99 Fun Facts About Torah

Which gift from their father makes Joseph's brothers jealous?

Coat: 'of many colours' is the King James wording, but the Hebrew is uncertain, and other versions say an ornamented tunic or a long robe with sleeves.

The Hebrew word Torah is usually translated as what?

Instruction, or 'teaching', is the sense of a Hebrew root meaning to guide or teach; 'the Law' took hold after Greek-speaking Jews rendered Torah as nomos.

What does the Greek-derived word Pentateuch literally mean?

Five scrolls: teuchos first meant gear or a vessel, and came to mean a book through the cases that held papyrus rolls.

Bereshit, the Hebrew name of Genesis, literally means what?

In the beginning is the traditional reading of Bereshit, but a modern Jewish Publication Society translation opens instead with 'When God began to create'.

What is the Hebrew name of Leviticus, meaning 'And He called'?

Vayikra, 'And He called', was traditionally the first book young children studied since, a midrash says, the pure should study what is pure.

Bamidbar, the Hebrew name for the fourth book, means what?

In the desert (or wilderness) is the sense of Bamidbar, taken from the book's opening verse; the English name Numbers refers to its two censuses.

Devarim, the Hebrew name for Deuteronomy, means what?

Words, from the opening 'These are the words'; the Greek name Deuteronomy, 'second law', grew instead out of a phrase in Deuteronomy 17:18.

What is a Chumash?

The Torah in bound book form: it prints the vowels and chant marks a Torah scroll leaves out, making it the copy people study from.

In Genesis, which bird returns to Noah carrying an olive leaf?

A dove: Noah had first sent out a raven, which kept flying to and fro until the waters dried up.

Rabbinic tradition says the Oral Law was first written down in which work, edited by Judah ha-Nasi?

The Mishnah: tradition says Judah ha-Nasi compiled it around 200 CE because he feared persecution would make the oral teachings be forgotten.

Jewish tradition counts 613 commandments in the Torah; what is each called?

Mitzvah: at 13 a Jewish boy becomes a bar mitzvah, literally a 'son of the commandment', and is held responsible for keeping them.

Which medieval scholar listed the Torah's 613 commandments in his Book of Commandments?

Maimonides: Nachmanides later attacked parts of the list in a critical commentary, replacing some of its commandments with others.

By gematria, tzitzit adds up to 600; what brings it to 613?

Eight threads and five knots: they lift tzitzit, worth 600 in its later spelling, to 613, and Numbers 15:39 ties the fringes to remembering every commandment.

Roughly how many letters does a handwritten Torah scroll contain?

300,000: a mistake in even one of those letters can make the whole scroll invalid for use.

What is a scribe who writes a Torah scroll called?

A sofer: the Talmud says the first scribes were called soferim, 'counters', because they counted every letter in the Torah.

On what material is a Sefer Torah written?

Parchment from kosher animals: Jewish law bars the hides of unclean animals, and a scroll written on anything else is invalid for public reading.

What colour must the ink of a Torah scroll be?

Black: even God's names may not be written in gold, and a scroll that has them in gold must be stored away unused.

Roughly how long can it take a scribe to complete a Torah scroll?

About a year and a half: the scribe must copy every letter by hand from a written text, never from memory.

What is the pointer used to follow the text during a Torah reading called?

A yad: the same Hebrew word also means a memorial, which is why Israel's Holocaust memorial is called Yad Vashem.

Why is a pointer used rather than a finger during Torah reading?

So the scroll itself is not touched: the Talmud says the Sages made scrolls defile the hands after priests stored food beside them and mice gnawed the scrolls.

What is the cabinet that houses the Torah scrolls in a synagogue called?

The ark sits in the wall facing Jerusalem, so a congregation turned toward it in prayer is also facing the city.

What is the ornate curtain that hangs before the doors of the Torah cabinet called?

The parochet shares its Hebrew name with the curtain that screened off the Holy of Holies, and on Tisha B'Av many synagogues remove it or draw it aside.

