Explaining the Meaning of the Torah

The Torah

The Torah refers to the laws from the five Books of Moses which are Genesis, the book of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and the book of Deuteronomy, which is also regarded as the entire Jewish Bible. These laws are either expressed, deduced, or implied. The Torah gives certain Jewish individuals the power and authority to teach and make verdicts concerning the law (Deut, 17:11). For instance, the Torah is filled with guidance, teachings, and ways to connect to life so as to assist people make the right choices from the wrong ones and to transcend to higher place. The Torah rule is binding to the Jewish people and is applied in their daily life.

Ten Principles or Commandments

Also, the Torah provides the Jews people with the ten principles or Commandments that are supposed to be followed by any Jewish observant in their daily life. These decrees includes recognizing that there is only one God and that He existed before anything else, not to Worship any other god apart from God the Creator of everything, to love and fear God, to sanctify God’s name, and to listen to prophets who will be speaking in God’s name. From the commandments, the Jewish people are also warned not to desecrate the name of God, and not to make attempts of destroying things on which the God’s name is written. The Jewish people are also warned against testing God’s name.

Meaning to Jewish Practices

The Torah gives meaning to the Jewish practices and their experience. The explanations behind the Torah decrees for instance justifies their dietary system. The dietary concept is the oldest and comes from the early Judaism. It presents a basis on the key components of the rabbinic diet system, in which the Torah forbids mixing dairy product and meat (Exodus 23:19, Deut, 14:21). A second explanation is common amongst the modern commentators. The Torah presents an idea that forbids animal cruelty and a way of promoting empathy towards certain types of animals. Also, the Torah provides an understanding concerning the prohibition against specific idolatry and paganism which pre-existed in the early Canaan.

Kashrut and Dietary Rules

It is from Torah that Kashrut (the Jewish rules of diet) is derived from. Through Kashrut, the Torah dictates what a traditional Jew and Torah observant can eat and what kind of foods that the Jewish are not supposed to eat. According to Kashrut rules, the foods to be eaten by the Jews should be correct, fit, or proper. However, the Torah does not specify the reasons for most of these rules. For instance, according to the Torah, the Jewish are forbidden from taking blood from birds, mammals and eggs that contain stains of blood. The Torah states that the animal lives are contained in blood and therefore is fundamental that all blood from the specified flesh animals should be completely drained. Other kinds of food prohibited by Torah includes the grape products (which is regarded as a product of idolatry, and others.

Ethical and Ritual Explanations

Other explanations behind Torah are ethical and ritual. The two explanations are exclusively based on the external historical and cultural setting and do not consider the composition of the perspective of the passage of Torah passage concerning the literary structure of the direct setting of the principles. According to Owen, the traditional interpretations of Torah passage indirectly takes the instant context of the verse into consideration (428).

Reciting Shema

The Torah prescribes the position that the Jewish are supposed to presume while reciting Shema, which is regarded as Judaism affirmation and a way of asserting faith in one God. For example, the person reciting Shema should assume a sited position just like he/she was studying Torah.

Work Cited

Owen, Paul. “Torah Ethics and Early Christian Identity.” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 60.2 (2017): 428-430.