Lesson video

Hello, hello, hello, or should I say Shalom? That's a Jewish greeting, a Jewish salutation.

Shalom, it means peace or sort of just hello.

So in today's lesson, we're going to be learning about the Torah.

We've got a little bit of an introduction to this in the last lesson, when we were learning about synagogues, because we saw how Jews read from the Torah inside the synagogue.

And we're going to learn all about it today, I can't wait.

So our lesson looks like this.

We're going to find out where Jews believe that the Torah came from.

We're going to find out about the five books that are included in the Torah.

We're going to learn the Shema prayer, which is a prayer in the Torah.

We're going to learn what the mitzvot are and why they're important to Jews.

And then we're going to finish with that important End of Lesson Quiz to lock in all of that knowledge into your brain.

So our first question, where did the Torah come from? So the Torah is the holy text, it's part of the Tanakh, the holy book of Judaism.

But where do Jews believe that the Torah came from? Where did they think that the Torah came from? Well, let's find out the story that Jews believe in terms of the Torah.

We learn about how Moses led the Israelites into the desert and spent a long, long time in the desert with all of the Israelites.

Have a look at that picture.

Just take a moment to look at that picture.

What can you see? You might be able to see all of the Israelites at the bottom there.

You might be able to see the mountain here.

This is Mount Sinai, the mountain that Moses went up, and at the top, you can see a figure here, holding some tablets.

Because Jews believe that Moses went up to Mount Sinai and there were great clouds and light, and God spoke to Moses.

And God told Moses how he wanted his people to live.

That's what Jews believe happened in the desert.

We can see from that picture Moses up Mount Sinai.

So what happened at Mount Sinai? Well Jews believe that Moses went up there and spoke to God.

That's how we write Mount Sinai.

And that God gave him the Torah or the laws.

And the Torah was then written down into five books, which we're going to learn about in a moment.

And those laws are sometimes called the mitzvot, that's the Hebrew name for the laws that Jews believe that they need to live by to please God.

So let's see if you can write a sentence, summing all of that up, based on what we've just learnt about what Jews believe about Moses and about the commandments and about the Torah.

See if you can finish up this sentence, it starts off Jews believe that.

How would you finish that sentence? Pause the video and write your sentence now.

Great, all done? Let's see what you wrote.

Oh, I forgot to share some key vocabulary and you'll see that I've written God without an o here, and the reason I've written God without a o is because for Jewish people, it's quite disrespectful to write the name God down for a few different reasons.

First of all, very often when we write down our work, eventually it ends up in the bin and it's quite disrespectful writing God's name and then it going in the bin.

The second reason is for Jewish people, God's name is ineffable, it can't be said or understood or spoken.

And so sometimes you hear him called Yahweh or Y W H, but the Jews won't tend to say the word, they don't think they should pronounce it or write it down.

So you can write it down with that dash as a way of not actually writing the name, to be respectful to the Jewish faith.

You might have included Moses, the word Moses, you might have included Mount Sinai.

You might have included the word laws and you might have included the word Torah.

So this is how I might write my sentence, have a read of this and see if it matches up with what you wrote.

So I wrote Jews believed that God spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai and told him how he wanted his people to live.

Moses wrote down these laws.

Altogether, there are five books in the Torah.

Give yourself a tick, if you wrote down any of those ideas.

And if you'd like to, you could pause the video and improve your answer by adding some of these ideas into your answer.

So we said that there were five books in the Torah.

There were five books that were written down in the Torah.

So what are the five books of the Torah? Well let's see if we can find out about that.

There are five books in the Torah and Jews believe that Moses wrote these books.

Now we don't know whether Moses existed.

We don't know whether he wrote the books.

People disagree about that, but Jews believe that Moses wrote those five books, the first five books.

They're also the first five books of the Old Testament that Christians follow and believe in.

And these five books are, the book of Genesis.

Say that word, Genesis, my turn, your turn, Genesis.

Good, that's the first book of the Torah.

Exodus, my turn, your turn, Exodus.

Well done, Leviticus, Leviticus, my turn, your turn, Leviticus.

Numbers, that's the name of one of the books in the Torah.

One of the sections, Numbers.

And finally, Deuteronomy, my turn, your turn, Deuteronomy.

Great work, you've just learnt the first five books of the Bible, the first five books of the Torah, well done.

What do those books include? What's written about in those books? Well, in Genesis, Jews believe Moses wrote all about the creation of the world.

God told Moses about how the world was created.

In Exodus, Moses wrote down how the Israelites escaped from Egypt.

That's how we know how he went to Egypt to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.

Leviticus contains all the commandments and laws about how God wants his people to live.

Numbers was kind of like a census, is where they counted in the desert just how many Israelites there were before they went to their promised land, Canaan.

And Deuteronomy writes down some additional teachings of Moses, so within the book of Deuteronomy, it's just before they get to the promised land in Canaan.

And it's what Moses said about how they should live when they get there, the teachings of Moses.

So I'm going to jumble all of these up to see if you can match them.

Genesis, the creation, Exodus, Israelites escaping Egypt, Leviticus, the commandments, or the law, Numbers, how many Israelites there were and Deuteronomy, the teachings of Moses.

I'm going to jumble them up.

See if you can match them up.

Are you ready, here we go, they're all jumbled up.

So match the names of the books of the Torah, to what they are about.