The Torah is split into 54 weekly reading sections; what is each one called?

Parashah: in years with too few available weeks, some are read in pairs, such as Tazria with Metzora.

In Exodus, which body of water parts so the Israelites can cross on dry ground?

The Red Sea is the traditional rendering, but the Hebrew Yam Suph is more literally the 'Sea of Reeds', as the Jewish Publication Society translates it.

What is the reading from the Prophets that follows the Torah portion on Sabbath mornings called?

The haftarah's origin is unknown; one theory says it began as a rebuke to the Samaritans, who rejected the books of the Prophets.

On which days of the week, besides the Sabbath, is the Torah read publicly in synagogue?

Monday and Thursday: the Talmud says the practice predates Ezra, set in Moses' time so that no three days would pass without Torah.

In Israel, Simchat Torah falls on the same day as which festival?

Shemini Atzeret: outside Israel that festival lasts two days, so the Simchat Torah celebrations move to the second day.

On Simchat Torah, what are the circuits congregants make while dancing with the Torah scrolls called?

Hakafot: congregants also make these circuits around the bimah on Sukkot, holding the four species instead of carrying scrolls.

In Hatan Torah, the Simchat Torah honour of reading the final portion, what does Hatan mean?

Groom: once the Hatan Torah finishes Deuteronomy, a second honoree, the Hatan Bereshit, reads from Genesis.

When Moses comes down Sinai and finds the people worshipping an idol, what does he do with the tablets?

He smashes them: God then has him cut two new stone tablets and writes the same words on them again.

Whose name is changed to Israel after wrestling with an angel in Genesis?

Jacob wrestles through the night at Peniel in Genesis 32 and is renamed Israel; his sons go on to give their names to the tribes.

Which cave-plot does Abraham buy as a family tomb, believed to be at modern Hebron?

Machpelah, bought from Ephron the Hittite for 400 shekels of silver in Genesis 23, became the burial place of Sarah and later of Abraham himself.

Whose flock is Moses tending when he encounters God in the burning bush?

Jethro's flock it is: he is shepherding for his Midianite father-in-law at Horeb when God speaks from the bush and sends him back to Egypt.

What is the tenth plague in Exodus?

Death of the firstborn: Israelites marked their doors with lamb's blood so it would pass over their homes, the origin of Passover's name.

What structure does God instruct Moses to build in Exodus so that God may dwell among the people?

The Tabernacle: the people brought so many gifts to build it that Moses had to proclaim an end to the collection.

On the Day of Atonement in Leviticus, which animal is sent into the wilderness 'to Azazel'?

A goat: William Tyndale's 1530 Bible called it the '(e)scape goat', which gave English the word scapegoat.

Which two sons of Aaron are struck down in Leviticus for improper ritual conduct?

Nadab and Abihu offer 'strange fire' before the Lord in Leviticus 10 and are consumed by fire, leaving Eleazar and Ithamar as Aaron's surviving sons.

Which two spies urge Israel to take Canaan?

Joshua and Caleb: after the other ten spread a bad report, Israel wandered 40 years, and of that generation only these two entered the land.

In Genesis, whose wife turns into a pillar of salt after looking back at Sodom?

Lot's: as the family fled, they had been told not to look behind them, but she looked back at the doomed city.

Which king hires the diviner Balaam to curse the Israelites in Numbers?

Balak sends for Balaam in Numbers 22, but the seer's donkey balks at an angel on the road, and he ends up blessing Israel instead.

What is made in Numbers to ward off the fiery serpents biting the Israelites?

A bronze snake: centuries later King Hezekiah destroyed it, because the Israelites had been burning incense to it.

On which mountain does Moses die at the end of the Torah?

Mount Nebo, opposite Jericho across the Jordan, is where he views the promised land from the Pisgah summit and dies in Deuteronomy 34, buried by God in an unknown grave.

