Judaism 101: The Written Tradition: Epublicist.ca

Judaism 101 : The Written Tradition

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Lecturer: Yoel Ben-Avraham File: C:\Documents and Settings\YBA\My Documents\My Projects\Judaism101\Written Tradition01.odp

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What is the 'Torah'

The Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, as it is written almost entirely in the Hebrew language, with some small portions in Aramaic. It is traditionally divided into three parts: the Torah ("teaching" or "law"), the Nevi'im ("prophets"), and the Ketuvim ("writings").

Lecturer: Yoel Ben-Avraham File: C:\Documents and Settings\YBA\My Documents\My Projects\Judaism101\Written Tradition01.odp

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What is included? The Torah, or "Instruction," is also known as the "Five Books" of Moses, thus Chumash from Hebrew meaning "fivesome," and Pentateuch from Greek meaning "five scroll-cases." The Torah comprises the following five books:  Genesis, Ge—Bereshit (‫)בראשית‬  Exodus, Ex—Shemot (‫)שמות‬  Leviticus, Le—Vayikra (‫)ויקרא‬  Numbers, Nu—Bamidbar (‫)במדבר‬  Deuteronomy, Dt—Devarim (‫)דברים‬

The Hebrew book titles come from the first words in the respective texts. The Hebrew title for Numbers, however, comes from the fifth word of that text.

Lecturer: Yoel Ben-Avraham File: C:\Documents and Settings\YBA\My Documents\My Projects\Judaism101\Written Tradition01.odp

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How were they chosen?

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The term "canon" refers to the closed corpus of biblical literature regarded as divinely inspired. The Hebrew biblical canon represents a long process of selection, as testified to by the Bible itself, which lists some twenty‑two books that have been lost to us, no doubt, among other reasons, because they were not included in the canon. Books were only included if they were regarded as holy, that is, divinely inspired.

Lecturer: Yoel Ben-Avraham File: C:\Documents and Settings\YBA\My Documents\My Projects\Judaism101\Written Tradition01.odp

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When were they selected? Rabbinic Judaism recognizes the twenty-four books of the Masoretic Text, commonly called the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible. Evidence suggests that the process of canonization occurred between 200 BCE and 200 CE. A popular position is that the Torah was canonized circa 400 BCE, the Prophets circa 200 BCE, and the Writings circa 100 CE perhaps at a hypothetical Council of Jamnia—this position, however, is increasingly criticised by modern scholars. The book of Deuteronomy includes a prohibition against adding or subtracting (4:2, 12:32) which might apply to the book itself (i.e. a "closed book," a prohibition against future scribal editing) or to the instruction received by Moses on Mt. Sinai. The book of 2 Maccabees, itself not a part of the Jewish canon, describes Nehemiah (around 400 BCE) as having "founded a library and collected books about the kings and prophets, and the writings of David, and letters of kings about votive offerings" (2:13-15). The Book of Nehemiah suggests that the priest-scribe Ezra brought the Torah back from Babylon to Jerusalem and the Second Temple (8-9) around the same time period.

Lecturer: Yoel Ben-Avraham File: C:\Documents and Settings\YBA\My Documents\My Projects\Judaism101\Written Tradition01.odp

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How were they preserved? The Masoretic Text (MT) is a Hebrew text of the Jewish Bible (Tanakh). It defines not just the books of the Jewish canon, but also the precise letter-text of the biblical books in Judaism, as well as their vocalization and accentuation for both public reading and private study. The MT was primarily copied, edited and distributed by a group of Jews known as the Masoretes between the seventh and tenth centuries CE. The Hebrew word mesorah (‫מסורה‬, alt. ‫ )מסורת‬refers to the transmission of a tradition. In a very broad sense it can refer to the entire chain of Jewish tradition (see Oral law), but in reference to the masoretic text the word mesorah has a very specific meaning: the diacritic markings of the text of the Hebrew Bible and concise marginal notes in manuscripts (and later printings) of the Hebrew Bible which note textual details, usually about the precise spelling of words.

Lecturer: Yoel Ben-Avraham File: C:\Documents and Settings\YBA\My Documents\My Projects\Judaism101\Written Tradition01.odp

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‫‪Demonstration of Consistency‬‬

‫רץ‪.‬‬ ‫הא ֶ‬ ‫את ָ‬ ‫מים‪ ,‬ו ְ ֵ‬ ‫ש ַ‬ ‫את הַ ׁ ָ‬ ‫הים‪ֵ ,‬‬ ‫רא אֱלֹ ִ‬ ‫שית בָ ָ‬ ‫רא ִ‬ ‫)א( בְ ֵ‬ ‫ח‬ ‫תהום; ְורו ַ‬ ‫ני ְ‬ ‫על‪-‬פ ְ ֵ‬ ‫ך‪ַ ,‬‬ ‫ש ְ‬ ‫ח ֶ‬ ‫בהו‪ ,‬ו ְ ֹ‬ ‫תהו ו ָ ֹ‬ ‫תה ֹ‬ ‫רץ‪ ,‬הָי ְ ָ‬ ‫הא ֶ‬ ‫)ב( ו ְ ָ‬ ‫מים‪.‬‬ ‫ני הַ ָ‬ ‫על‪-‬פ ְ ֵ‬ ‫פת ַ‬ ‫ח ֶ‬ ‫הים‪ ,‬מְר ַ ֶ‬ ‫ל ִ‬ ‫אֱ ֹ‬ ‫הי‪-‬אור‪.‬‬ ‫הי אור; ו ַי ְ ִ‬ ‫הים‪ ,‬י ְ ִ‬ ‫ל ִ‬ ‫מר אֱ ֹ‬ ‫)ג( ו ַֹיא ֶ‬ ‫בין‬ ‫הים‪ֵ ,‬‬ ‫ל ִ‬ ‫דל אֱ ֹ‬ ‫כי‪-‬טוב; ו ַי ַבְ ֵ‬ ‫האור‪ִ ,‬‬ ‫את‪ָ -‬‬ ‫הים ֶ‬ ‫ל ִ‬ ‫)ד( ו ַי ַר ְא אֱ ֹ‬ ‫ך‪.‬‬ ‫ש ְ‬ ‫ח ֶ‬ ‫בין הַ ֹ‬ ‫האור ו ֵ‬ ‫ָ‬ ‫הי‪-‬‬ ‫לה; ו ַי ְ ִ‬ ‫רא לָי ְ ָ‬ ‫ק ָ‬ ‫שך ְ ָ‬ ‫ח ֶ‬ ‫לאור יום‪ ,‬ו ְלַ ֹ‬ ‫הים ָ‬ ‫ל ִ‬ ‫רא אֱ ֹ‬ ‫ק ָ‬ ‫)ה( ו ַי ִ ְ‬ ‫חד‪} .‬פ{‬ ‫קר‪ ,‬יום אֶ ָ‬ ‫ב ֶ‬ ‫הי‪ֹ -‬‬ ‫רב ו ַי ְ ִ‬ ‫ע ֶ‬ ‫ֶ‬

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‫‪Lecturer: Yoel Ben-Avraham‬‬ ‫‪File: C:\Documents and Settings\YBA\My Documents\My Projects\Judaism101\Written Tradition01.odp‬‬

Additional Resources

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Blog : Cannonization of Jewish Bible Book: “From Text to Tradition: A History of Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism” (Ktav) by Lawrence Shiffman Wikipedia : Canonization of Jewish Bible Wikipedia: Masoretic Tradition

Lecturer: Yoel Ben-Avraham File: C:\Documents and Settings\YBA\My Documents\My Projects\Judaism101\Written Tradition01.odp

Date:

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