The Torah is a term that refers to the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, which are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. These books are also known as the Pentateuch or the Five Books of Moses. The Torah is considered the core of the Jewish spiritual and religious tradition, and it represents the origin of Jewish peoplehood. The Talmud states that the Torah was written by Moses, with the exception of the last eight verses of Deuteronomy, which were written by Joshua. According to 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 wrote down all of the events, stories, and commandments.
In addition to the written scriptures, there is also an "Oral Torah," which is a tradition explaining what the above scriptures mean and how to interpret them and apply the laws. Orthodox Jews believe that God taught the Oral Torah to Moses, and that knowledge was passed on to others down to the present day. This tradition was maintained only in oral form until about the 2nd century C.E., when the oral law was compiled and written down in a document called the Mishnah.
The Torah is also used to designate the entire Hebrew Bible, which includes the Torah, Prophets (Neviim), and the Writings (Ketuvim) . The Bible is often referred to by the Hebrew acronym TaNaKh (usually spelled Tanakh, or Tanach) . The Torahs stories, laws, and poetry stand at the center of Jewish culture, and they chronicle Gods creation of the world, the selection and growth of the family of Abraham and Sarah in relationship to God in the land of Canaan, the exile and redemption from Egypt of that "family-become-nation" known as Israel, and their travels through the desert until they return to the land of Canaan.
During the Torah service, the Torah scroll is taken out and the weekly portion chanted or read aloud. The Torah scroll, also known as a sefer Torah, is hand-written on parchment according to numerous specifications by a sofer (scribe), a specially trained individual.
