If you think you know the Torah, read this.
As we celebrate Simchat Torah, which marks the conclusion of the annual cycle of public Torah readings, how much do you really know about these ancient Jewish texts?
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The Torah isn’t a history book, a physics book, or a storybook.
It is torat chaim — literally “instructions for living” in Hebrew.
“The more Torah you know,” said the late, great Rabbi Noah Weinberg, “the more fulfilled you become. Every word, every phrase contains a message for how to maximize pleasure in life. Look for the deeper message — the wisdom within — and you will reap immense rewards.”1
In the Torah, the basics are laid out in writing, but the rest must be learned orally, know as the Mishnah.
“When an engineer has a problem, he looks up logarithm tables. A lawyer refers to case studies. A doctor has medical journals. A Jew has the Mishnah,” according to Rabbi Weinberg.
The Mishnah refers to the later works of the rabbinic period — most prominently the Mishnah and the Gemara, jointly known as the Talmud — which explain and expound upon the statutes recorded in the Written Torah.
So, how much do you really know about the Torah?
Enjoy these five surprising facts:
1) Four Levels of Understanding
Rabbi Noah Weinberg once said that a single word in Torah can yield multi-layered understandings — “if you know how to apply the right tools.” This isn’t metaphor. It’s methodology.
The Torah is written in a code, not a secret one, but a multi-dimensional one. Jewish tradition teaches that the Torah operates on four primary interpretive levels:
P’shat (פשט): The simple, literal meaning of the text. What is the Torah saying at face value? This is the level explained by commentators like Rashi, who wrote in 12th-century France but saw his work as clarifying what the Torah meant all along.
Drush (דרש): The homiletic level, found in Midrash and Talmud. It explores how verses teach moral, ethical, or spiritual lessons — often reading between the lines to discover deeper patterns.
Remez (רמז): Literally “hint.” This level uncovers subtler meanings — using Hebrew wordplay, gematria (numerical values), or alternate pronunciations to surface ideas hidden in plain sight. One reason the Torah scroll has no vowels or punctuation is to make these alternate readings possible.
Sod (סוד): The secret, mystical level. This is the realm of Kabbalah, of the Zohar, of cosmic structures and divine energies encoded in the language of the Torah itself. It doesn’t contradict the other layers — it reveals what they were whispering all along.
Together, these four levels form the acronym PaRDeS (פרדס) — which means “orchard” in Hebrew.
It’s a stunning metaphor. The Torah is not a textbook. It’s an orchard, a place of sweetness, beauty, shade, and sustenance. But like any orchard, you don’t get the fruit unless you’re willing to walk through it, get your hands dirty, and reach.
“The Torah is filled with delicious spiritual fruits,” wrote Rabbi Weinberg, “just waiting to be plucked and savored.”
2) Two Kinds of Rabbis in the Talmud
One of the lesser-known but fascinating aspects of the Torah’s afterlife (how it continued to be interpreted, debated, and expanded after Sinai) is that not all “rabbis” are created equal.
In the world of rabbinic Judaism, there are two main eras of sages:
Those of the Mishnah are known as Tannaim (plural of Tanah), which comes from the Aramaic word for “to repeat” or “to teach.”
Those of the Talmud are called Amoraim (plural of Amorah), which means “those who say” or “those who speak.”
And here’s the key rule: An Amorah cannot argue with a Tanah because, in the traditional Jewish worldview, the earlier a generation is, the closer it is to the giving of the Torah at Sinai, and thus, the greater its spiritual authority.
The Tannaim lived in the first and second centuries CE, not long after the destruction of the Second Temple. They were the ones who compiled and transmitted the Oral Torah in its earliest form. The Amoraim, who lived from roughly the 3rd to 6th centuries, carried that tradition forward, but with humility, knowing they stood on the shoulders of those who came before.
So, how can you tell who’s who when reading the Talmud? Simple trick: Look at their title.
If the sage is referred to as Rabbi so-and-so, he likely lived in the Land of Israel and received semichah (rabbinic ordination), an unbroken chain of rabbinic ordination that traces all the way back to Moses. If he’s called Rav so-and-so, he likely lived in Babylonia (modern-day Iraq), where semichah was no longer conferred, so he wasn’t given the formal title “Rabbi.”
This distinction isn’t just technical. It reveals a spiritual geography. In a time when the Jewish People were scattered, when sovereignty had been lost and the Temple destroyed, the Torah still held — but now in different accents, dialects, and levels of authority. And yet, both Tannaim and Amoraim dedicated their lives to the same goal: translating Sinai into every generation.