Deuteronomy's three long speeches are delivered by Moses in which location?

The Plains of Moab: the closing laws of Numbers are given there too, including the ruling that let Zelophehad's daughters inherit his land.

The Shema, the centrepiece of Jewish daily prayer, opens with which phrase?

Hear, O Israel: many Jews recite the Shema just before death, as Rabbi Akiva did at his execution.

The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Torah, was produced in which city?

Alexandria, under Ptolemy II Philadelphus in the 3rd century BCE, is where tradition places the seventy-two translators whose work gave the Septuagint its name, 'Seventy'.

Targum Onkelos is a translation of the Torah into which language?

Aramaic, the everyday language of Jews in Babylonia and the Land of Israel after the exile, is the language of Targum Onkelos, which was read verse by verse beside the Hebrew.

In the documentary hypothesis, what do the letters J, E, D and P stand for?

Jahwist, Elohist, Deuteronomist, Priestly: the J strand takes its letter from Jahwe, the German spelling of Yahweh, the name it uses for God.

In Exodus, what food does God rain down from heaven to feed the Israelites?

Manna: twice as much could be gathered on the sixth day, because none appeared on the Sabbath.

According to the Talmud, Ezra changed the Torah's script from old Hebrew to one named after which empire?

Assyria: the Talmud says the square script came up with the exiles from Ashur, though Rabbi Judah haNasi holds the Torah was given in it from the start.

In Genesis, what does the famished hunter Esau accept from his twin in exchange for his birthright?

Lentil stew, served with bread, was the whole price, and Esau's plea for that red dish is the reason Genesis gives for his other name, Edom.

In Numbers, which animal rebukes the diviner Balaam after an angel with a sword blocks the road?

A donkey saw the angel three times before Balaam did, and spoke only after he beat her for swerving and crushing his foot against a wall.

In Exodus, who finds the infant Moses hidden in a papyrus basket among the reeds of the Nile?

Pharaoh's daughter adopted the baby and unknowingly paid his own mother to nurse him, after his watching sister offered to fetch a Hebrew nurse.

After the flood in Genesis, what does God set in the clouds as a sign of a covenant with the earth?

A rainbow seals a promise made not only to Noah but to every living creature, that floodwaters will never again destroy all life.

What traditionally happens to a Torah scroll that is too worn or damaged ever to be read from again?

It is buried, usually in a Jewish cemetery, because writings that contain the name of God may never simply be thrown away.

Which famous rule of proportionate justice appears in Exodus 21, Leviticus 24 and Deuteronomy 19?

An eye for an eye was read by the ancient rabbis as a rule about paying fair money damages for an injury, not as licence to maim.

Which reply does God give at the burning bush when Moses asks what name to tell the Israelites?

I am who I am renders the Hebrew Ehyeh asher ehyeh, which can equally be translated as I will be what I will be.

In Numbers, how long must Israel wander the wilderness after believing the spies' fearful report?

Forty years matched the forty days the spies had spent scouting the land, one year of wandering for every day.

In Exodus, God promises to bring the Israelites out of Egypt to a land flowing with which two foods?

Milk and honey first describes the land in God's speech to Moses from the burning bush, and the spies sent ahead later use the same phrase in their report.

Which creatures swarm from the Nile into Egyptian beds and ovens in one of the plagues of Exodus?

Frogs were one plague the Egyptian court magicians managed to copy with their arts, which only put more of them on the land.

In Genesis, which city and its lofty tower are abandoned after God confuses the builders' language?

Babel takes its name, Genesis says, from that confusion: a pun on the Hebrew verb balal, to jumble, and on the city known to history as Babylon.

On the mountains of which region does Noah's vessel come to rest as the floodwaters fall in Genesis?

Ararat is named in Genesis as a range of mountains, not a single peak, and the vessel grounds there months before the earth is dry.

Which animal, caught in a thicket by its horns, does Abraham offer instead of his son in Genesis 22?

