Because we are dealing with all primary sources in two semitic languages (Ancient Hebrew and Aramaic), it is worth discussing them briefly.
0.1. Tanakh and Halakha
All the Jewish law = Tanakh (which is written) + Halakha (Oral Law), which was passed orally along the generations of priests. The Halakha explains and expands upon the Tanakh.
0.2. Jewish Holy Books = Tanakh = all the books of the Hebrew Bible
Tanakh is made of 3 sections:
- Torah = 5 books of Moses (supposedly written by Moses)
- Genesis (Bereshit), Exodus (Shemot), Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
- Neviim = Prophets
- Former (older) prophets: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings [pre 8th century]
- Latter (“modern”) prophets: Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and 12 minor prophets [all post 8th century]
- 12 minor prophets: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk ,Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi
- Ketuvim = “Writings”, made of 3 groups
- Sifrei Emet [“Books of Truth”] = Poetic books: Psalms, Proverbs, Jobs. They have a special presentation in two columns.
- Hamesh Megillot [“Five Scrolls’] = Five Scrolls: Song of Songs, Book of Ruth, Book of Lamentations, Ecclesiastes (“Qohelet”), Book of Esther (we read the Book of Esther at Purim).
- Other books: Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, Chronicles
- TaNaKh = Torah + Neviim + Ketuvim
0.3. Parasha and Haftarah
- Jews read all the Torah across the weeks of the year, then finish and start again at Simhat Torah. The reading of the week is called the Parasha. This week’s Parasha, which I am reading aloud, is called Beshalach.
- The Haftarah (pronounced haftora) that is also read every week is a small extract of Neviim (Prophets), whose theme is somehow related to the Parasha of the week.
0.4. Targum/ Targumim
Around the 3-2nd century BCE, the language of the region became primarily Aramaic – the language that most Jews were then speaking (a Semitic language related to Hebrew). In order for Jews to make it easier to understand the Tanakh, which is mostly written in Hebrew, several translations [= targumim] into Aramaic appeared
- Targum Onkelos is the most famous of them, considered by the Tannaim as a perfect translation of Torah. It is a pure translation. It is often used to clarify the meaning of Tanakh when some passages are obscure.
- Greek translation: the Septuagint were seventy Jewish scholars that translated the Bible into Greek.
Born left-handed 