3) The Torah was given in the desert for a reason.
Why was the most sacred moment in Jewish history — the giving of the Torah — not held in Jerusalem, Hebron, or some other spiritually significant location? Why not wait until we reached the Promised Land to receive the ultimate promise?
The answer is striking: Because the desert belongs to no one.
Mount Sinai wasn’t in the Land of Israel. It wasn’t in a kingdom, a capital, or even a settled area. It was in the midbar (Hebrew for desert), a place beyond borders, ownership, ego, or empire. A place where human claims vanish. Where survival depends entirely on the unseen.
The desert is quiet. There are no distractions. No power structures. No wealth. No fame. Nothing to own, and nothing to conquer. Just you, the silence, and something bigger than yourself.
And that’s the point.
The Torah had to be given in a place where no one could say, “It’s mine.” Not the priests, not the scholars, not the powerful. If it had been given in a land already owned, the people who controlled the land would have assumed they also controlled the Torah. By giving the Torah in a no-man’s-land, God was saying: This is for everyone.
There’s a deeper Hebrew connection too: the word for desert, midbar (מִדְבָּר), shares its root with dibur (דִבּוּר), meaning speech. The desert is the place where God speaks.
Why?
Because you have to be in a desert — stripped down, quiet, emptied of noise and self-importance — to truly hear. Sinai is not just a location. It’s a spiritual state. And every generation is meant to re-enter that desert, to hear the Torah as if for the first time.
4) Lost in Translation
Over the centuries, the Torah has been translated into dozens of languages: Greek (the Septuagint), Latin (the Vulgate), Arabic (Targum al-Tawrat), English, Romanian, French, Russian, and more.
In fact, the first known public translation (into Greek) caused an existential crisis among the rabbis, who feared that something sacred would be lost in translation. And they were right to worry, not because other languages are unworthy, but because Hebrew is not like other languages.
In Hebrew, words don’t just convey meaning; they generate it. They build connections, echo other words, and often contain entire stories in a single root. Nowhere is this more profound than in Hebrew names.
Take these examples:
Yitzchak (Isaac) – From the word tzchok, meaning “laughter.” Because Sarah laughed when she heard she’d have a child at 90 years old. Isaac carries that astonishment in his name forever.
Yaakov (Jacob) – From eikev, meaning “heel” or “to follow,” since he was born grasping his twin’s heel. His entire life (of struggling, contending, and eventually becoming Yisrael) is hinted in that first act.
Adam – From adamah, meaning “earth” or “soil.” Humanity, in Hebrew, begins with humility, a reminder that we are formed from the ground and return to it.
Here are more notable Hebrew names, each a window into biblical psychology and divine intention:
Avraham (Abraham) – “father of many”
Batsheva (Elizabeth) – “someone who takes an oath”
Binyamin (Benjamin) – “the son of optimism”
Daniel – “God is my judge.”
Eytan (Ethan) – “source of water”
Eden – “pleasure, delight”
Gavriel (Gabriel) – “a man with God-like abilities”
Keren (Karen) – “ray of light”
Leah (Leah) – “weary”
Mattityahu (Matthew) – “God’s gift”
Immanuel (Emmanuel) – “God is with us.”
Meir (Meyer) – “spreading light”
Miriam (Mary) – “freshness, flow, renewal, and life”
Naomi (Naomi) – “pleasantness”
Rakhel (Rachel) – “lady, princess, noblewoman”
Shirli (Shirley) – “a song for me”
Shimon (Simon) – “God heard Leah’s pleas.”
Shmuel (Samuel) – “the name of God”
Shoshana (Susanna) – “a flow of different colors, with a thorny stem”
Talia (Talya) – “dew from God”
Yehonatan (Jonathan) – “God gave”
Yehudit (Judith) – “woman of the Jewish People”
Yeshayahu (Isaiah) – “the God who saves”
In the language of the Torah, names are not arbitrary; they are prophecy. They encode the essence of a person’s journey, identity, and mission. That’s why when God changes someone’s destiny, He often changes their name — Avram becomes Avraham, Yaakov becomes Yisrael, Hoshea becomes Yehoshua.
So, while the Torah can be appreciated in every language, its deepest poetry lives in Hebrew, where meaning isn’t just communicated; it’s constructed at the root level.
5) Original Form
Even though the Torah is the most copied, most read, and most debated book in human history, something extraordinary has remained constant: Not a single one of its 304,805 Hebrew letters has been changed, added, or removed in over 3,300 years.
