13  Av  5770 July 24, 2010

        Torah portion:Parashah 44

         D'varim 3:23-7:11

         Haftarah portion: 

          Yesha'yahu  40:1-26

         B'rit Chadashah portion:

          James 2:14-26

        Written Torah/ Oral Torah

The written Torah is often called the "Tanakh",

which stands for the Torah.

1.  Torah (T)  Five books of Moshe --Chumashe Torah
2.  Prophets (N) Nevi'im
3.  Writings (K) Ketuvim
Hence the word "TaNaKh"
    The five books of Moshe are:  Genesis (B'resheet),
Exodus (Sh'mot),Leviticus(Vayikra),Numbers(B'midbar)
Deuteronomy (D'varim).  The oral Torah is explanations
of the written Torah, which was originally passed down orally from generation to generation.  After the destruc -tion of the temple, it was decided that the oral Torah should be written down. 
  In the 2nd Century C.E. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi and a group of Sages compiled the Mishnah; which is an oral outline of the written Torah. 
     Over the following centuries, Jewish scholars studied and put their own thoughts into the Mishnah. Their thoughts, discussions questions, and answers became known as the Gemara; a commentary
on the Mishnah.The Talmud is a combination of the Mishnah and Gemara.  
     In the 4th century the Jerusalem Talmud was compiled.  In the 5th century the Babylonian Talmud was compiled.  The Babylonian Talmud is the most widely used since it is the most comprehensive of the two.