Editing Jewish principles of faith (section)

===The origin of the Torah===
The [[Torah]] is composed of five books, called in English [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]], [[Book of Exodus|Exodus]], [[Leviticus]], [[Book of Numbers|Numbers]], and [[Deuteronomy]]. They chronicle the history of the world and the [[Israelites]] until Moses' death and also contain the commandments that Jews are to follow.

Rabbinic Judaism holds that the [[Torah]] extant today is the same one that was given to Moses by God on [[Mount Sinai]]. [[Maimonides]] explains: "We do not know exactly how the Torah was transmitted to Moses. But when it was transmitted, Moses merely wrote it down like a secretary taking dictation...[Thus] every verse in the Torah is equally holy, as they all originate from God, and are all part of God's Torah, which is perfect, holy and true."

''[[Haredi Judaism|Haredi]]'' Jews generally believe that the Torah today is no different from what was received from God to Moses, with only the most minor of scribal errors. They note that the [[Masoretes]] (7th to 10th centuries) compared all known Torah variations in order to create a definitive text. 

However, even according to this position that the scrolls that Jews possess today are not letter-perfect, the Torah scrolls are certainly the word-perfect textus receptus that was divinely revealed to Moses. Indeed, the general consensus of Orthodox rabbinic authority posits this belief in the word-perfect nature of the Torah scroll as a defining feature of Orthodox Judaism.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Fishman |first=Sylvia Barack |title=CHANGING MINDS: Feminism in Contemporary Orthodox Jewish Life |url=https://www.bjpa.org/content/upload/bjpa/chan/CHANGING%20MINDS.pdf |access-date=January 29, 2024 |page=9 (19) |quote=Second, Orthodox Jews are presumed to feel allegiance to some interpretation of the traditional concept of divine revelation of Jewish law, torah mi sinai, a belief that the complex, prescriptive codes of rabbinic law derive from God's articulated instructions to the Jewish people. A very broad interpretive gamut is reflected as Orthodox Jews of various shades and stripes formulate what torah mi sinai means to them. However, no matter how liberal an individual Orthodox person's interpretation of divine revelation, daily life is influenced by a group of observances that are precisely dictated by written texts.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Denominational Differences On Conversion |url=https://www.myjewishlearning.com/life/Life_Events/Conversion/Contemporary_Issues/Denominational_Differences.shtml |access-date=2024-01-29 |website=My Jewish Learning |language=en-US}}</ref>