Torah

TORAH. - A Hebrew term which in the Bible means a directive authoritatively imparted (by God, by the priest, by the prophet, by the king, or by the sage), and which became, after the Babylonian exile, the customary designation of the Mosaic Law, primarily of the writings of the Pentateuch (v.).

The noun t. occurs 219 times in the Hebrew Bible. Much has been discussed concerning its origin and semantic evolution. Once the theory of the Assyriologist Frd. Delitzsch (1850-1922) is discarded, which derived t. from the Akkadian tertu ("mission, divine oracle, commandment, law"), there remains that of W. Gesenius (1786-1842), reaffirmed by S. R. Driver and today by G. Östborn: t. comes from the verb hôrah (hiph'il of jârah "to throw"), which occurs 53 times in the Hebrew Bible, whose primitive sense would be "to stretch out the hand or the finger to show the way," hence "to indicate" (Gen. 46, 28) or "to direct" (Judg. 13, 8). The explanation of J. Wellhausen, followed by W. Nowack and I. Benzinger, that t. derives from the specific meaning of jârah and hôrah "to cast" lots (Josh. 18, 6; arrows: I Sam. 20, 30, 36), a usage akin to consultation with the ephod or the 'ûrîm tummîm, whereby t. would originally denote the "directive" obtained by the priest through the casting of the sacred lots, is today held to be unfounded by J. Begrich and G. Östborn. T. may be considered connected with the participle môrah "teacher" (Job 36, 22), which survives in certain localities that were perhaps seats of ancient oracles (Gen. 12, 6; Deut. 11, 30; Judg. 7, 1).

There is a close connection between t. and the idea of "path, way" (dêrekh), as the etymology intuited by Gesenius implies, "to show the way." Starting from this fundamental meaning ("indication" of the path to be followed), t. passes through three semantic stages: "directive," "instruction," and finally "law." T. does not occur in the J document, rarely in E (Ex. 13, 9; 16, 4; 18, 16, 20; 24, 12); it becomes frequent in Deuteronomy, in Leviticus and other so-called "priestly" documents down to Par.-Eid.-Neh., and increasingly so in the more recent prophetic writings and the recent psalms. In Ex. 18, 16, 20 (E) the profane decisions on disputes between neighbors, given by Moses after having "consulted God," are called the "statutes" (huqim) of God and his "directives" (tôrôth). The tôrôth were decisions imposed by authority by the chief or judge; they formed precedents for identical cases in the future, especially those concerning difficult questions; thus there gradually took shape, perhaps already before Moses, a progressive body of civil and penal laws, preserved and handed down by tradition. The "directives" were sometimes given in the form of a "divine answer," through the oracular procedures of the priests or the inspiration of the prophets. Among the prophets the t. (usually in the singular) is moral and spiritual "teaching" (Am. 2, 4); "the t. of our God" encompasses the norms of morality in which true service of God consists (Is. 1, 10; 5, 24; 8, 16, 20; 30, 9). The prophet is called môrah ("teacher"), of the same root as t. (Is. 9, 14; 30, 20). In Jer. 6, 19; 9, 13; etc., t. designates both the preaching of the prophets and the Mosaic tradition. The generic sense of "teaching" also appears in the didactic books: the t. is given by God to his faithful one (Job 22, 22; Ps. 78, 1 Heb.), by the sages (Prov. 3, 1; 4, 2; 6, 23; 7, 2; 13, 14), by the mother (ibid. 1, 8; 6, 20; 31, 26); Yahweh (or his representative) will give it in the messianic kingdom (Is. 2, 3 = Mic. 4, 2; Jer. 31, 33; Is. 42, 4; 51, 4). In this second semantic stage, the t. ("instruction," "teaching") has as its purpose and effect dâ'ath "knowledge." The t. dispensed by the priest has as its object worship and the rites, but also the religion of Yahweh in general; the t. of the prophet is more directly an ethico-spiritual parenesis; the t. of the sage, to which the t. that parents give to their children can be connected, is the instruction-education of the inexperienced, and to the t. of "wisdom" relating to practical life and the crafts there seems to be connected Ez. 43, 10-15, where t. (well translated by the Septuagint as ἡ διαγραφή) is "the plan of the temple."

