Understanding Torah: Structure Informs Spiritual Meaning fe

Finding Structure in Torah and Our Lives

Louis Sullivan, the American architect, famously remarked that “form follows function”.  While his idiom has been applied primarily to architecture, it also opens insights into Torah and life as well. Torah forms the foundation for any discussion of Jewish practice, belief, custom, or history.  How it appears, even physically, gives us an understanding of how it can and has been utilized.   If we’re going to spend time discussing Torah, let’s make certain that we understand and agree on the basics.  To start, the word Torah comes from the Hebrew root ירה, meaning teaching or instruction.  At its core, Torah is about instruction, not law, and that meaning pervades all the uses of Torah.

Torah in the narrow sense

In its narrowest sense, Torah refers to the Five Books of Moses.  The English names, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy refer to themes of each of these books.  Genesis is the beginnings of the universe and the Jewish people; Exodus, the journey out of Egypt; Leviticus, priestly material; Numbers, censuses in the wilderness; and Deuteronomy, a repetition of the material previously covered in Exodus through Numbers.  The Hebrew names for each book come from the first significant word in the book: Bereishit (in the beginning), Sh’mot (These are the names), Vayikra (And He called), B’midbar (in the wilderness), and D’varim (These are the words).  The names Pentateuch (Five Books) and Chumash (Five) are synonyms for Torah.

Torah in a broader sense

Many people use the words Torah and Tanakh interchangeably.  Tanakh is an acronym for Torah, Nevi’im (Prophets) and K’tuvim (Writings), the three sections of the Hebrew Bible.  Torah is also often used to refer to both the written Torah (Torah shebikhtav) and the oral Torah (Torah sheba’al peh).  The oral tradition was eventually written down and eventually became the Mishnah, codified around 200 C.E and its continued discussion, the Gemara, which is finalized in the 6^th century.  The Mishnah and Gemara form the Talmud.  The broadest  use of Torah is to refer to all of traditional Jewish literature, every commentary, extension, and inspiration from these earlier periods.

How did we end up with the Torah (5 Books of Moses) we have today?

If anyone has looked at a Torah scroll (sefer Torah), you’ll immediately notice that there is no punctuation and no vocalization or vowels, much less any notations of chapter and verse.  It is handwritten on parchment or vellum and the sections of skin are then sewn together and attached to rollers.  It is clearly not designed for quickly comparing related passages, but for reading from start to finish, as is done in synagogue from week to week.

The form of the scroll lends itself to synagogue use, but an unvocalized, unpunctuated text lends itself quite easily to variant readings and interpretation. It makes it very difficult to have a commonly agreed upon meaning.  If you want an actual community, not just a random collection of individuals, you need a text or belief or something that everyone can agree upon.  Enter the MasoretesMasoretes to save the day.

The Masoretes

The Masoretes are the neglected and often forgotten heroes of Judaism.  Working in the 5^th through the 10^th centuries, primarily in Tiberius and Jerusalem, the Masoretes added niqqud, diacritical marks or vowels, as well as the ta’amei hamikra, the cantillation marks for chanting, which function as punctuation, dividing the text into phrases and sentences.  Prior to that, in the written text there were merely spaces to mark beginnings and endings of passages, which were preserved by the Masoretes in book form by marking a פ (petuchah – open) for a space at the end of a line and a ס (stumah – closed) for a space in the middle of a line.

The Masoretes maintained the scribal traditions of the scroll, but placed them in book form, enabling in-depth study and the ability of an individual to read it at any time, not just hearing the text at a public reading of the Torah at worship services.  Still, the only divisions were the 54 parashiyot  or sidrot, the weekly Torah readings (50 for a standard lunar year, 54 for a leap year, with some passages combined on non-leap years).

Chapter and Verse

The introduction of chapter and verse comes from the Vulgate, Latin translation of the Hebrew Bible, done primarily by Jerome in the 4^th century and revised in the 16^th century.  Many believe that the introduction of chapter and verse in the Jewish versions came as a result of medieval disputations, public theological debates, so that the Jewish disputant could quickly understand exactly where his opponent was quoting and respond.

The first printed Hebrew Bible with commentary or Mikraot G’dolot, was published by Daniel Bomberg in Venice with chapter and verse in 1517 and Jewish versions ever since have utilized chapter and verse, even when they don’t fit the structure of the Hebrew.  One example is the beginning of Chapter 2 of Genesis, which contains the end of the creation of day 7, the Sabbath.  It clearly belongs to the previous passage.  Verse 4 begins the next passage with the story of the Garden of Eden.

The system isn’t perfect, but the form enables every individual to engage in their own study and arrive at their own opinions.  It makes possible discussions between people with divergent backgrounds and opinions because there is a shared common text.  You might disagree with someone’s analysis, but you can at least see the source and witness the process.

 A Structural Model?

Our personal lives mirror some of these same factors.  Our personalities, practices, and beliefs are pulled from a variety of sources.  Some of those are from our family and background.  Some come from broader society.  Others come from our own reactions to our families and societal trends and influences.  The reality of  living in a diverse, multi-cultural society impacts not just how we see the Torah on a page or how we understand its meaning, but how we understand, appreciate, and apply Judaism and Jewish teachings.  The nature of contemporary society influences the function of Jewish life and study and, in turn, serves to shape the form of Jewish community.  Let us choose wisely the wisdom we integrate into our lives.