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  • From: Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
  • To: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] A different generation of biblical scholarship
  • Date: Sun, 08 Feb 2009 18:06:58 +0200

"Humash" (or "Xuma$) is derived form Xame$, "five" - the five books. Actually, a little strangely, each book is called "a humash", such as "Humash Bereshit" - Genesis, and all five together are "the Humash" (the capitals, of course, don't exist in Hebrew).
"Torah" literally means "instruction" or "teaching" (as a noun), often tranlated "the Law". So literally, Yohanan is correct - "the Torah of Moses" is the teachings of Moses that are contained within the books of the Pentateuch. But in common usage, the books themselves are called "the Torah", and tradition holds that they were written word for word by Moses (there's a discussion in the Talmud about the last few verses in Deuteronomy, that describe Moses' death and buirial - did Moses write them prophetically or were they added by Joshua?). And then, by extention, "Torah" can also refer to the totality of Jewish religious literature and thought.

This is somewhat similar to the way that the word "Gospel/Euvangelos" is used in Christianity. "The Gospel" is the "Good News" of Jesus' coming - which is the message contained in the first four books of the NT. But then each book is also called "The Gospel according to...", and collectively as "The Gospels". But "Evangelical" does not just mean "of the Gospel", but refers to all sorts of things "Christian", and "Gospel music" is not just the NT put to music.

Yigal Levin


----- Original Message ----- From: "LM Barre" <l_barre AT yahoo.com>
To: "Yohanan bin-Dawidh" <yohanan.bin.dawidh AT gmail.com>; "b-Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2009 1:22 AM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] A different generation of biblical scholarship



Really. I should think that "Torah" is the Jewish word for the Pentateuch.


Lloyd Barré



--- On Sat, 2/7/09, Yohanan bin-Dawidh <yohanan.bin.dawidh AT gmail.com> wrote:

From: Yohanan bin-Dawidh <yohanan.bin.dawidh AT gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] A different generation of biblical scholarship
To: l_barre AT yahoo.com
Date: Saturday, February 7, 2009, 5:10 AM



Lloyd;

You wrote, "What is the Humash?"

This is the Hebrew word for what you refer to as the Pentateuch.

Yohanan bin-Dawidh



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