Write the name of the book, and then write next to it, what it's all about.

You can pause the video and do that task now.

Great work, well done for working so hard and for writing nice and neatly, you're amazing.

Let's see if you were correct, let's have a look at some of the correct answers to see if you are correct with your answers.

Did you get them right? Give yourself a tick if you've got them right, well done.

If you didn't get them right, don't worry.

Now's the time to correct it, to make sure you get the right answers in your book or on your piece of paper.

Pause the video and correct any answers that you got wrong.

Check them if you got them right.

Great work, everybody.

So we've learned about the five books of the Torah.

In one of those books, in Deuteronomy, there's a special prayer called the Shema prayer.

It looks like this.

You can see that in the Torah, it's written in Hebrew and Hebrew's actually read from right to left.

We in English read from left to right, but Hebrew is read from right to left.

And this is a very special part of the Torah for Jews because it teached them how they should pray to their God.

So what does the Shema say? Well, the first line of the Shema says, hear, Israel, and Shema actually means hear.

That's what Shema means, hear.

Hear, Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one.

You'll remember that Judaism is a monotheistic religion.

One God, there were lots of polytheist, people that believed in lots of god, an important part of Judaism, one God.

So the first line of their prayer says hear, Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.

Blessed be the Name of His glorious kingdom for ever and ever.

If you'd like to, you could read along so that you've read the Shema and you know what the Shema says.

And you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

And these words that I command you today shall be in your heart.

Do you want to say them out loud, you can.

And you shall teach them diligently, that means carefully, to your children and you shall speak of them when you sit at home, and when you walk along the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.

And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes.

And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, showing just how important those words are.

These the words that I command you in the Torah, you shall write them on the doorpost of your house and at your gate, showing just how important it is.

And that's the Shema prayer.

That's what Jews believe about God and how they believe they should pray to their God.

There are some other parts to the Shema, but that's the first part of the Shema prayer.

So as well as the Shema, there's also the mitzvot.

We've learnt that there's this important prayer, called the Shema prayer.

There's also something called the mitzvot, and mitzvot means laws.

I'm going to say mitzvot I want you to say laws.

Mitzvot, mitzvot.

Okay, now I'm going to say laws and I want you to say mitzvot.

Laws, laws.

If I say mitzvot you say laws, if I say laws, you say mitzvot, you ready? See if I can catch you out.

Mitzvot, well done.

Laws, laws, laws, mitzvot.

You're amazing, you're so good at that game, well done.

What are the mitzvot? Well the mitzvot is a list of 613 rules or commandments that tell Jews what they can and cannot do.

We know that Moses came down with 10 commandments given by God, but there were additional laws or rules that were then given, and these were included throughout the Torah.

And also in the ways that Moses taught the Jews, the Israelites in the desert.

Let's have a look at some of the examples of some of the rules that the earliest Israelites believed that they should live by.

So they believe that when you lend money, you shouldn't ask for more money back, you shouldn't lend with interest.

They believed, the mitzvot said that you shouldn't eat meat and milk in the same meal.

You shouldn't tattoo your skin.

You shouldn't break a promise.

You should learn and teach the Torah.

You should love the stranger.

Never harvest your entire field.

Never go and get all of the crops, and leave some of the harvest in the field for the poor.

So these are the mitzvot, the laws, the rules, how to live, that are included within the Torah, but also within the Talmud, what's with the Talmud.

And the Talmud is the oral tradition of Judaism.

So the way that the rabbis and teachers have continued to teach about the Torah and about what they think God wants of their people.

So I'd like you to answer this question, now.

Why are the mitzvot important to Jews? Here's some key vocabulary you might like to use in your answer.

You might like to use the word commandments.

You might like to use the word covenant.

You might like to use the word promise, and you might like to use the word Torah.

Those words give you a bit of a hint for how your answer might be.

So pause the video and write a whole paragraph now about why the mitzvot are important to Jews.

Pause the video and do that now.

Super well done for working so hard and keeping your work nice and neat.

Remember, at the end of this lesson, you can ask your parents or carers to take a photo of that, post it onto Twitter, and I'll be able to read and see your work, so make sure it's top quality, please.

So I'm going to show you my answer now so that you can try and improve your answer or tick any points that you got that are the same as mine.

I wrote the mitzvot are important to Jews because they teach them how they should live.

Although they come from the Talmud, they are based in the Torah.

Jews believe that God has made a covenant or promises to them, but only if they follow his commandments, the mitzvot.

So have a look at your answer now.

If you missed any of those bits, you can add them in to improve your answer.

And if you included them, then you can give yourself a nice tick.

Super work, everybody.

We have learned so much in today's lesson, it's time for our quiz.

We've learnt all about the Torah, where Jews believe it came from, the five books of the Torah, and what's included in each of those books, that important Shema prayer and what the prayer sounds like, and the mitzvot.

Well done for working so hard and learning so much more about Judaism.

You're already becoming a real expert and I'm really, really impressed with you.

At the end of this unit, we're going to have an essay just like we did with the Shang dynasty.

So all of this knowledge, all of these facts that you're learning will help you to write a great essay.

As always, if you worked hard today and you're proud of your work, then you can ask your parents or your carers to share that work on Twitter.

@oaknational is the account that they need to send it to, #learnwithoak.

If they include that, then I'll be able to see it.

Well done for working so hard today.

And I'll see you then, bye.