The Jewish Tradition - Torah תורה have been preserved for over three thousand years, in scrolls, written by hand, carefully copied, carried and lived with, studied and commented on, protected in libraries and sacred places - so that one day, having travelled through time, the became part of the internet… and through Alexandria, have reached you, the reader, here, now.
Whoever you are, Jew or Gentile, believer or not, this is one of the most important books ever written. It’s actually a collection of books. Powerful books - not just historically powerful, but inherently powerful. Because the story they tell is so archetypal it has become a part of what Carl Jung would call The Archetypes of The Collective Unconscious. Study it as history, study it as spiritual revelation or study it as myth - regardless, it is well worth studying…
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel via GPT
The Jewish Tradition - Torah תורה, also known as the Tanakh or the Hebrew Bible, is believed to have origins in oral traditions that date back to the time of Abraham, around the 2nd millennium BC. These oral traditions were stories, laws, and songs passed down from generation to generation. They shaped the religious and cultural identity of the Jewish people.
However, the process of these oral traditions being written down into what would become the Jewish Tradition - Torah תורה likely did not begin until much later. For instance, The Written Torah - תּוֹרָה שֶׁבִּכְתָב, which includes The Five Books of Moses (Genesis - Bereshit, בְּרֵאשִׁית, Exodus - Shemot שְׁמוֹת, Leviticus - Vayikra וַיִּקְרָא, Numbers - Bamidbar, בְּמִדְבַּר, Deuteronomy - Devarim, דְּבָרִים), is traditionally believed to have been written by Moses himself in the 13th or 14th century BC. However, modern scholars often associate the written form of these texts with the documentary hypothesis, suggesting that the Torah was compiled from several sources over a much longer period, likely not reaching its final form until the 5th century BC during the post-Exilic period.
The other books of the Written Torah, The Prophets - Nevi'im and The Writings - Ketuvim, were also likely written down over a significant period, from about the 12th to the 2nd century BC, though they too have roots in earlier oral traditions. These texts were recognized as authoritative and were canonized over time, leading to the formation of the canon as we know them today.
It's important to note that these dates and processes are not without debate and uncertainty, and different scholarly perspectives may propose different timelines and mechanisms for how these oral traditions were written down and compiled into the Hebrew Bible. However, the importance of these texts in shaping Jewish faith, practice, and identity, both in ancient times and today, is undisputed.
The Written Torah - תּוֹרָה שֶׁבִּכְתָב