The Torah

The Torah is one of the most influential texts in human history. It has shaped three of the world’s great religions, provided the ethical foundation for Western law and human rights, and supplied the narrative archetypes that run through centuries of literature - from Milton to Melville to Toni Morrison.Most people, including many who consider themselves religious, are not entirely sure what it is.In The Torah: Seven Things You Should Know, Jim Stovall - journalist, former journalism professor, and the curious outsider behind the I’m No Expert, But series - takes on one of civilization’s foundational texts with the same approach he brings to every subject: honest about what he didn’t know, determined to find what was most interesting, and committed to telling you what actually matters.Here are the seven things:The Torah is five books - and what those five books actually contain is not what most people expectThe Torah was assembled over centuries from multiple sources - and that complexity is a feature, not a flawThe Torah emerged from a world of ancient stories it inherited and transformed, including a flood narrative that predates Genesis by centuriesThe Torah contains 613 commandments - covering everything from agriculture and diet to economic justice and the treatment of strangersThe Torah is a living text, read aloud in its entirety every year in Jewish communities around the worldThe Torah was received and transformed by Christianity and Islam - with consequences still unfolding todayThe Torah’s reach extends into Western law, ethics, literature, and the language we speak every dayYou’ll learn why the Torah has two creation stories - and why that matters. You’ll meet Julius Wellhausen and the Documentary Hypothesis. You’ll discover what the Epic of Gilgamesh has to do with Noah’s ark. You’ll find out what 613 commandments actually cover, why a handwritten Torah scroll takes a year to produce, and why Harriet Tubman was called Moses.Readable in about an hour. Accurate to the last detail. Nothing you thought you knew is quite as simple as you thought.Part of the I’m No Expert, But series - curious, a little lost, and taking notes.