A ram appeared just as an angel called out to stop Abraham's hand, and the story is read aloud in synagogues every year at Rosh Hashanah.

In Pharaoh's dream explained by Joseph, which seven thin animals eat seven fat ones beside the Nile?

Cows, like the ears of grain in another dream, stood for seven years of plenty and then seven of famine, so Joseph urged Pharaoh to store food.

Which bodily sign of the covenant does God ask of Abraham and his male descendants in Genesis 17?

Circumcision is fixed in the same chapter for the eighth day of a boy's life, the timing kept ever since for the ceremony known as brit milah.

Which Egyptian servant of Sarai bears Abram a son named Ishmael in Genesis 16?

Hagar fled into the wilderness while pregnant, where an angel at a spring told her to name the boy Ishmael because God had heard her misery.

Which woman becomes Isaac's wife after offering to water the camels of Abraham's servant at a well?

Rebekah drew water for all ten of the servant's camels, the very sign he had just prayed for, and then agreed to leave home with him.

Which captain of Pharaoh's guard buys Joseph as a slave and later jails him on a false charge?

Potiphar trusted Joseph with his whole household until his wife, rebuffed by the young Hebrew, accused him of attacking her.

Which priest-king of Salem greets Abram with bread and wine after a battle in Genesis 14?

Melchizedek blessed Abram and was given a tenth of everything in return, yet Genesis names no father, mother or ancestor for him.

Which prophetess, Aaron's sister, leads the women in dance with tambourines after the sea crossing?

Miriam is traditionally identified as the unnamed sister who watched over the infant Moses when he was hidden by the Nile.

In Exodus, what form does God's guiding presence take by night as the Israelites march out of Egypt?

A pillar of fire gave the people light after dark, while by day the same presence led them as a column of cloud, so they could travel at any hour.

Which of the Ten Commandments comes with a promise of long life in the land for those who keep it?

Honour your parents carries the reward that your days may be long in the land, and Deuteronomy's version adds that it may go well with you too.

In Exodus 32, what idol does Aaron make from the people's earrings while Moses is up the mountain?

A golden calf was hailed as the god that had led Israel out of Egypt, and Moses later burned it, ground it to powder and made the people drink it.

Which birds cover the Israelite camp one evening in Exodus 16 after the people grumble for meat?

Quail arrive again in Numbers 11, blown in from the sea for a day's journey on every side of the camp, and those who crave them are struck by a plague.

Which other name does Deuteronomy usually use for Mount Sinai, where Moses receives the law?

Horeb is also where Exodus sets the burning bush, calling the place the mountain of God long before the law is given there.

Under Leviticus 11, a land animal may be eaten only if it has a split hoof and does what else?

Chews the cud is the test that rules out the pig, which Leviticus singles out for having the right hooves but the wrong digestion.

Which year, held every fiftieth year in Leviticus 25, returns Israelites to their family land?

The Jubilee opens with a call to proclaim liberty throughout the land, the verse later cast onto the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia.

Which command from Leviticus 19 did Rabbi Akiva single out as the greatest principle of Judaism?

Love your neighbour as yourself is widened later in the same chapter to the stranger living among the people, since Israel had been strangers in Egypt.

Which festival has Jews eat in temporary huts for a week, as Leviticus 23 commands?

Sukkot, the Feast of Booths, recalls the shelters Israel lived in after leaving Egypt, and the same chapter calls for palm branches and willows.

Which craftsman of the tribe of Judah does God name to make the Tent of Meeting and its furnishings?

Bezalel is said to be filled with divine spirit and skill in gold, silver, stone and wood, and an art and design academy in Jerusalem bears his name.

Leviticus 19 tells farmers to leave which part of a field unreaped for the poor and the foreigner?

The corners were left for the poor and the foreigner, along with any stalks dropped during reaping and the fallen fruit of the vineyard.

Deuteronomy 22 bans wearing cloth woven from which two fibres together, a mix known as shatnez?

