Jewish Sacred Texts

Ever since the Book of Exodus depicted the Ten Commandments as engraved in stone, Judaism has stressed its reliance upon the written text. Jewish sacred texts are engaged in a conversation across time: “[A]ll Jewish texts, to one degree or another,” writes Aaron Hahn-Tapper, “are based on those that came before. At the core of this system—perhaps best understood in terms of concentric circles—is the Torah.”  

Familiarity with the major Jewish sacred texts is key to a broader engagement with Jewish history. Jewish sacred literature may be grouped into six rough categories: 

The Hebrew Bible

Also known as “Torah She’bi’khtav” (“The Written Torah”) or simply by the acronym “TaNaKh,” the Hebrew Bible is the canonized Hebrew scripture, which contains twenty-four books divided over three sections:  

• The Torah, or Pentateuch (Greek for “five books,” i.e., the books of Moses). The hand-scribed Torah scrolls used in religious services contain this section of the Hebrew Bible. 

• Nevi’im, or Prophets, consisting of eight books. 

• Ketuvim, or Writings, in eleven books, including the Five Megillot (“Scrolls”) read on special occasions, such as the Scroll of Esther, intended for the holiday of Purim.  

Talmud

The Babylonian Talmud, or “Torah She’be’al peh” (“The Oral Torah”), is an explanation of and elaboration on the Written Torah, assembled over the first eight centuries of the Common Era. It is written in Hebrew and Aramaic, and consists of two major sections:  

• The Mishnah, a compilation of laws from third-century Palestine seeking to explain (and render practicable) the biblical commandments of the Torah. 

• The Gemara, an elaborate commentary on the Mishnah developed over the next several centuries in the rabbinic academies of Babylonia.  

Talmud contains sixty-three books, or “tractates,” spread over six themed sections and 5,894 folio pages. As the central text of traditional Jewish learning in the Diaspora, writes Brad Sabin Hill, “the ‘sea of the Talmud’ is filled not only with legal discussion and biblical exegesis, but also with social and economic history, science, and folklore – ancient culture, both Jewish and non-Jewish.” Shown here is the first volume of a 1924 edition of the Babylonian Talmud, translated into German; and Seder Kodashim, the fifth of the six orders of the Mishnah, printed by Isaac ben David Zirndorfer in the Bavarian town of Fürth, a 19th-century center of Talmudic learning. 

Displayed below:

Der Babylonische Talmud (in Auswahl) / Übertragen und erläutert von Jakob Fromer. (Berlin, 1924)

Mishnayot / Seder Kodashim [Mishnah: Order of “Kodashim,” or “Holies”] (Fürth, 1814)

Tractate Niddah of the Babylonian Talmud, "Masseches Nida" (Metz, 1770)

Law Codes and Responsa 

In the centuries after the completion of the Talmud, Diaspora religious scholars took up the task of systematizing an ever more complex body of Jewish law. Two of the law codes in widest use remain Moses Maimonides’s 12th-century Mishnah Torah and Joseph Karo’s 16th-century text, the Shulhan Arukh. Brad Sabin Hall writes, “These codes reflected the broader dispersion of the Jewish people and the emergence of new centers of Jewish life and learning outside Babylonia, particularly in North Africa and continental Europe. Along with the codes, there developed a rich literature of rabbinic response—queries and answers regarding law and ritual—reflecting the living interpretation and actual application of Jewish law in daily life.” 

On display is an 1826-27 edition of the Shulhan Arukh printed by Moses Shapira in Slavuta, a town modern-day Ukraine. Between 1836 and 1862, the Shapira family press was one of only two Hebrew printers in the Russian Empire permitted to operate (the other belonged to the Romm family, in Vilne [Vilnius, modern-day Lithuania]).  

The other texts displayed include a reference work on the Shulhan Arukh known as the Shulhan Katan (“Little Table”), and “She’elot ve’teshuvot” (“Questions and Answers”), a book of responsa by Eliezer Flekeles, a prominent rabbi of the Hapsburg Empire.  

