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Summary of the Torah

The Torah refers to the Teaching of God revealed to the nation of Israel through the Prophet Moses. There are a total of 613 Commandments or mitzvot in the Torah/Five Books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy): according to the Rabbis there are 248 positive commandments and 365 that are negative. The following is a sample of the main points from Deuteronomy and Leviticus. I have largely left out laws dealing with priesthood, Temple, and sacrifice (about 1/3 of the total 613), and I have not included all the ordinances listed in Exodus 21-23 and various scattered laws from the book of Numbers.
Note: The Rabbis understood that Seven Basic Categories (“Seven Laws of Noah”) of the Torah were of universal application, and were absolutely required of all humankind whether Jews or Gentiles:

  1. Idolatry/One True God
  2. Blasphemy/Right Speech
  3. Murder/Sanctity of Life
  4. Stealing/Property Rights
  5. Sexual Immorality/Marriage and Family
  6. Eating Blood/Respect for animal life
  7. Establishing Justice

Deuteronomy

Chapter 4
This is the key chapter for understanding the outline of ideas related to the Torah. Read it carefully. Note:
4:1-8. Torah consists of commandments, statutes, and judgments. If followed they will make the nation of Israel, in the Land of Israel, unique among all the nations of the world. No other nations will be as wise and as great, nor have a God so near/real to them.
4:10-14. The Israelites have had an absolutely unique revelation of God at Sinai –He appeared to them and spoke the Ten Commandments (see chapter 5, verse 20–they are to become God’s special or treasured people, among all the other nations.
4:25-31. If they forget and turn from God to idols, then they will be cast out of the Land, sent into exile, but even then not ultimately forgotten. Those who repent will be gathered back in the last days.
Chapter 5
The Ten Commandments. This is the core of Torah. Note the elements:

  • No other gods before YHVH (the LORD), the One God
  • No making of idols
  • No vain use of God’s holy Name
  • Observing the Sabbath Rest (7th Day of the week)
  • Honoring parents
  • No murder, adultery, stealing, lying, or coveting

Chapters 12-25

  • Destroy all evidence of idolatry and pagan ways in the Land (12:1-4)
  • Tithes and offerings to God to be brought to a central sanctuary (12:6-28)
  • Do not worship the LORD God like the pagan nations worshipped their gods (12:29-32)
  • Do not follow any prophet or influence that tells you to worship other gods (chapter 13)
  • Do not eat any animals which are unclean; do not eat anything that is found dead; do not eat a newborn kid (14:1-21)
  • Share one tenth (tithe) our your produce with the Levite, the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the stranger (14:22-28)
  • Those who are poor or fallen into debt or servitude are to be released after six years (15:1-18)
  • All the first born males of the herds are sacred to God (15:19-22)
  • Observe Passover (spring); Feast of Weeks/Pentecost (summer); and Feast of Booths/Tabernacles (fall) at the central sanctuary (16:1-17)
  • Establish courts with just and honest judges and officials of government; more difficult cases go to higher court (16:18-20; 17:8-13)
  • Do not set up pagan symbols and pillars (16:21-22)
  • Sacrifice only the best animals (17:1)
  • Those who turn to idolatry are to be executed (17:2-7)
  • King is not to exploit the people, but to meditate on the Torah and follow it before all the people (17:14-20)
  • Levitical priests are to be supported by the other tribes (18:1-8)
  • All forms of spiritism and occult are forbidden – especially divination and consulting the dead (18:9-22)
  • Cities of refuge are to be set up for accidental homicide cases (19:1-13)
  • Ancestral landmarks are to remain (19:14)
  • Evidence only established by testimony of witnesses, punishments are to be swift and fair, fitting the crime (19:15-21)
  • In war, offer terms of peace first, spare women, children, and animals. Seven nations of the Land are to be utterly destroyed. Environment is to be protected (20:1-20)
  • Investigate homicides, blood guilt is taken seriously (21:1-9)
  • Foreign captive women and multiple wives are to be treated fairly and given full rights (21:10-17)
  • Rebellious son can be executed (21:18-21)
  • Those hung on a tree are cursed and shall be quickly buried (21:22-23)
  • Restore lost property of others (22:1-4)
  • Clothing of sexes to be kept distinct (22:5)
  • Birds not to be over harvested (22:6-7)
  • Attention to property safety and liability (22:8)
  • Do not mix seeds, animals, cloth (22:9-11)
  • Make tassels on clothing (22:12; see Numbers 15| 37-41)
  • Virginity is to be authenticated; adultery forbidden with death penalty; engaged woman is as if married; rape is punishable by death; marriage follows pre-marital sex if parents consent (22:13-29)
  • Do not take your father’s wife (22:30)
  • Certain persons excluded from the assembly (Temple) (23:1-7)
  • Wash (mikvah) after male ejaculation (23:10-11; see Lev 15:16-18)
  • Sanitation and latrines (23:12-14)
  • Protection of runaway slaves (23:15)
  • No cult prostitution, male or female (23:17-18)
  • No charging of interest on loans to countrymen (23:19-20)
  • Perform all vows (23:21-23)
  • Hospitality, but not abuse (23:24-25)
  • Divorce allowed, but it must be one for all, women not to be passed from man to man (24:1-4)
  • Newly married given release from civic duties (24:5)
  • Millstone not to be taken in pledge for loans (24:6)
  • Kidnapping punishable by death (24:7)
  • Control of diseases and infections, quarantine (24:8-9)
  • Respect property and dignity of poor (24:10-13)
  • No oppression of poor, laborers (24:14-15)
  • Fathers not punished for sins of children, nor children for sins of parents (24:16)
  • Give justice to foreigner, orphan, widow (24:17-18)
  • Look out for the poor, the orphan, the foreigner, the widow, be generous(24:19-22)
  • Punishment limited to 40 blows (25:1-3)
  • Do not muzzle a working animal (25:4)
  • Brothers are to marry widowed brother’s wife (25:5-10)
  • Male genitals protected in a fight (25:11-12)
  • Use only just weights and measures in business (25:13-16)
  • Blot out Amalek from the land (25:17-19)

Chapters 27-28
Note the blessings and curses and the predictions of the subsequent history of Israel in the Land – including exile. But note 30:1-10, the promise of Restoration.
Additional Mitzvot from Leviticus

  • Sexual relations forbidden with close relatives (18:1-18)
  • Sexual intercourse forbidden during menstrual days (18:19; see 15:19-30)
  • Male homosexual relations forbidden (18:22)
  • Sexual relations with animals forbidden (18:23)
  • Do not curse the deaf, trip the blind (19:14)
  • Do not be a slanderer against your brother (19:16)
  • Do not stand idly by when one is in danger (19:16)
  • Do not hate your brother, nor take vengeance, nor bear a grudge, you shall love your neighbor as yourself (19:18)
  • Fruit of trees forbidden for the first three years (18:23-25)
  • Do not eat blood (19:26; see 17:10-16)
  • No tattoos, shaving of the head and beard (19:27-28)
  • Honor the aged (19:32)
  • Treat the strangers/foreigners equally as citizens (19:33-34)