Moses Taught the Torah

in Seventy Different Languages

(but not English)

Deuteronomy 1:5 states that Moses began to expound the knowledge of the Torah. Rashi's commentary regarding Deuteronomy 1:5 points out that after Moses taught the Torah in the sacred Hebrew language, he then taught the Torah in the sixty-nine other languages of the day.  Of course, during the time of Moses, English as a language did not exist.  The task of teaching the Torah in English (and Hebrew in a format known as "linear translation") began, in earnest, some 3,300 years later (1899 c.e.), by Joseph Magil, "the father and unsung hero of linear translation."  Magil, who translated the entire Torah, was succeeded by other linearists:  Rabbi Abraham Ben Isaiah & Rabbi Benjamin Sharfman (1949-1950 c.e.), Rabbi Pesach Goldberg (1992-1997 c.e.) and Rabbi Avrohom Davis (1996-1997 c.e.).  I humbly stand upon the shoulders of my linear predecessors, without whom I would not have been able to produce the translation appearing on this website.

Modern History

How Does This Translation

Differ From Other Translations?

Other English translations of the Torah either omit or change the literal translation of some Hebrew words for the sake of conveying the gist of the original story in a comprehensible manner.  The translation posted on this website differs from other translations in that every Hebrew word is first translated into English and then surrounded and enhanced with the essence of Rashi commentary.  If you want to know the English equivalent of any Hebrew word in the Torah, all you have to do is find the Torah chapter and verse posted on this website and open up the file.  With a little training in Hebrew, you could embark on a self-educational Torah journey by utilizing the translation posted on this website.  Even if you have no knowledge of the Hebrew language, you can still read the English Torah translation posted on this website and discover a new translation containing information and insight not found in other English translations.

Why Translating Each Word

of the Written Torah Will Not Reveal

Much of What There is

to Know About the Torah

There are two Torahs; the Oral and the Written Torah.

Three millennia and four hundred years ago, G-d provided His Oral Torah to Moses and the Children of Israel, in the form of His Ten Commandments.

Then G-d provided His Written Torah to Moses and the Children of Israel in the form of two tablets containing His Ten Commandments.

For 40 years, the Oral Torah flowed from G-d to Moses’ lips, to the ears of the 70 men of the Sanhedrin and then to the ears of the Children of Israel.

Shortly before Moses died, G-d dictated the entire Torah to Moses and Moses wrote down every word and then placed the Written Torah in the Ark of the Covenant, along with the two stone tablets containing G-d’s Ten Commandments.  Moses also wrote an additional twelve copies of the Torah and gave a copy to the leader of each of the Twelve Tribes of Israel.

After Moses died, the Sanhedrin, having absorbed 40 years of Moses’ Oral Torah discourses, combined the knowledge of the Written Torah with the Oral Torah and continued a 1,500 year unbroken tradition of transferring the knowledge of the Written and Oral Torah from master to disciple and to the people.  The destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in year 70 of the common era also included the destruction of the Second Temple and the destruction of the Sanhedrin's longstanding base of operation.  Although the Written Torah survived the destruction of Jerusalem, the machinery of Oral Torah dissemination that was the Sanhedrin, had come to a grinding halt and so began the decline and seemingly certain extinction of the Oral Torah.  Fortunately, over the course of time, there came about the writing down of the Oral Torah in documents that survive to our present time.  These documents are known as the "Talmud" and "Midrash."

While an accomplished Torah scholar would know how to delve into the Talmud and Midrash in order to "fill in the gaps" inherent in the Written Torah, a novice Torah scholar would be hard pressed to be able to do the same.

An Example of How I Have Managed

to Unite the Oral Torah and the Written Torah

(using Genesis 19:25)

Click on the "Genesis 19" button to the left.  This will open up a webpage containing all the verses of Chapter 19 of the Book of Genesis.  Then click on "Download File" right below "Genesis 19:25."  If you read each English word of this verse (only the English words not surrounded by parentheses { }), it would read as follows:

"And He inverted with the cities the this and with all the plain and with all the ones living the cities vegetation the ground."

This serves a purpose when one desires knowing the English equivalent of each Hebrew word.  But let us envision the following hypothetical scenario:  It is 4,000 years ago and you are a reporter sent to investigate the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.  You come upon a witness who speaks only Hebrew.  He tells you what had happened there by saying to you:

"And He inverted with the cities the this and with all the plain and with all the ones living the cities vegetation the ground."

The sentence above is the result of your translating, literally, each word of Hebrew, imparted to you by that hypothetical witness to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; which you then translated into English.  As a reporter, whose job it is to impart to your readers a coherent, understandable English version of this event, would need to further question the eyewitness.  After doing so you might come up with the following:

