As a Jew, my first loyalty, interest, goal, way of life, and priority of importance is living by the commandments* of God revealed in The Torah.  That is why, although this website is mostly used for listing my experience and schooling for potential employers to look at, I must start out with The Torah.  What follows is a brief explanation of what The Torah is.  If you are at the site for professional reasons, see the section labeled “Science.”

The Torah (the first five books of the bible) is the revealed word of God**.  It was transmitted through the unsurpassed prophecy of Moses, and entirely written down by him (with the possible exception of the last few verses, which may have been written by Joshua).

The Torah, along with the rest of the Hebrew Bible (Tanach), is collectively known as the “Written Torah.”  The other books of the Bible were written either by prophets through visions and dreams (Naviim), or by prophets and other authors through Divine inspiration (Kesuvim).

Along with The Torah, God also gave to Moses the Oral Torah.  The Oral Torah (forbidden to be written down until around 150 C.E.) was the definitive explanation of the Written Torah – explaining how to read it and the details of its laws.  Included in the Oral Torah were 13 methods of extracting laws and ideas out of The Torah, later used throughout the generations by sages until around 500 C.E. when the correct way and skill to use the processes were lost.  During this time period, the Oral Torah was written in a terse form in what is called Talmud (There is a Babylonian Talmud, and a Yerushalmi Talmud), with the way to read it being passed down from teacher to student.  The Talmud also contains additional teachings and Rabbinic enactments designed to help people steer clear of violating Torah law.  Some parts of the Oral Torah were written down outside the Talmud in works such as the Midrashim, Toseftas, Michiltas, and Beraisos.

However, even after the Talmud was codified, the Oral Torah continued to grow, and does so to this day, by means of applying the principles laid out in the Talmud to current Halachic (Jewish law) questions.

Also, more and more ways of explaining, and extracting insights out of The Written Torah and the Talmud are being produced, which also adds to the collective “Oral Torah.”

*These commandments (or mitzvos), of which there are 613, are obligatory for every Jew to live by.  In The Torah, God also sets down 7 categories of laws which all the people of the world are obligated to keep.  If they do so, they receive their full reward in the afterlife. These 7 categories, as well as other information can be found here. Although Judaism does not seek converts, non-Jews who wish to form a closer connection to God than following the 7 categories can take them, and are willing to take on the responsibility of observing all 613 mitzvos, can convert.  Afterwards, they are fully accepted as members of the Jewish people.

**Obviously there are those who do not believe this is the case.  However, consideration of the evidence along with personal experiences have lead me to believe that this is indeed true.  The evidence of the validity of the divine origin of The Torah and the Oral Torah given along side it can be found in many publications and lectures.  The links to some are listed on my Torah Links page.

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Here is a quick description of each Torah sub-page:

Book List	This page provides a listing of some essential and interesting books on Torah. Each book is described/reviewed, and a link to where to buy it is provided where possible.
Links	Here, I have listed numerous sites related to Torah.  They cover a large range, including evidence for the Divine origin of the Torah, Torah-related blogs, places to download lectures, useful tools for religious Jews, and more.
Kahuna	I am a Kohen (Priest).  That means that I am a direct paternal descendant of Moses’s brother Aaron, who was the first Kohen.   This page describes what that means, and provides information and links about it.
Thoughts	This links to my Torah Thoughts blog.  There, I post interesting quotes I find during my learning of Torah.  Typically these are sources that I feel are not widely known.
Shiurim	This links to a collection of audio lectures that I have either recorded live or have been sent by my friends in Ohr Somayach.