A letter from Israel

By Roylindman - Template:Roy Lindman, CC BY-SA 3.0 We have just reached the very end of a long list of Jewish holidays. We went through RoshHaShana (the Jewish New Year), Yom Kippur, Sukkot (the holiday of the huts) and now finally we have reached Simchat Torah. Simhat Torah literally means to “Rejoice in the Torah”. The Torah is the first five books in the Jewish Bible. It is sometimes called the Pentateuch by Christians which means “five scrolls”. The rest of the Jewish Bible is made out of the stories of the prophets (Nevi'im) and the writings (Ketuvim). The T of T orah, N of N evi'im and the K of K etuvim give us the Tanakh. The Tanakh is known to Christians as the Old Testament. But this is all about the Torah, so let’s go back to the beginning... The five books of the Torah - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy are known in Hebrew by the first word in every book. Genesis is called “In the beginning” - בְּרֵאשִׁית Exodus is called “Nam