X-Nico

4 unusual facts about Oral Torah


High Holy Days

The Mishnah, the core work of the Jewish Oral Torah, sets this day aside as the new year for calculating calendar years and Sabbatical and jubilee years.

Oral Torah

Belief that the Oral Torah was transmitted orally from God to Moses on Mount Sinai during the Exodus from Egypt is a fundamental tenet of faith of Orthodox and Haredi Judaism, and was recognized as one of the Thirteen Principles of Faith by Maimonides.

"Mishnah" is the name given to the sixty-three tractates that HaNasi systematically codified, which in turn are divided into six "orders." Unlike the Torah, in which, for example, laws of the Sabbath are scattered throughout the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, all the Mishnaic laws of the Sabbath are located in a single tractate called Shabbat (Hebrew for "Sabbath").

Many terms used in the Torah are left undefined, such as the word totafot, usually translated as "frontlets," which is used three times in the Pentateuch (in Exodus 13:9 and Deuteronomy 6:8 and 11:18) but only identified with tefillin in the Mishnah (see Menachot 3:7).


Mitzvah

In addition, many of the specific details of the Biblical mitzvot are only derived via rabbinical application of the Oral Torah (Mishna/Gemarah); for example, the reading of the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-7), the binding of the tefillin and the fixing of the mezuzah (Deuteronomy 6:8-9), and the saying of Grace After Meals (Deuteronomy 8:10).

Tseno Ureno

The book was written by Rabbi Jacob ben Isaac Ashkenazi (1550–1625) of Janowa (near Lublin, Poland), and mixes Biblical passages with teachings from Judaism's Oral Law such as the Talmud's Aggada and Midrash, which are sometimes called "parables, allegories, short stories, anecdotes, legends, and admonitions" by secular writers.


see also