What’s in the Torah?

Question

Hi Rabbi, could you tell me what the Torah contains? Thanks!

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Answers

  1. The Just Ask! - AskTheRabbi.org Team

    The Torah has two parts: a Written Torah and an Oral Torah. The Written Torah consists of twenty-four books that are divided into three groups. The first group is called “Torah,” which contains the Five Books of Moses. The second group is called “The Prophets,”, and are the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the Twelve Prophets (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micha, Nachum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zecharia and Melachi). The third group is called “The Writings,” which contains the Book of Job (written by Moses), Psalms (written by King David), Proverbs, The Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes (all three written by King Solomon), Ruth (written by the prophet Samuel), Lamentations (written by the prophet Jeremiah), Esther and Daniel (by the Men of the Great Assembly), Ezra-Nechemia (written by the Prophet Ezra) and the Book of Chronicles (also by Ezra).

    The Oral Torah is comprised of the Mishna, the Talmud and the many Midrashic works. The Mishna is a far-reaching compilation of the myriad teachings of our Sages. It is made up of sixty-three individual tractates that are divided into six separate sections. Each section is called a “Seder,” or “Order”. Since six is shisha and Orders is sedarim, the entirety of the Mishna is also referred to by the acronym of “Shas”.

     

    Best wishes from the AskTheRabbi.org Team