c. 1997 Religion News Service

(Rabbi Rudin is the national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee.)

UNDATED _ Here’s a quick quiz to test your knowledge of Judaism. Advance preparation is not required and no grades will be given. Remember you’re on your honor not to cheat, but you probably won’t have to since each question has exactly the same answer. Come up with one correct answer and you get them all.

First, on the evening of Oct. 23, during a festive synagogue service, the last verses of the Biblical book of Deuteronomy describing the death of Moses will be read, which will be immediately followed by the opening words of Genesis telling the creation story. Not a beat is missed, and the yearly cycle of Bible study begins again.

The Hebrew texts of these two Biblical books and three others, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, are all meticulously hand written on sheepskin scrolls. On the 23rd, joyful congregations will lovingly carry these scrolls around the sanctuary, spilling out into neighborhood streets in a kind of”holy parade.”What name is given to the scrolls?

Second, ask your local fire fighters this question: If a synagogue catches fire, and you are called to the scene, what is the first object you try to save once it is certain no persons are in danger?

Third, American astronaut David Wolf took a small parchment written in Hebrew with him last week when he began his four month space mission aboard the Russian space station Mir. Wolf’s parchment contains the words,”Hear O, Israel, the Eternal is our God, the Eternal God is One.”Where do these words come from?

Fourth, in a recent magazine interview, the world-famous film star, Issur Danielovich (a.k.a. Kirk Douglas) said that after surviving a helicopter crash and a stroke two years ago,”I started studying the (fill in the missing word), and I know that it helped me a lot. Not that I became a religious nut, but … I realized that God always gives you a second chance … that was encouraging to me.” Fifth, when Jewish children reach age 13, they frequently participate in Bar or Bat Mitzvah ceremonies, reading from this sacred scroll. So precious is the scroll that if it becomes damaged or faded after extensive use in a synagogue, it can never be discarded. Instead, it is accorded a funeral and buried in the ground. Name the scroll.

Finally, this well-known Hebrew word epitomizing the central teachings of Judaism has been consistently, even deliberately mistranslated as”Law”by much of the world.

Unfortunately, this mistranslation has often made the Jewish religion incorrectly appear as static, obdurate, and rigid as opposed to a Christianity filled with love, compassion, and mercy. It is a false dichotomy that has been effectively used by anti-Semites in their never-ending campaign to prove that the Jewish people are theologically benighted and tied to a dry stifling legalism.

These canards about Jews and Judaism have caused great misery and even physical violence. What is that Hebrew word that has been so often misunderstood and misinterpreted throughout history?

The answer to all these questions is, of course, Torah. The Hebrew root of the word is not”law,”but rather Torah stems from the root for”teacher”or”parent.”The best English translation for Torah is”religious teaching”.

In its narrowest definition, Torah means the first five books of the Bible. Every synagogue must possess at least one Torah scroll, and the term is also used to describe the totality of Jewish religious tradition, including the Bible, the Talmud, and the teachings of thousands of rabbis and lay people through the centuries.

And it frequently comes as a surprise to some Christians that the two great commandments of Jesus:”You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,”and”You shall love your neighbor as yourself”are from the Torah and not the New Testament.

But as Leonard Swidler, a Catholic scholar at Temple University, points out:”It is important to note that Jesus was himself not a Christian. He, in fact, was a Jew. … He spoke Hebrew and Aramaic _ two Semitic languages. He did not read the New Testament. … He read the Hebrew Bible (or Torah) and thought it the Holy Scriptures.” MJP END RUDIN