebrew and is known also as Torat Moshe
(Law of Moses); the Torah has some meanings in
English as: teaching, law, and instruction. For the
Jews it does not mean only one thing but the three
of them (“BBC - Religions - Judaism: The Torah”,
2013).