How does the Torah look different from the Bible and the commentaries?

Answer 1

Answer 1

1) The Torah is the Five Books of Moses, whereas the Hebrew Bible has more (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, etc.).

2) Printed Torahs may look similar and also contain commentaries. The Torahs that look different are the actual Torah-scrolls, which contain no commentary or even punctuation and are written by hand on rolled parchment.

Answer 2

First off, the term "the commentaries" is confusing. Almost half a religious Jew's home library (if not more) will be various types of Rabbinical commentaries on the Torah or Hebrew Bible or commentaries on those commentaries. As a result, "the commentaries" contain lots of different types of books with different literary stylings.

However, Jews usually use the word Torah (תורה) to refer to the parchment scroll or the ideas contained within that writing. (A book with the same text is usually called a Khumash (חומש) or Pentateuch and roughly comprises the Books of Law in the Christian Old Testament.) The Torah scroll is a handwritten parchment scroll written in columns and wrapped around two spindles. The parchment is usually about half a meter in height and unrolled only to the extent necessary to read the daily or weekly portions. It will also have a mantle and assorted jewelry for its decoration.

In terms of the text contained within the Torah, the Torah is a subset of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (תנ׳׳ך) which contains the Torah, Prophets or Nevi'im (נבאים), and Writings or Ketuvim (כתובים) as its three main sections. The Hebrew Bible is roughly equivalent to the Protestant Old Testament, but there are some wording differences and the books are ordered differently. In most cases, the Hebrew Bible is sold as a bound book, not unlike the Christian Bible or the Qur'an.

There are some commentaries, like Rashi's famous Torah Commentary, which are actually included in many versions of Khumashes. and are written at the bottom of the page in the "notes" section. Some commentaries, like the Talmud (תלמוד), are usually published as books or anthologies of their own. The Talmud, specifically has a unique format where the main text from the Mishnah (an earlier commentary) is placed in the center and discussions on it fill numerous columns along the edges of the pages.

Answer 2

The Torah is a Hebrew handwritten parchment scroll. It is also available in printed books and in translation, with or without commentaries. See: more about the Torah and

the Hebrew Bible

The word "Bible" may be used to refer to the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), which contains the five books of the Torah together with the books of the Prophets. Christians use the word "Bible" to refer to the Christian Bible, which is printed in book form.