The Torah

Let there be Shmoop.

  • Course Length: 3 weeks
  • Course Type: Short Course
  • Category:
    • Humanities
    • Literature
    • High School

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What are the two things you're never supposed to talk about in polite company? Politics and religion. And the first five books of the Bible have them both—in spades.

So yeah, the Torah can be a touchy subject. Nothing can derail a nice evening out with friends quicker than someone dropping some accusatory verses from Leviticus, areweright?

Shmoop knows that everyone out there has different takes on these books—and guess what? That's okay. Whether or not you think God once wiped out all of humanity in a flood, you're cool by us.

See, we'll be studying the Bible as literature. That means our Bible curriculum won't be trying to figure out if Eve really gave Adam that fruit. We'll be analyzing these books like you would a short story, novel, or poem. That means you will

  • think about Genesis as the beginning of all literary beginnings, including an activity that compares it to Dickens and Austen. 
  • complete close-reading activities to compare the different creation stories.
  • examine the use of symbolism in the Torah.
  • discuss and debate how biblical laws impacted the lives of the ancient Israelites and how they still influence us today.
  • write literary essays about the Bible the way you would about any other work of literature.

And it will be good.

Required Skills

  • An understanding of basic literary concepts like symbols and themes (but we'll do a refresher, for sure)
  • Some experience writing about literature


Unit Breakdown

1 The Torah - The Big Five

Get ready to tackle Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy in one fell swoop. (NB: 1 fell swoop is equivalent to 15 lessons.)


Sample Lesson - Introduction

Lesson 1.02: Family Matters: Genesis

Um...Dad?

(Source)

Now that we've got the whole creation-of-the-world thing under our belts, let's zoom in a bit. How much? Well, we're gonna focus our sights on one of Shmoop's favorite things: family.

Ever since Abraham was introduced a few chapters ago, Genesis switched from talking about Big Deal Myths to telling us all about the ins and outs of one particular clan. And really, Abraham's family—whose stories will take up the rest of Genesis—is just like any other. There are moms and dads, sons and daughters, favoritism, sibling rivalry, and loads of family drama.

Okay, so they may occasionally fight and misunderstand each other, but deep down it's all love and hugs for Abraham's clan, right?

Um, sort of. Abraham's family reminds us a bit of the folks you see on The Jerry Springer Show, except these biblical relations have way more issues. Most of us never reminisce about the time our dad tried to kill us, or when our uncle tricked us into working for free for fourteen years. Sure, we've all taken something that belonged to a sibling, but usually, that thing was a sweatshirt and not their God-given birthright.

Family: can't live with 'em, can't ship 'em off to a remote land.


Sample Lesson - Reading

Reading 1.1.02: Genesis 22-36: Abraham's Boys

Let's read Genesis 22-36. Start here if you're following along online. And either way, check out Shmoop's chapter summaries if you need a helping hand. Come on, don't be shy.

After you're all done with that, take a peek at some of our character breakdowns for the folks we've been reading about. Don't you want to know exactly where these guys and gals are coming from? Yeah, we thought so:


Sample Lesson - Activity

Activity 1.02a: The Way We Were: Good Old-Fashioned Sibling Rivalry

Jacob and Esau don't exactly get along. Though they manage to bury the hatchet in the end, we'd say they've got a few issues left to work out together in family therapy. This whole in-fighting between siblings thing is all over the place in Genesis.

First, read what we have to say about sibling rivalry in Genesis.

Got it? Good.

Now tell us:

What's different between Cain and Abel's relationship and Jacob and Esau's? What's similar? Is the theme of sibling rivalry portrayed differently in the two relationships or is it just variation on a theme? A few things to think about while answering these questions:

  • Who's to blame for the rivalry in each scenario? Parents? God? The siblings? Something totally different?
  • Is there a clear good guy and bad guy in each story? If so, are the good guys in each story similar to one another? The bad guys?
  • How does each story end?

We're looking for about 200 words total.


Sample Lesson - Activity

Activity 1.02b: Cain and Abel, Meet Everyone Who Came After You

Let's broaden our scope of sibling rivalry.

  1. Think of as many sets of famous siblings (from books, movies, TV, or even real life) as you can. Just one catch: they have to be siblings who don't get along (sorry Mary Kate and Ashley). List 'em here. And while we said "as many as you can," we're looking for at least 15. But go crazy.

  2. Now go through your list and pick the one you think is the most Biblical. Which pair is most similar to the siblings you've seen so far in Genesis? You're going to write a mini-persuasive essay arguing that your famous sibling rivalry reflects the ones seen in Genesis. That means using textual evidence—both from the Bible and from the text you've chosen—to prove our case.

    You can head on over to our Essay Lab for help, but either way, make sure you have a strong thesis and lots of support.

    300 words, please.