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Tanakh and Talmud
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True or false? The Jews' holy book Tanakh consists of three parts: The Law – Torah, The Prophets – Neviim and The Writings – Ketuvim.
This is the Bible that the Christians believe in. It consists of two parts: The Old Testament and The New Testament. The Old Testament is also the bible of the Jews - The Hebrew Bible. But most Jews usually call it Tanakh. The Tanakh consists of three parts.
In the first part there are stories about how the world and humans were created; and stories about Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and many more. It also contains the commandments - the laws - that it’s said God dictated to Moses, who wrote them on two stone tablets. That is why this first part of the Tanakh is called the law - Torah in Hebrew. According to Jewish tradition Moses wrote not only the stone tablets. He is also considered to be the one who wrote all of the Torah.
In the second part of the Tanakh you can read about what happens after Moses’ life time. How his people - the Israelites - get to the land of Canaan – to which they eventually give the name ‘Israel’ and make into a kingdom. The stories in this part are, among other things about Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Hesekiel, all of whom received visions from God - they were prophets. This is why this part of the Tanakh is called The Prophets - that’s Nevi’im in Hebrew. It doesn’t always go well for the People of Israel in Nevi’im.
The prophets warn and explain why: Time after time the people of Israel have broken the commandments given to Moses. But the Prophets also predict that things will get better in the future: God will forgive his people again. Several of the prophets tell about a fantastic king that will arrive in the future: the anointed one – the Messiah. The third part of the Tanakh gathers various proverbs, poetry about love and life, and psalms. These are The Writings - Ketuvim.
So. That was the Tanakh. But hold on. How are you actually meant to read The Tanakh: interpret it? For instance, there are 613 rules to follow.
How are you supposed to do that in the best way? Well, there have been many learned Jews who have thought about this, studied thoroughly, and written comments about it. That’s why there is another collection of texts that are also important to the Jews: a collection of texts that were written about fifteen hundred years ago. The name of this collection means study or teaching - Talmud. The Talmud is very important for a religious Jew.
Because how Tanakh is to be interpreted is still an important question today. Many wonder how to adapt the laws to the modern world. Maybe you can’t do that? Maybe you have to? The answer to this differs from person to person, and group to group.
But regardless of group there are many religious Jews that spend their Saturday - their sabbat - reading and studying the Talmud, to understand the Tanakh better, and in this way, to better understand their God.