"The fire and brimstone, which had been falling on the four cities situated on the Jordan Plain and also fell upon the city of Zoar (Tzoar).  This prompted Lot, his wife, and his two daughters to flee from there.  Then G-d empowered an angel to set in motion a series of events that would bring about the utter destruction of four of the five cities situated on the Jordan Plain.  During this sequence of destructive events, although the city of Zoar (Tzoar) would remain intact following the utter destruction of four of the other cities situated on the Jordan Plain, all of Zoar's inhabitants would burn to death.  The other four cities situated on the Jordan Plain came to an end in the following fashion:  An angel, empowered by G-d, unleashed a force deep below the surface of the Jordan Plain which exploded upwards; ripping away from the earth the entire parcel of earth upon which the four cities stood.  The force was so powerful that it caused all four cities, and the earth upon which they stood, to hurtle upwards.  Then the angel, empowered by G-d, suspended in mid air the large chunk of earth upon which all four cities were situated.  And He inverted; that is, it was an angel, empowered by G-d who inverted this massive chunk of earth upon which four of the five cities were situated; so that up was down and down was up.  And then the angel allowed it to fall back to the earth.  All the rooftops of the city buildings were the first to impact the ground upon which they had once stood.  Sime time after this destructive event had occurred, those dwelling outside the Jordan Plain coming to gaze upon that parcel of land where they knew four cities had once existed, found no identifiable remnant that would indicate that the heretofore known four cities had ever existed.  This is what an angel, empowered by G-d, had done with the cities; that is, the four cities situated on the Jordan Plain.  With regard to the fifth city, that is the city; this city of Zoar, it remained intact; but all its inhabitants were burned to death by the falling fire and brimstone.  And with regard to all the cities situated on the plain; that is, the Jordan Plain, and its inhabitants had been judged and killed by G-d.  And with the destruction of the four cities complete, G-d had judged and exacted punishment upon all the ones living in the cities; that is, the five cities situated on the Jordan Plain (which included Sedom (Sodom) and Amorah (Gomorah)).  As it was G-d's objective to bring forth utter destruction, to punish and serve as an object lesson to others who would incur G-d's wrath in such a manner as did the inhabitants of the aforementioned five cities situated on the Jordan Plain, G-d also brought about the collateral destruction of all vegetation that had heretofore flourished on the ground upon which the four cities stood.  Anyone looking upon the utter destruction G-d had brought about, understood that this was G-d's warning to anyone contemplating sinning in the manner of those who had lived in the five cities situated on the Jordan Plain, would cause G-d to bring about their own destruction in the selfsame manner."

As you read Genesis 19:25 as printed above, you may imagine you're receiving an oral version of the Torah that Moses or the Sanhedrin may have imparted to the Children of Israel during their 40 years in the desert following their initial receipt and acceptance of the oral and written Torah. 

"Translinear" Defined

As there are two sides to every story, so there are two sides to this translation.  Literally, two sides.  There is a Hebrew side, physically situated, as it should, on the right side of the page and there is an English side situated on the left side of the page.  Because both the Hebrew and its English equivalent appear on the same horizontal line, the name given for this type of translation format is "Linear." 

Because my method differs from my "linear" predecessors, I have chosen to refer to my work by using the term "Translinear" ("TRANSlation running in a horizontal, LINEAR direction").  A good way to grasp the concept of "Translinear" is to visualize yourself on a "train line" heading east to west (reading right to left).  The "tracks" the "train "travels on are the blue lines appearing above and below the text. 

Chapter and Verse

The Torah does not utilize chapter and verse numbering.  Starting late in the eleventh century of the common era, and continuing over the centuries, Christian scholars devised and implemented the concept of the now universally recognized system of dividing the "The Old Testament" and "The New Testament" into numbered chapters and numbered verses.  About 350 years ago, Jewish book publishers began adding chapter and verse numbering to the Torah.

When it comes to ease of navigating the Five Books of Moses, the "chapter and verse" numbering system is the essential methodology for intellectual travel; just as "latitude and longitude" is the essential methodology for physical travel.  

This "chapter and verse global satellite word positioning device" serves as the ideal and most expedient means of pinpointing any particular part of the Five Books of Moses for shared- or self-study.

Chapter, Verse (and Word?)

As word-for-word translation presented herein maintains the "chapter and verse" structure, it retains the means of expeditiously pinpointing of a particular part of the Torah down to the very word and may allow for the expansion of the phrase "Chapter and Verse" to "Chapter, Verse and Word."  Put into practice, if one wishes to discuss a particular word of the Torah with another individual, using this translation as the source for the discussion, then one could easily convey to another, that one particular word, precisely where it appears in the Torah, by doing the following:  For example, if one wanted to discuss the word "perfect" as it appears in Genesis 17:1 (as the 20th word of that particular verse), then one could do so by stating:  "I want to know what you think about the translator's interpretation of the word "perfect" which occurs as the 20th word in Genesis 17:1."  The recipient would then access the Genesis 17:1 (Adobe .pdf) file on the learningisworship.org website and look at the 20th word contained therein.  (Or one could simply say "Let me know what you think of the translator's interpretation of Genesis 17:1:20.")

Quoting "Book, Chapter and Verse"

(Hebrew Style)

If you want to quote "book, chapter and verse" in Hebrew, for "Genesis 1:1" you would say "Buh ray shees, Buh ray shees, Aw lef : Aw lef."  Take notice of how chapter "Bereishis" ends and chapter "Noach" begins.  The chapter following "Bereishis" is entitled "Noach."  Chapter "Bereishis" ends at verse 8 (Genesis 6:8) and then becomes "Genesis/Noah 6:9."  ("Bereishis, Noach, Vawv : Tays.")  In order to better comprehend this chapter, subchapter protocol, please take a look at Torah Tablets of Contents.pdf.