The Torah is the Judaic name for the first books of the Bible, otherwise known as the Five Books of Moses. Translated out of the original Hebrew, Torah can mean either "teaching", "instruction", or "law." In this sense, in can additionally refer to the entirety of Jewish learning, both written and oral.
The Torah is the foundation of Judaism, and the basis of the 613 mitzvot, which religious Jews are bound to. According to Maimonides, there are 248 mitzvot aseh ("positive commandments") to perform certain acts, and 365 mitzvot lo taaseh ("negative commandments") to abstain from certain acts. Later rabbinical tradition holds that these numbers are symbolically significant; 248 is the number of vital bones and organs in the human body, while 365 is the number of days in a year.
As the name suggests, the Torah comprises of five books, traditionally attributed to the prophet Moses. They are Bereishit (Genesis), Shemot (Exodus), Vayikra (Leviticus), Bemidbar (Numbers), and Devarim (Deuteronomy). Each book serves to elaborate on the Jewish tradition that the Israelites have an especial covenant with the God YHWH, though the books are also accepted as divinely inspired by Christianity and Islam, as well as smaller religions such as the Baha'i faith.
Modern scholarship believes the writing of the Torah to have begun around the seventh century BCE and to have culminated roughly two-hundred years later. According to the Documentary Hypothesis, the Torah originally came from four sources before finally being compiled into one by a fifth author. Despite support for this belief stemming from varying names used for God, multiple styles of writing, and the repetition of stories, Orthodox Jews have deemed it heretical.
Judaism also holds the Written Torah to have been given to Moses along with an Oral Torah. Although it was considered blasphemous to write the oral tradition down, much of it was eventually compiled into the Mishna. As later rabbis discussed and debated over the two texts, they recorded their arguments in the Talmud.
Though translations of the Books of Moses are widely available through the Christian Bible, copies in the original Hebrew continue to be particularly sacred to Jews. The scrolls are written by hand, contain 304,805 letters and may take more than a year to produce. If a single mistake is made, the entire copy becomes invalid.