BL Challenge -- Biblical Literacy!

General Briefing
During the coming year, your family will be immersed in studying the Torah and preparing readings from the Torah and the prophets. There is a lot of special terminology that can be daunting! The BL Challenge is designed to help you become more familiar and comfortable with the Bible and the way that it is used in the synagogue. After this initial briefing, your team will travel through three challenge areas: Torah, Nevi and Ketuvim. More on these words just ahead! In each there, there will be im, information to learn and questions to answer. When you complete these three challenges, your team will be ready to take the Final Challenge! Then you will be ready to sit as a family and begin the leisurely and rewarding process of studying your daughter or son own Parasha (Torah reading). s s ***** The Hebrew term for the Bible is K"Y Tanach. It is an acronym for the three parts of p the Jewish Bible: Torah = Teaching/Guide This is the most familiar part of the K"Y Tanach. It begins with the creation of p heaven and earth, introduces the family of Avraham and the Israelites, tells the story of slavery in Egypt and redemption, and tracks the forty-year journey through the wilderness toward the Promised Land, during which God reveals and teaches all the commandments.

d eY

Nevi = Prophets im This section covers the history of the Israelites from the time they enter the land as a nation, through the establishment of a kingdom solidified by David and Solomon, and the eventual end of that kingdom. It also contains the speeches of the prophets, who saw injustice and idolatry taking over the society of Israel and leading to its destruction. Some names you may recognize: Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Jonah.

mi`ia p

Ketuvim = Writings (M = j in Tanach, same Hebrew letter) k ch This is an anthology of religious writing in all different styles and with many different viewpoints. There is poetry like the Psalms, short stories like Esther and Ruth, philosophy like Job and Ecclesiastes, and more history.

miaEzM

On Shabbat morning, we read from the dx Torah and the mi`ia Nevi The Torah eY p im. is divided into sections so that it is read from cover to cover in a single year. Each section is called a dW R parasha. Or we call it rEaWd zW R Parashat hashavua, the x x section for the week. (Sometimes you hear the term sedra or sidra.) Every dWxR parasha from the Torah has a section from the mi`ia Nevi associated p im with it. The reading from the Prophets is called the d htd Haftarah. Either there is x some theme that connects the parasha and the Haftarah, or the Haftarah has some connection with the season in the Jewish calendar. Although the word Haftarah sounds like the word Torah, the two words have nothing to do with each other. Haftarah means completion. The person who reads from the Prophets completes the recitation of sections from the Tanach for the morning. In the synagogue, we follow the dWxR parasha and the dxhtd Haftarah in a special book called the WnEg Chumash. This word comes from the Hebrew chamesh, the number 5. A Chumash is an edition of the Torah that includes all the Haftarot as well as one or more commentaries. When we want to look up a verse or reference in the K"Y Tanach, we cite the book, the p chapter number, and the verse number(s). For example: Genesis 2:4 = chapter 2, verse 4 in Genesis Exodus 19:1-7= chapter 19, verses 1 through 7 in Exodus Leviticus 3:8-4:12 = the section in Leviticus beginning with chapter 3, verse 8 and continuing through chapter 4, verse 12 In Hebrew, a chapter is a wxR perek and a verse is a wEqR pasuk. It important to be s able to find something in the K"Y Tanach this way, because you can rely on page p t numbers. Each version of the K"Y Tanach or the WnEg Chumash has different page p numbers!

Glossary
K"Y Tanach -- This is one of the Hebrew terms for the Hebrew/Jewish Bible. It is p
an acronym for:
d eY Torah = Teaching/Guide mi`ia Nevi = Prophets p im miaEzM Ketuvim = Writings

dW R parasha = Torah reading x rEaWd zW R Parashat hashavua = Torah reading of the week x d htd Haftarah = reading from the mi`ia Nevi x p im/Prophets that goes with a particular dWxR parasha or holy day in the calendar. d ihtn/xihtn Maftir/Maftira is the verb form of the word dxhtd Haftarah. x
The Maftir/Maftira is the person called up to chant the Haftarah. But the word Maftir is also often used to refer to three things: (1) the last verses read in the Shabbat Torah reading; (2) the Haftarah itself.

some commentaries are printed

WnEg Chumash = the book in which the five books of the Torah, the Haftarot, and

d eY x c Dvar Torah = word or matter of/about the Torah a dW c Drasha = inquiry into the meaning of the Torah x
Both of these terms refer to the speech or sermon.

w R perek = chapter x wEq pasuk = verse R hWR p shat = the simple meaning of the words of the Torah, or the original
meaning for our ancestors

W c d = an interpretation of the words of the Torah that might go beyond x rash

the literal meaning in an attempt to apply the Torah for the present day

The Tanach K"Y p

z = d eY Torah

Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy Bereshit Shmot Vayikra Bemidbar Devarim In the beginning The names He called In the wilderness Words

p = mi`ia Prophets p
Literary Prophets Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel The 12 (e.g. Amos, Jonah)

History Joshua Judges Samuel Kings

Ch k = miaEzM Writings
Poetry Psalms Song of Songs Lamentations Wisdom Stories Proverbs Ruth Ecclesiastes Esther Job History/Other Ezra Nehemiah Chronicles Daniel