Wool and linen could be combined in only two cases under Torah law: the garments of the priests and the ritual tassels called tzitzit.

Which vow in Numbers 6 means giving up wine, haircuts and all contact with the dead for a set time?

The Nazirite vow ended with the person shaving their head and burning the hair, and Samson is the best-known figure bound by it from birth.

Which cousin of Moses leads 250 chieftains in a revolt that ends when the earth swallows the rebels?

Korah accused Moses and Aaron of raising themselves above a people who were all holy, and fire consumed the chieftains who had offered incense with him.

Which fruit do the spies in Numbers 13 carry back from Canaan on a pole between two men?

Grapes in one huge cluster needed two men to carry them, an image that Israel's Ministry of Tourism adopted as its logo.

In Numbers 20, which act at Meribah leads God to bar Moses from entering the Promised Land?

Striking a rock twice with his staff brought out water, but Moses had been told only to speak to it, and Aaron shared in the penalty.

Numbers 15 tells the Israelites to add a cord of which colour to the tassels on their garments?

Blue, tekhelet in Hebrew, was a dye made from a sea snail, and the knowledge of how to produce it was lost for centuries, so tassels went without it.

In Numbers 19, the ashes of which animal are mixed into water to purify anyone who touches a corpse?

A red heifer had to be flawless and never yoked, and the rite holds a paradox: the priest who prepares the cleansing ashes is left unclean himself until evening.

In Numbers 17, Aaron's staff proves his priesthood by blossoming overnight and producing which nuts?

Almonds appeared on Aaron's staff alone among twelve, one from each tribal leader, left overnight to settle the grumbling over who should serve as priest.

In Numbers 27, what do Zelophehad's five daughters win the right to do after he dies without a son?

The right to inherit his land was argued by the five sisters in person before Moses and the whole assembly, and the ruling in their favour became a standing law.

Which small scroll of verses from Deuteronomy do Jews fix in a case to the doorposts of their homes?

A mezuzah takes its name from the Hebrew for doorpost, and Jewish law places it on the right-hand side of the doorway at about shoulder height.

The English name Deuteronomy comes from a Greek term with which literal meaning?

Second law arose from a Greek mistranslation of a Hebrew phrase in chapter 17 that actually means a copy of this law.

According to Deuteronomy 34, what is unusual about the final resting place of Moses?

Its location is unknown because, the text says, God laid Moses to rest in a valley himself and no one has known the spot to this day.

Which giant king of Bashan, defeated by Israel, is recalled in Deuteronomy for his huge iron bed?

Og is called the last of the Rephaim, a race of giants, and his bed is measured at nine cubits long, roughly four metres.

The Torah is the first of three parts of the Hebrew Bible, known by which acronym?

Tanakh is built from the first Hebrew letters of its three parts: Torah, Nevi'im (the Prophets) and Ketuvim (the Writings).

Which medieval French rabbi wrote a Torah commentary that inspired over 300 commentaries of its own?

Rashi is an acronym of Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki, and his Torah commentary became, in 1475, the first dated Hebrew book ever printed.

Which manuscripts found in caves at Qumran in the 1940s hold the oldest known copies of Torah books?

The Dead Sea Scrolls surfaced when a Bedouin shepherd and his companions found seven scrolls in jars in a cave, then sold some to a dealer for a few pounds.

Shemot, the Hebrew name of Exodus, comes from an opening verse listing Israel's sons and means what?

Names follows the custom of titling each book of the Torah by how it begins, here a roll call of the families who went down to Egypt.

Which German scholar gave the Torah's documentary hypothesis its classic form in 1878?

Julius Wellhausen set out the case in his history of Israel, then resigned his theology chair in 1882, saying the post weighed on his conscience.

Which mountain do Samaritans, who hold only the Torah as scripture, see as God's chosen holy place?

Mount Gerizim, not Jerusalem, is where Samaritans believe God chose to have a temple, and they climb it on pilgrimage three times a year.