The Two Torahs
When Moses ascended Mount Sinai around 1440 B.C.E. and received the Torah from
G-d, he received it in two parts. One part is known as the “Written Torah”, which follows Man
and the Jewish People from the beginning of Creation until the Jewish return to the Land of
Israel after slavery in Egypt. In addition to documenting the origin story of the Jewish nation, the
Written Torah also codifies the 613 Mitzvot (Commandments) that the Jewish people has agreed
to follow in its everlasting covenant with G-d. The second part of the Torah that Moses received
from G-d is known as the “Oral Torah”, which qualifies, elaborates, and applies the details of the
613 Commandments codified more generally in the Written Torah.
What is a Sefer Torah?
While the Oral Torah was passed down mainly through word of mouth until Rabbi
Yehuda Ha’Nasi compiled it in written form around 200 C.E., the Written Torah has maintained
the written form of a “Sefer Torah” (pron. Sei-fehr Toh-rah) ever since its reception, and a
standard form at that: Hebrew words, paragraphs, and chapters written in Hebraic–then
Assyrian–script, with a quill and ink, on a long scroll of numerous connected pages of animal
hide parchment. As even a slight break from the strict compositional guidelines can render a
Sefer Torah illegitimate and useless, the process of recording a Sefer Torah is long and tedious,
reserved to experienced scribes. Even if a Sefer Torah has been completed according to all the
compositional rules and has been put into use, it still must be regularly reviewed for blemishes,
such as a smudged word resulting from time and constant use, that must be fixed, else the Sefer
Torah be rendered unusable.
How a Sefer Torah is Used
A Sefer Torah consists of 54 Parashiot (Chapters), which make up five Chumashim
(Books). Every Sabbath (Saturday), we Jews assemble in a synagogue and read the chapter of the
week. (We also read the beginning of the weekly chapter on the preceding Monday and
Thursday.) First the Sefer Torah is removed from its ark, undressed of its adornments, and the
scroll turned to the weekly portion. Male members of the community aged 13 and up are then
called up to bless the Torah, and the weekly chapter is melodically read aloud in Hebrew for the
whole congregation to hear. After the reading is complete, the Sefer Torah is redressed in its
adornments, kissed, and returned to its ark. The process is repeated Sabbath after Sabbath for an
entire year, until all 54 chapters of the Torah have been read. The annual conclusion of the last
chapter of the Torah is marked by the festive holiday of Simchat Torah–”Joy of Torah”; the entire
community sings and dances with the Sefer Torah by night and day, with wine and meat
enhancing the festivities.
A Sefer Torah’s Paramount Significance
It is the constant weekly use of the Sefer Torah, use that transcends time, people, and
place, that guarantees its monumental importance to the continuity of the Jewish people, to the
point that many a Jew throughout history has risked, or even sacrificed, his life to protect a
physical Torah scroll. A Sefer Torah physically and spiritually connects us to our ancestors, who
received the Torah at Sinai, who followed it during the time of the First and Second Temples of
Jerusalem, who kept it with them over nearly two thousand years of exile, and who have brought
us–their children–up in its ways, today. A Sefer Torah also connects contemporary Jews to each
other; no matter our individual background, race, color, or creed, we Jews are spiritually united
by one Torah, with its principles and priorities, and physically unite to read it as a congregation
every week. Whether a Jew finds himself spending Sabbath in the holy city of Jerusalem, in the
Jewish diaspora epicenter of New York, or in the foothills of eastern Uganda, he can walk to
synagogue with the assurance that he and his fellow Jews in that community, as well as their
fellow Jews all over the world, are going to follow in their ancestors’ footsteps by reading the
same weekly portion of the Sefer Torah, which, through the unity it manifests in the Jewish
people, will ultimately lead to the Final Redemption and the reunification of all Jews and G-d in
the Holy Land, soon in our days.
Leave a Reply
Your email is safe with us.