Torah literally means the "Teaching," the "Constitution" of Judaism and the Jewish people, given to them by G-d at Mt. Sinai, some thirty three hundred years ago. This belief, that the Ten Commandments, the "Aseret HaDibrot," which are the bare outline, as well as the entire text of the "Five Books of Moses" and their explanation, are of Divine Origin, is known as "Torah min HaShamayim;" literally, the Torah comes from Heaven. It is one of the Fundamental Beliefs of Judaism.

The Torah is a "web" of History and Law, the History beginning at the Beginning of Time, and the Law, "preceding" the Beginning of Time, and continuing to the Present and into the Future.

It traces the ancestors of humanity - Adam, "Chava" (Eve), Noach - and the "Avot, the "fathers of the Jewish People," together with the "Imahot," the "mothers of the Jewish People." It shows us an unaltered picture of the interactions of their descendants through Biblical Times, some thirty eight hundred years, beginning with the beginning of recorded history in the Garden of Eden, and ending with the Rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem and the End of Prophecy, some two thousand years ago.

The Torah consists of two components: the Written Torah and the Oral Torah. The Written Torah consists of two hundred forty eight Laws of Positive Action ("Mitzvot Aseh") - the "Dos" - and three hundred sixty five Prohibited Activities ("Mitzvot Lo Taaseh") - the "Don'ts." The root word "Aseh" means "to Do."

When did the Jewish People receive the "Oral Torah?" They received it at Sinai, along with the Written Torah. When Moshe Rabbeinu, Moses our Teacher, was up there for forty days and forty nights, neither "eating bread nor drinking water" according to the testimony of the Bible, he was studying the "Oral" Part of the Torah from the Master Teacher, G-d Himself. The Oral Torah is required because without it, its counterpart, the Written Torah, would be incomprehensible.

In the Torah, G-d commands the Jewish People, "Be holy, for I, the L-rd your G-d, am Holy." ("VaYikra"/Leviticus 19:2) And teach the rest of humanity that lesson, though they will at first resist to the point of killing you, that the purpose of the Creator in creating the human being was for his highest creature to live his or her life according to true human nature, which is to realize the potential of the "image of G-d" which lies within every human being.