Alongside this broad use of the term, there was the t. in the strict sense, legislation administered by the priesthood. The earliest prophets attest the existence of the t. binding on all, on a moral basis (cf. Ex. 23, 1-9; Lev. 19, 1-37), which was to bring about in Israel the "knowledge of God." The priest was to apply it and inculcate it; to the negligence of the t. on the part of the priests are due the crimes of Israel (Hos. 4, 1-6). Particularly associated with the priesthood, the t. (like the cognate verb hôrāh) denoted the (oral) directive that the priests gave in the name of Yahweh, especially in matters of ritual observance (the various sacrifices and their modes, the conditions of purity, the criteria of leprosy, etc.), to those who consulted them; cf. Hag. 2, 11; Mal. 2, 6-9. The depositaries and dispensers of the t. were the priests: Mic. 3, 11; Jer. 2, 8; 18, 18; Zeph. 3, 4; Ez. 7, 26; 22, 16; 44, 23 (cf. Lev. 14, 57); cf. Hab. 1, 2-4 and Lam. 2, 9. Entrusted to the priesthood (cf. II Kings 17, 27-28; II Chron. 15, 3), the t. demanded absolute fidelity to certain principles of moral and ritual purity, individual and collective, whose negligence or violation constituted the crime, ruinous for Israel, of the unfaithful priests. The ceremonial t. was preeminent; but no less real was the judicial and moral t. It cannot be doubted that this t., under all its aspects, originated from Moses (S. R. Driver [v. bibl.], p. 66 a); the task of the priests was only to preserve and guard what Moses had left (Deut. 33, 4, 9 f.). The critics, with J. Wellhausen, do indeed trace the t. back to Moses, but only as a principle, as an initial oral tradition; the later written t. would be the very late fixation of this tradition.

The sense of "law," as ancient as that of "directive" and of "teaching," since the t. implied an obligation for the one who received it (Deut. 17, 11: "he shall act according to the t. [directive] that they shall give you, both the Levitical priests and the tribunal"; 24, 8: "execute all that the Levitical priests teach you [jōrā]"; 30, 10, where mišpāṭim [cf. Ex. 21, 1] is synonymous with t.), became prevalent in the so-called deuteronomic period (ca. 622 B.C.) and still more during and after the exile (6th century B.C.). In Deuteronomy, especially in the formula "this t." (Deut. 1, 5 to 32, 46: 19 times), the term indicates sometimes the code of laws incorporated in Deut., sometimes more generically the exposition, whether parenetic or legal, of Israel's duties, and in this latter sense t. occurs ("the book of the t.," "the t. of Moses," etc.) in the "deuteronomic" sections of Josh. and Kings (Josh. 1, 7-8; 8, 31-34; 22, 5; 23, 6; I Kings 2, 3; II Kings 10, 31 to 23, 24-25: 10 times).

With the passage of time, t. denoted a body of technical directives on a given subject; this sense is common in the "priestly code" (P), especially in the formula "this is the t. ('body of norms or laws') of the holocaust, of the offering, of the leper, of the Nazirite, etc." (Lev. 6, 9-25 to 26, 46: 15 times; Num. 5, 29-30 to 31, 21: 7 times). Here too the primitive sense of t. must have been that of directives given to the laity, and not (as in Lev. 6-7) of norms regulating priestly practice. In the Psalms, t. often indicates the legislative parts of the Pentateuch in general (Heb. Ps. 1, 2; 19, 7; 37, 31; 40, 8; 94, 12; 119, 1, 18 etc.). Thus it is explained that the t. was called dāth "law" in Aramaic (Ezra 7, 12-26; cf. Esth. 1, 13; 3, 8; etc.), and then by the Septuagint (3rd-2nd century B.C.) almost always (191 out of about 212 cases) νόμος (Vulgate lex), even when t. means "directive" or "teaching."

After the time of Ezra, t. indicates, even more generically, the Pentateuch as a whole. The priest Ezra, "a scribe skilled in the t. of Moses" (Ezra 7:6), was venerated by later generations as the restorer of the Mosaic t. The collection of the five Mosaic books was already called t. as a whole in the 5th century B.C. The entire Pentateuch is called hat-t. or sēpher hat-t. or sēpher tōrāth Mōleh in I Chron. 16:40;

II Chron. 31:3; etc.; Eul. 3:2; Neh. 8:1-3. At the time of Christ t. designated the 5 Mosaic books (ὁ νόμος; Luke 10:26; ὁ νόμος Μουσέως; Luke 2:22) and sometimes, by its principal part, all the ancient Scriptures (ὁ νόμος; I Cor. 14:21).

As code, testimony (Deut. 31:26), synthesis and foundation of Yahweh's covenant with Israel, the t. of Moses, that is, the first 5 books of the Bible, unfolds around a general unifying theme, which can be expressed in the following thesis: there exists an eternal divine plan (cf. Eph. 1:10; 3:9: "economy") that is progressively realized, against all obstacles, and whose end is the creation of the chosen people as a theocratic nation, with the Mosaic law as its directive and the promised land as its reward. A religion essentially based on Revelation, Judaism believes that Revelation is contained in the T., in which everything is included, even the later Scriptures of the prophets. Of unique and transcendent importance, the supreme gift of God ("the gift of the t." [mattēn 1.] in the resplendent theophany of Sinai is the capital event of Israel's history), the T. is the direct and exclusive bond between Yahweh and his people. As revelation of God's will to Israel, it is the absolute objective rule of individual and social life: this reduces entirely to "keeping" the divine T., as the pious Psalmist never ceases to repeat (Ps. 118 [119]). The Israelite who transgresses the T. breaks the yoke of God's kingdom; as in the Gospel (Matt. 19:17), so too in the apocrypha (Testam. XII Patr., Iubil., IV Esd.) the supreme norm for salvation is to "observe the commandments" of the T.

