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When most people think of Torah, they likely think of the Five Books of Moses (also known as the Pentateuch): Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. These five books together form the first and most sacred third of the Jewish Bible, the Tanakh. In synagogues throughout the world, they are written in quill on a parchment scroll attached to wooden rollers (this scroll used for ritual purposes is called a sefer torah) and housed in the holy ark on the wall of the sanctuary that faces Jerusalem.But the word “Torah” has many other meanings as well. It refers not just to the five books of Moses but also to all of Tanakh, and it sometimes is used to refer also to the Talmud and other rabbinic writings (known as the Oral Torah). Torah can also mean Jewish teachings writ large.What is the difference between the Written Torah and the Oral Torah? Find out! Support My Jewish Learning Help us keep Jewish knowledge accessible to millions of people around the world.Your donation to My Jewish Learning fuels endless journeys of Jewish discovery. With your help, My Jewish Learning can continue to provide nonstop opportunities for learning, connection and growth. In ancient times, the word “torah” wasn’t a proper noun at all, or even necessarily a Jewish word — it was simply a Hebrew word that meant instruction and could refer to something as simple as a parent’s directive to a child.For the purposes of this article, we will capitalize Torah when it refers to the Five Books of Moses, and leave it in lowercase when it does not designate those specific books and instead refers, for instance, to a specific instruction.What the Word Torah MeansThe Hebrew word torah literally means direction or instruction. The root, yod-resh-hey (ירה), originally likely meant to throw or shoot an arrow. The noun torah is rendered in a causative conjugation, which is just a way of saying that it literally means to cause something (or someone) to move straight and true. A torah is therefore something that directs, having connotations of offering strong and virtuous guidance.Beyond

Instruction or teaching, torah can also mean law or statute — something one is not just guided to do, but required to do. And it can also refer to a custom, a kind of loose, unwritten law.Both in antiquity and today, the word torah is used to refer to something quite small, such as a singular bit of instruction or teaching. Today, you might hear someone get up in front of a group to share “words of Torah” which could possibly have no direct relation to the Five Books of Moses. Equally, torah is used to refer to something much larger or more amorphous, even most or all of Jewish teaching and practice, old and new.How the Five Books of Moses Came to be Called the TorahThe Torah itself, with a capital “T” (that is, the five books of Moses), does not actually refer to itself by name. In fact, it does not refer to itself at all, since these were originally separate books that were later gathered into a collection, traditionally in the time of Ezra. The word torah does appear throughout the five books where it clearly means “instruction.” For instance, in Exodus 24:12, it is essentially synonymous with mitzvah:The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and wait there, and I will give you the stone tablets with the teachings (torah) and commandments (mitzvah) which I have inscribed to instruct them.”In a great many cases, torah refers to instructions that accompany a sacrifice or ritual. In these contexts, it is clear that it refers only to those specific instructions (to pick but one example, see Leviticus 7:11).The Book of Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Torah, is different. This book, which is primarily composed of speeches of Moses, understands itself as a repetition of instructions that Moses received from God and gave to the Israelites. This book refers to its contents as torah, as teaching, right from the beginning:These are the words that Moses addressed to all Israel on the other side of the Jordan … On the other side of the Jordan,

Sanctuary. Contained within the ark will be the congregation's Torah scroll(s). Above the ark is the Ner Tamid (Hebrew for "Eternal Flame"), which is a light that remains lit constantly, even when the sanctuary is not in use.Torah Scrolls. Contained within the ark, the Torah scrolls are enshrined in the place of greatest honor within the sanctuary. A Torah scroll contains the Hebrew text of the first five books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy). Artwork. Many sanctuaries will be decorated with artwork or stained glass windows. The artwork and motifs will vary widely from congregation to congregation.Memorial Boards. These usually contain plaques with names of people of the congregation who have died, along with the Hebrew and English dates of their death.Siddur. This is the main prayer book of the congregation containing the Hebrew liturgy read during the prayer service. Chumash. This is a copy of the Torah in Hebrew. It usually contains an English translation of the Torah, as well as the Hebrew and English text of the Haftarot read after the weekly Torah portion.

Conduct weakens Orthodoxy generally. This might be true, but the reverse might be true also: we strengthen the hand of those who oppose Torah and mitzvot when we prohibit that which halacha permits and encourages for these political reasons. It might lead opponents of Orthodoxy to conclude that we – Orthodoxy’s representatives in our generation – are not advocates for God’s law at all but just politicians. [6] For more on this, see my “A Brief Note about “Women’s Only Torah Reading” on Simchat Torah” at [7] Minhag Ashkenaz insists that it is proper for women who want to, to shake a lulav and it is not at all uncommon for women to come to shul with arba minim nowadays. Nowhere in the classical poskim is it recorded that hoshanot with a lulav are different. (In truth, my notes recount that I saw in Eshai Yisrael a view that notes women should not do hoshanot, but I cannot find the view recorded now.) [8] This note discussed the practice of permitting women to read – after davening and in a distinct place – Ruth, Shir Hashirim or Kohelet and women dancing with a torah on simchat torah. Neither of these cases is at all like a women’s Torah reading or women wearing a tallit in that men are obligated in such a Torah reading and women are not, and both are doing mitzvot when wearing a tallit. In the case of the three megilot, there are two ways to think about the obligation; either no one is really obligated or both genders are obligated. Gra and many others think about reading the three megilot as like reading Esther, and make a bracha; see Gra OC 490:9. Others adopt the view that this whole matter is a minhag and neither men nor women are genuinely obligated to read or hear anything. See Rama OC 490:9. Whichever view is correct, the obligation of men and women are the same (either the same obligated, or the same not obligated) and when a woman reads any of the three megilot from a klaf, whatever obligation she has, she fulfills and she makes a bracha. Such is not the case with women’s Torah reading, which is exactly the mimicry problem or women’s tallit wearing, which is a clear mitzvah.Women dancing with the torah is simply different since no one is obligated to dance with a torah, neither men nor women, and thus the whole mimicry issue disappears and it is just a matter of tradition. Since neither men nor women are doing any mitzvah at all, it is hard to lay out a firm halachic position, as no matter of halacha is at stake; I