This staggering precision isn’t accidental; it’s a religious obligation and an expression of awe. Every Torah scroll in every synagogue around the world is hand-written by a trained scribe called a sofer STaM. The word sofer means “counter” (someone who counts) in Hebrew, because that’s what he does: He counts every single letter to make sure it’s exactly right. Not just once, but again and again.
The acronym STaM stands for the three sacred objects a sofer typically writes:
Sifrei Torah – Torah scrolls used in communal prayer
Tefillin – Leather boxes worn during weekday morning prayers, containing Torah verses on parchment
Mezuzot – Scrolls placed on doorposts, also handwritten and inscribed with passages from the Torah
Each letter must be written with intention. If even a single letter is cracked, smudged, or misformed, the entire scroll is considered invalid until corrected. And yes, the scribe must do this all by hand, without vowels, punctuation, or digital tools.
But, while the text has never changed, the Torah still surprises. It’s not just what’s in it — but what’s not. For example, out of 79,976 words, the word “believe” does not appear even once. Not once are Jews told to believe in God.
Instead, we are told to know, to remember, to love, to do, to obey, to listen, to choose. Judaism isn’t a religion of belief; it’s a religion of covenant and responsibility. You don’t believe in fire; you respect it, you engage with it, you use it wisely. The Torah takes the same approach to God.
And here’s something else missing: the afterlife. The Torah, astonishingly, says nothing — not a word — about heaven, hell, or reward after death. Why? Because if we were told exactly what was waiting for us on the other side, it would be too easy to follow the Torah for the wrong reasons, out of fear or transactional reward.
Instead, the Torah roots us fully in this world. In this breath. In this day. It demands we build a just society, care for the vulnerable, honor life, create beauty, and sanctify time, not because of some cosmic prize waiting after we die, but because that’s what it means to be in a relationship with God right now.
In other words: The Torah isn’t concerned with what happens after life. It’s concerned with what happens after you get out of bed.
BONUS: The Torah doesn’t end happily — on purpose.
You’d think that the Torah — the foundational story of the Jewish People, the divine constitution handed down from Heaven — would end with triumph. The Israelites reach the Promised Land. The people rejoice. Moses smiles. Roll credits.
But that’s not what happens.
The Torah ends in tension, in unfulfilled promise. Moses, the greatest leader the Jewish People have ever known, dies alone on a mountain, staring at the land he’s spent 40 years guiding his people toward but is forbidden to enter. No triumphant entry. No mass celebration. No happy ending.
Why? Because the Torah isn’t a fairy tale. And it’s not meant to be finished.
The story stops before the destination is reached to send an unmistakable message: This isn’t the end; it’s your beginning. When Moses dies, it’s not the conclusion of the Jewish journey. It’s a handoff. We don’t close the Torah as a completed story; we receive it as an open invitation.
Unlike other sacred texts that seal their teachings in a neat arc of prophecy and fulfillment, the Torah ends unfinished because it was never supposed to be self-contained. It demands continuation — through us. Through what we do next. Through how we build, respond, rise, fall, and begin again.
This is not a flaw in the storytelling. It’s the entire point. The Torah is structured like a covenantal relay race: God to Moses, Moses to Joshua, Joshua to the people, the people to us.
And here’s what’s wild: The very next book (Joshua) isn’t part of the Torah. It’s the beginning of a different section of the Bible. Which means the Torah’s final words leave us suspended: in grief, in longing, and most importantly, in responsibility.
The sages didn’t miss this. They taught that, in every generation, every Jew is required to say: “The Torah was given to me.” Not to “them.” Not to the past. To me.
Weinberg, Noah. “Way #14: Written Instructions For Living.” Aish.
This was an amazing read, thank you so much for sharing and engaging with your readers about our Torah. I would love more. Shanna Tova to all.
Bravo! Laid out like a seder zo it makes sense (an' indeed most of us did NOT git this in Sunday Skool)--
Mah fave-o-rite part as I've argued this with ZO many peepull who don't understand "jooish:"
THIS!:
"Not once are Jews told to believe in God."
plus yer additions:
"Instead, we are told to know, to remember, to love, to do, to obey, to listen, to choose. Judaism isn’t a religion of belief; it’s a religion of covenant and responsibility. You don’t believe in fire; you respect it, you engage with it, you use it wisely. The Torah takes the same approach to God."
Yes, yessiree, yeah!