FIVE SCROLLS
‫חמש מגלות‬
occasions: Song of Songs on Pesah; Ruth on Shavuoth; Lamentations
on Tish'ah b'Av, the fast day commemorating the destruction of Jerusalem; Ecclesiastes on Sukkoth, the autumn festival; and Esther on
Purim.
The Five Scrolls, forming a class by themselves, are arranged in the
Hebrew Bible according to the sequence of the annual occasions.
PENTATEUCH
‫תורה‬
‫חמשי‬
‫חמשה‬
T
‫״‬:‫•־‬.
T ‫־ י‬:
T
"
T
•
—•
T H E five books of the Torah are variously referred to by as many as
five titles: Torah, Law, Pentateuch, Five Books of Moses, and Five
Fifths (Hummashim). They are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,
Deuteronomy. These names are descriptive of the contents of the
books: Genesis (origin) begins with the story of creation; Exodus
(going out) tells of the going out from Egypt; Leviticus (pertaining
to Levites) contains laws which relate to the priests, members of the
tribe of Levi; Numbers derives its name from the census of the Israelites in the wilderness; Deuteronomy (repetition of the law) contains
a restatement of the Mosaic laws.
The framework of history, within which the Torah proper is enclosed, extends from the creation of the world to the death of Moses.
The five books of the Torah have always been considered as one, single scroll, with a blank space of four lines between adjoining books;
although for private study, a single volume for each book has been
permitted.
Tradition has it that the events recorded in Genesis were transmitted until the time of Moses by word of mouth and in writing; the
subsequent occurrences were witnessed by Moses himself. Writing
was used (cuneiform) by the Sumerians in Babylonia long before
Moses. Ever since the time of Ezra the Scribe, who arrived in Jerusalem in 450 before the common era, the five books of the Torah have
been the basis of religion and education. The study of Torah, including the entire talmudic literature and commentaries, has always been
the highest ideal of the Jewish people. The unquenchable thirst for
knowledge and education among the Jewish people stems from their
traditional veneration of the Torah.
Listed below are the fifty-four Torah sections, known as the weekly
portions (sidroth), read as part of the Sabbath morning services consecutively. Each week is identified with its current sidrah and bears
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