What is the Shema Yisrael?

Shema Yisrael

The phrase Shema Yisrael comes from the first two Hebrew words of the verse Deuteronomy 6:4 (Hebrew שְׁמַ֖ע יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל),  transliterated as šemǎʿʹ yiś·rā·ʾēlʹ. The words mean "Hear Israel", and this passage is frequently referred to as the ShemaStrong’s Concordance assigns the number 8085 to the Hebrew word šemǎʿʹ and translates it as "hear". "Hear" is...

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Where did Moses get His Information? Part 1

The first five books of the Bible are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, and are traditionally attributed to Moses (see the articles Did Moses Write the Torah? Part 1, Part 2). Most of the events in the last four books happened during Moses' life, and he was, in fact, the key person during those events.

Exodus chapter 2 records Moses's birth, so obviously he wasn't an eyewitness to the events in...

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Did Moses Write the Torah? Part 2

Last week I posted the article Did Moses Write the Torah? Part 1, and I showed other Biblical authors clearly attributed the first five books of the Bible to Moses, in both the Old and New Testaments. In this article I want to make the case that the books we have in our Bibles may not be exactly what Moses wrote, but they are accurate representations of what Moses, and God, were communicating to the Israelites, and to us.

Editors may...

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What is the Torah?

The
Hebrew word Torah means "instruction",
"teaching" or "direction" and is often translated as
"law", which includes both written and oral laws of the Israelites.
The word Torah (Hebrew תּוֹרָה) most frequently refers to the first five books of
the Hebrew Bible, which are the same as the first five books of the Christian
Old Testament. These books are also called the Pentateuch
(Greek) by Christians and the Taurat
(Arabic)...

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