FaCt A DaY
with a space between it and the
word following. By tradition this
heh, vowelized to hah, is a sepa-
rate word.
7. If you spend
Shabbat in Spain
one week, then
hop on over to
Russia the next,
you might get a lit-
tle confused:
Ashkenazi and
Sephardi Jews do
not follow the
same order of
reciting haftorot,
the supplemental
readings to the
Torah.
reading of the Torah begins on the
Shabbat after Sukkot; it ends on
Simchat Torah.
17. The letter yod in the word teshi
("you ignored") in Parshat Haazinu
(Deuteronomy 32:8) is written smaller
than any other yod in the Torah.
18. The last word in the Torah is
Yisrael.
A Torah scroll may be written only on the parchment
of a kosher animal.
8. A number of
names exist fof tne place where
the Jews received the Torah.
These include "Mount Sinai" (Exo-
dus 19H 1, 18, 20), for exam-
ple, "the mountain of God"
(including Exodus 4:27, 1 8:5),
"Mount Horeb" (Exodus 33:6),
"the mountain" (Exodus 19:2),
your computer to find codes in the
Torah
12. in the sefer Torah (Torah scroll),
the very first letter of the Torah, the
bet in Beresheet, traditionally is writ-
ten large and wide. This is known
as the bet rabbati.
"the mountain of Horeb" (Exodus
17:6) and "the mountain of God
in Horeb" (including Exodus
17:6, Deuteronomy 1:6).
9. Though congregations of all
denominations today make use of a
Torah reader, this wasn't always the
case. During the time of the Temple,
anyone who knew how to read
Torah was asked to do so. Yet
according to the Mishnah (commen-
taries on the Torah), there came a
time when certain farmers would
announce, as they left harvest gifts
at the Temple, that they simply did
not know enough to read. Conse-
quently, the rabbis came up with
the idea of a designated Torah
reader.
10. The Torah has been translated
into more than 1,000 languages.
11. Who could have imagined
this marriage between religion
and technology? Among the latest
software kits: the Bible Codes Pro-
gram, which allows you to use
5/28
1999
25. The yearly cycle of the public
19. Are there five or six books of
the Torah? Verses 35 and 36 in
Parshat Behaalotcha (Numbersl 0)
are separated from the rest of the
Torah text by two inverted nuns (pro-
nounced: noons), written before
and after the verses. Because these
verses appear to stand alone, the
Talmud regards them as a separate
book of the Torah.
13. The midpoint of the Torah text is
the letter vav in -the word gachon
("belly"), Parshat Shemini (Leviticus
11:42). Traditionally, this vav is
written in an elongated form in the
sefer Torah.
14. The Song of the Sea in Parshat
B'shalach (Exodus 15H-19) is written
in staggered lines. Each line contains
long spaces, and the lines above and
below the spaces have words. The
Talmud specifies that this passage in
the Torah scroll should resemble the
staggered lines of brick work.
15. Probably the best known line in
the Torah is Shema Yisrael Hashem
Elokeinu Hashem Echad (Deuteron-
omy 6:4). By tradition, in the Torah
scroll this phrase is written out as
one full line of text. The letter ayin
of the word Shema, and the letter
dalet of the word echad, are writ-
ten larger than the other letters.
16. In Parshat Haazinu, (Deuterono -
my 32:6), the letter heh is written
larger than the other letters, and
26. The synagogue Torah reading
is divided into various aliyot
(ascents), where members of the
congregation are called up to make
a blessing before each portion is
read. On Shabbat morning, there
are seven aliyot; six on Yom Kippur;
five on other major holidays; four
on the intermediate days of the holi-
days and on Rosh Chodesh (the
new moon), and three on Shabbat
afternoon.
27. The Torah cannot be read cere-
20. The Torah is divided into 54
weekly portions called parshyot,
although the public reading of the
Torah is completed within one year.
21. There are 10 words in the
Torah that traditionally are written
with dots over them and sometimes
also under them.
22. By Talmudic tradition, the Torah
in Parshat Noach (Genesisl 0: 1 -32)
lists 70 primary nations of the world
descended from the three sons of
Noah, from which stem all subse-
quent nations.
23. The song of Moshe in Parshat
Haazinu (Deuteronomy 32:1-43) is
written with a long space in the
middle of each line, giving the
appearance of a double column.
24. Seven of the 22 letters of the
Hebrew alphabet in the Torah are
written with small flourishes, resem-
bling crowns, in their upper left-hand
corners. The crowns, called tagin, are
attached to the letters shin, ayin, tet,
nun, zayin, gimel and tsadi.
monially in public unless there is a
minyan (a quorum of 10 adults) pre-
sent.
28. In the synagogue reading of
the Torah, the open scroll is lifted
and shown to the congregation in a
ritual called hagba. In Sephardic
congregations, it is done before the
reading; among Ashkenazim, it is
done afterward.
29. A Torah scroll may be written
on parchment only, made from a
kosher animal.
30. Although we are used to seeing
the vowel points in printed editions
of the Torah, a Torah scroll must be
written with the consonants only.
The addition of vowel signs or can-
tillation symbols renders a sefer
Torah unfit for use.
31. By tradition, the Torah scroll is
written in columns, and each col-
umn starts with a word whose first
letter begins with vay.
(Answer to Question 3.)
According to tradition, Job was not
a real person. Instead, Moses was
said to have created the figure to
teach the idea of human suffering
and God's justice.