tôrāh

Semantic range

1. 1instruction given by a parent, priest or sage
2. 2a specific ruling or body of ruling
3. 3the five books of Moses

From yārāh, to throw or shoot — and by extension to point, to aim, to direct. Tôrāh is directional instruction before it is legislation. The Septuagint's choice of nomos (law) fixed the narrower sense in Christian usage and made Paul's arguments about "the law" harder to hear than they were, since Paul is generally arguing about a covenant administration, not about instruction as such.

Psalm 119 is unintelligible if tôrāh means only statute; the poet delights in it, meditates on it, is comforted by it. Latter-day Saints who read D&C 88:118 — "seek learning, even by study and also by faith" — are in the same tradition of instruction that aims a life.

See also

• מִשְׁפָּטmišpāṭ
• צְדָקָהṣədāqāh
• דָּבָרdābār