Displayed below: 

Shulhan ʻarukh mi-Tur Orah hayim (Slavuta, 1826-1827)

Judah ben Simeon Ashkenazi, Shulhan Katan (Livorno, 1870-1871) 

Eliezer Flekeles, She’elot ve’teshuvot (Prague, 1809)

Prayer Books

Traditional Jews, regarding prayer as a biblical commandment, pray three times a day: in the morning, afternoon, and evening. Jewish liturgy incorporates biblical scripture, Talmudic texts, and early and medieval poetry known as piyyutim. In the 9th and 10th century CE, Jewish religious services adopted the structure and liturgy familiar to contemporary users of traditional prayer books. Innovation remains a critical ingredient in Jewish prayer, even among those who regard themselves as guardians of tradition. On display are three major categories of prayer book: A siddur (literally “arrangement”), which contains liturgy for daily prayer and festivals year-round; a mahzor, a prayer book used for the High Holy Days; and a haggadah, the guide to the Passover seder. The mahzor displayed is the work of Pessel Balaban, renowned among Lemberg’s printers, and part of a large cohort of Jewish women printers active in 19th-century Eastern Europe. The Haggadah, from the Turkish city of Izmir, 1852, is opened to the blessing over the wine, where a faded splash of red is frozen in time.  

Displayed below: 

Seder Rinah u-tefilah [“Order of hymn and prayer”] (Rödelheim, 1824)

Mahzor le-Rosh ha-shana [“Cycle of Prayers for the Jewish New Year”] (Lemberg [L’viv], 1889) 

Hayyim Palache, Hayyim la-rosh : Hagadah shel Pesah ʻim dinim ... (Izmir [Smyrna], 1851-1852)

Grammar and Philology 

If the Torah was the Jews’ “portable homeland,” knowledge of Hebrew was the passport. The 14th-century Leipzig Mahzor depicts the Jewish tradition of beginning small children’s studies of the Hebrew alphabet by placing honey on the letters. Written studies of philology and Hebrew grammar date back to 10th-century scholar Judah ben David Hayyuj, who drew on the work of Arabic grammarians in developing verb tables and in his observation that Hebrew words derive from three letter roots. Displayed here is Otsar ha-Shorashim [“Treasury of Root Words”] and Solomon de Oliveyra’s Hebrew primers for the Portuguese-speaking refugees that settled in Amsterdam after the Spanish Expulsion. Thoroughly acculturated to Iberia, Amsterdam’s Sephardic community initially conducted religious services in Spanish or Portuguese, and it was not until 1626 that the first Hebrew-language press was established.  

Displayed below:

Judah Leib Ben Ze’ev, Otsar Ha-Shorashim, Vol. 1 (Vienna, 1816)

Solomon de Oliveyra, Zayit ra’anan [“Fresh Olives,” a pun on the author’s name]. (Amsterdam, 1683), bound with Sharsherot Gavlut [“Rhyming roots”] (Amsterdam, 1665).

Kabbalistic and mystical literature 

Jewish mystical tradition, as with all of Judaism’s sacred text traditions, originates with the Torah and its interpretations. Its major concepts include Kabbalah, the mystical hermeneutic developed in Spain and France during the Middle Ages, the Zohar (“Radiance”), a foundational text of esoteric commentaries and legends, and Hasidism, a movement that romanticizes simplicity, direct connection with the divine, and the veneration of miracle-working “Rebbes.” Hasidism’s founder is the Baal Shem Tov (“Master of the Good Name”), an 18th-century Eastern European rabbi revered for his parables and deeds, which were collected in Shivhei ha-Besht (“In Praise of the Baal Shem Tov”), on display here in an early Yiddish-language edition. Also displayed is Sefer Sha’ar Ha-Melekh, by Mordecai ben Samuel of Vilkutch (Wielkie Oczy), which espouses the strict asceticism characteristic of early Hasidism.  

Displayed below:

Mordecai ben Samuel of Vilkutch, Sefer Sha’ar Ha-Melekh (Zolkiew, ca. 1762-90)

Dov Baer ben Samuel of Linits, Seyfer shivkhey [Shivḥe ha-Beshṭ] (approximately 1840)