What is the Torah?
The Torah, commonly referred to as today's Old Testament, is a collection of all the scriptures revealed through all the prophets of Israel and includes the divine revelations to the prophet Moses (the Five Books of Moses, or Pentateuch), It existed at least 2,000 years ago.
Among many other things, the Torah contains instructions from God, including the Ten Commandments. The Torah is the cornerstone of Jewish religious life. It is also an object of great affection.
The Torah Scroll, handwritten on parchment without any decoration, is the most treasured possession of any Jewish community.
The first five books of the Torah are Be-reshit, Shemot, Va-Yikra, Be-Midbar and Devarim, which in the English correspond to Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Hebrew titles derive from the first characteristic word appearing in each book, while the name used in the English Bible (usually of Greek origin) describe the central theme dealt within each book.
What is a codex?
'Codex' is a grand word for a book in the form that we know it today. In Latin 'codex', or 'caudex', once meant tree trunk. Thin wooden writing tablets were used in ancient Roman times as informal notebooks.
When, during the second century, religious texts began to be written down in books rather than on rolls, the name 'codex' was transferred to them. The pages that formed the earliest books were made from the reeds of the papyrus plant. Others were on prepared animal skin called parchment.
An early form of the Masoretic text, is compiled by Aaron Ben Asher, a 10th-century scholar from Tiberias, Palestine. The Masorah is a body of rules of pronunciation, spelling and intonation of the biblical text, intended to preserve it and transmit it correctly.
Ben Asher's text is considered to be the most authoritative version of the Hebrew masoretic Bible. Even if what exists now contains 90 percent correct we can see that the truth of the Jewish religion still can be found in the scripture of the Jewish Bible or Old Testament.