Little by little, in Judaism, the T. replaced Wisdom. Already in Sirach, Wisdom, an emanation that is almost a divine hypothesis, is connected with or even identified with the T. (Eccl. 19:16; 24:22; 32:15; 33:2; 34:8; 39:8). Subsequently the identification becomes more pronounced and the T. takes on divine attributes, appears beside the Creator, firstborn of God and preexistent (Prov. 8:22 is applied to it): Iubil. 3:10; Test. Aser. 2:10. The religious teacher is called, at the time of Jesus, "man of the t., teacher of the t." (νομικός; Matt. 22:35; Luke 7:30, etc.; νομοδιδάσκαλος; Luke 5:17; Acts 5:34). For the rabbis of the 1st century, wisdom consists in the science of the T. ('Abōth, III, 9); hence the rabbi is today called "wise" (ḥākhām). The maxims of the most ancient rabbis ('Abōth) are mostly directed at glorifying the study of the T. Eternal, immutable, the T. will be in force in the messianic kingdom; the holy work par excellence, the study of the T., will be the reward of the righteous in Eden; such rabbinic affirmations twist the divine promise: "I will put my t. within them and write it on their heart" (Jer. 31:32 [Vulg. 33]; cf. Isa. 54:13; Ps. 37 [36]:31).

From the office, entrusted to the priests, of adapting the t. to life (Deut. 17:8-12, 18; Jer. 2:8; 18:18; Ezek. 7:26; 22:26; Hos. 4:6) derived the oral t., connected with the activity of Ezra (5th century), and from the very beginning of Pharisaism (2nd century B.C.) considered as inseparable from the written t. When the scribes-rabbis monopolized this task, for which they legislated even concerning the priestly functions, the progressive adaptation of the t. through casuistry was called "oral t." (t. feb-bā' al peh), an expression that goes back to Hillēl (Šabbāth, 31 a) or at least to Gamaliel II (Siphrē Deut. 33:10) and supplants the term "traditions" (παραδόσεις; Matt. 15:2 = Mark 7:5; Matt. 15:3-6; Gal. 1:14). The oral t., presented as God's will revealed to Moses and proceeding from Moses through an unbroken chain of teachers ('Abōth, I, 1-3), developed and imposed itself, especially in the juridical sphere, until it formed the Mišnāh, then the double Talmud; and to it the gē'ōnīm (v.) and then the pōsāqīm or "deciders" (v.) appeal. The double t. is discerned in the biblical plural tōrōth (Siphrā': Lev. 26:46), in the two edges of the sword of Ps. 149:6 (Pēsīqā', ed. S. Suber, p. 102 b). The oral t. is a dogma of Judaism, even from the time of the first tannaites ('Abōth, I, 1; III, 13): manipulated through the hālākhāh (v.) which, in the frequent controversies on which the deliberations of the rabbinic sanhedrins turned, restricted, or broadened, or transformed the written t., this arbitrary oral t. led to the formalistic and inhuman nomocracy of the Pharisees (Matt. 23:1-37). Not content with attributing to the oral t. the same divine authority as to the written t. (Siphrā' Lev. 19, 340; Pal. Bērā-

khôth I, 7), the zealous maintained that to violate or contradict the sentences of the scribes and rabbis was more serious than to violate or contradict the T. (Sandedhrln, X, 3).

Materially the T. is, in the synagogue cult, a long strip of parchment, about 30 m. long, which is rolled and unrolled around two wooden rods. It is calligraphed by special copyists (sôphêrîm) who write it wearing the insignia of prayer (tâfîth, têphillîm) and uttering many "blessings." Every synagogue prides itself on possessing in the "holy ark" ('ârôn haq-qqâdhet) more scrolls of the T., each in a luxurious case of velvet or silk; each scroll is carried in procession on the feast of the T., "the crowned bride." "The joy of the T." is deeply felt by the faithful Israelite.

In the Koran too the t. (tavcât) or Pentateuch is very important. It is often placed beside the Gospel as a written source of the faith (3, 43, 58; 7, 156; etc.). It contains the "judgment" (hukm) or divine order: it is guidance and light, and the prophets (who were muslim) judged for the Jews according to the t.; "the Gospel, in which is guidance and light, is a confirmation of the preceding t., and is a direction and an admonition for the God-fearing" (5, 47-50). "Those on whom the t. was imposed and who then did not observe it are like the donkey that carries books" (62, 5).

Antonino Romeo