Torah, The

What is Torah? What is a commandment? What is revelation? What happened at Sinai? In this second in a six-part course on core Jewish beliefs, we set out to understand how Judaism views the Torah as much more than a set of laws.

What is the “literary” significance of the Giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai? The unique status and function of the Five Books of Moses within the biblical canon.

Scroll Down is designed to initiate auditors into a first acquaintance with the Torah and with Jewish history and ideas. The video lessons are presented at an introductory level of Jewish Studies at college.

Why Torah must be comprised of both a Written Law and an accompanying Oral Tradition.

What does it mean to be a Jew? Join us as we explore the fundamentals of Judaism and our role in the world. This class is the first of a six-part lecture series titled ‘The Essentials,’ which introduces the foundations of Jewish life and living.

Concluding scientific postscript to the significance of the ever-expanding Jewish Library.

The second half of the last millennium (1500 until today) saw still newer developments in Halachah, as well as in other fields of literacy. How do these major literary trends (such as Chassidism) define Judaism today and into the future?

The first half of the last millennium (1000–1500) saw an explosion in Jewish literacy in many fields: Kabbalah, philosophy, biblical commentary, poetry, and most notably the great codifications of Halachah (Jewish Law). How did these great Codes originate...

Rabbi Yehudah HaNassi put the Oral Torah down on paper in the year 212, in the form known as the Mishnah. What prompted this radical move in the history of Jewish literacy? What constitutes the Mishnah? And what is its function in the Tradition?

Who decided which texts belonged to the biblical canon and which texts did not belong? The Oral Torah during the early, pre-mishnaic periods.