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Words to Understand in This Chapter

commandments— 613 commandments can be found in the Torah; the passage known as the Ten Commandments summarizes them. See mitzvah. Gemara— another term for the Mishnah and the Talmud. halakhah— Jewish religious law. Messiah— a person that, according to Jewish belief, God will send into the world to free the Jews from oppression. Mishnah— the written form of oral explanations of the Torah and other teach- ings, which, together with the Gemara, forms the Talmud. mitzvah— a commandment (plural mitzvot ). oral Torah— explanations of the meaning of the written Torah given to Moses when he received the written Torah. Talmud— writings composed of the Mishnah and the Gemara that are studied and used to determine the meaning of the Torah. Tanakh— The Hebrew scriptures, a collection of twenty-four ancient texts that Jews consider to be sacred. Often referred to in English as the Hebrew Bible. Torah— the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. These are believed to have been revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai. Also known as the “written Torah.”