Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/858

 TORBIDO

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TORBIDO

Yahwe (I Esd., vii, 10; I Par., xvi, 40; II Esd., viii, 8), and sefer lorath Yahwe Elohim (II Esd., ix, 3) ; while sefer loralh Moshe (II Esd., viii, 1), sefer Moshe (I Esd., vi, 18; II Esd., xiii, 1; II Par., xxv, 4; xxxv, 12) indi- cate its author. The Talmud and later Jewish writings call the Pentateuch sefer (ha) lora; the name is always used if the whole work were written as a scroll {megilla} for use in the Divine service. If the work is written in five scrolls or in book form it is called hflmisha hum^she (ha)tora (,-"!l.^(~) T^nn ri"w"n), ''the five-fifths of the law". This division into five parts is old, and in the time of Nehemias served as a model for the division of the Psalter into five books. The Jews generally named the individual books after the first word : (1) 6«res/ii(/i, n'2?Xl3; (2) sh^moth or w'elle shomolh, m);'i? or 'Z' Xbxi; (3) wayyiqra, i<"p"l; (4) bfniidbar or wayy<^dabber, "12~?;2, 13~ri; (5) d'^barim or 'elle ha-d'barim, C"^2~n N?N (cf. as early a wjriter as Origen on Ps. 1 : Spr] "book of the Creation", in Sanh., 62, and n'ziqin, "p"?3, "injuries", Masorah to Gen., xxiv, 8, are not to be applied, as is often done, to Genesis and Exodus; they refer only to the account of the Creation and to Ex., xxi, 22.

Another method of division is that by which the paragraphs, or para,s/ii»/(/oyj (n"l!/"lE sing. rit."~C), are indicated in the scrolls of the Torah used in the syna- gogues. In the older Midrashim these divisions are called parashiyyoth p'thuhoth, n'n'l.lC 't, "open parashiyyoth" ; or parashiyyoth selhumoth, r'^i^nC 'C, "clo.sed parashiyyoth" . In the former, the portion of the line following the last word is left blank; in the latter the termination of the paragraph is indicated by leaving only part of the line blank. Such para- graphs are called "small parashiyyoth" and they are generally indicated in the printed editions of the Bible bv 2 or C. The Pentateuch has altogether 290 open aiid 379 closed parashiyyoth. In quoting they are generally called after the main contents (as Baba bathra Ha: CiJ'?3'C that is, Num., xxii, 2-xxiv,_25), but sometimes after the first words (as, Ta'anith iv, 3, the first six parashiyyoth of Genesis). The parashiy- yoth are regarded as the arrangement of the divisions of the Pentateuch according to contents; but the basis of the distinction between open and closed parashiyyoth is not known with certainty.

Another division of the Torah is connected with the reading of lessons read in the synagogue on the Sab- bath, a practice referred to in Acts, xv, 21, ix ■yeveuv dpxalui' as being ancient (cf. also Josephus, "Contra Apion.", II, xvii). It was customary in Palestine to have a three years' cycle of these lessons (Meg., 29b); some writers say there was also a cycle of three years and a half. The Pentateuch, therefore, was divided into 154-175 sections or s'darim (E'TiC, sing. T,C). These s'darim though not indicated in our Bibles, are important for understanding the structure of the old Midrashim (cf. Bilchler, "The Reading of the Law and Prophets in a Triennial Cycle" in "Jew. Quart. Rev.", V, 420 sqq., VI, 1 sqq., VIII, 528 sq.). In the course of time an annual cycle, which first ac- quired authority among the Babylonian Jews, and is now accepted by nearly all Jewish communities, was adopted. Maimonides (Hilhoth Tephilla, XIII, 1) calls it the prevailing custom of his era (twelfth cen- tury), but says that some read the Pentateuch in three years, which, according to Benjamin of Tu- dela, was the practice about 1170 among scattered communities in Egypt (cf. Jew. Quart. Rev., V, 420).

In this one-year cycle the Pentateuch is divided into fifty-four Sabbath lessons generally called large para- shiyyoth. A Jewish intercalary year consisting of thirteen lunar months contains fifty-three sabbaths, and the final section is always read on the day of the "joy of the Law" (min Hn^™), that is, the ninth day after the feast of booths (twenty-third day of Tishri). In ordinary years, when there are forty-seven sab- baths, two parashiyyoth are joined on each of seven sabbaths in order to complete the number. In Gen- esis there are twelve sabbath parashiyyoth, in Exodus eleven, in Leviticus and Numbers ten each, and in Deuteronomy eleven. They are named from and quoteil by the first words. In the printed editions of the Bible they are indicated, as they are also the opening words of the open or closed parashiyyoth, by CSC or CCC, with exception of the twelfth lesson, at the beginning of which (Gen., xlvii, 28) only the breadth of a letter should remain blank. Concerning the dis- tribution of the fifty-four parashiyyoth for the year, cf. Loeb, "Rev. des etudes juives", Vl, 250 sqq.; Deren- bourg, ibid., VII, 146 sqq.; Schmid, "Uberverschie- dene Einteilungen der hi. Schrift" (Graz, 1892), 4 sqq.

The Old Synagogue and the Talmud firmly main- tain the Mosaic authorship of the Torah, but doubts are entertained regarding a number of passages. In "Baba bathra" 15^ only the last eight verses of Deu- teronomy, which speak of the death and burial of Moses, are assigned to another author. On the other hand Simon (loc. cit.) teaches, referring to Deut., xxxi, 26, that these verses were also written by Mo.ses under Divine direction (cf. also Josephus, "Antiq. Jud.", IV, viii, 48). During the Middle Ages doubts were expressed as to the possibility ot Moses writing certain sentences; for instance, by Rabbi Yishaq (to Gen., xxxvi, 11) who was op- posed by Aben Ezra, and as well by Aben Ezra him- self (to Gen., .xii, 6; Ex., xxv, 4; Deut., i, 1; xxxi, 22). Taken altogether, even in the succeeding period the belief in the Mosaic authorship remained undisputed, at least by the orthodox Jews. They hold, moreover, the Divine origin of the entire Torah, and the eighth of the thirteen articles of faith for- mulated by Maimonides and incorporated into the prayer-book reads: "I believe with full faith that the entire Torah as it is in our hands is the one which was given to our teacher Moses, to whom be peace." (See Pent.itecch.)

F. ScHtJHLEIN.

Torbido, Francesco, often called II Moro (The Moor), Veronese painter and engraver, b. at Verona about 1486; the date of his death is unknown, but in a letter of Aretino he is spoken of as still living in 1546. He studied at Venice under Giorgione, and later returned to his native place, where he married a daughter of Count Zenovello Giusti. He then became a pupil of Liberale, who adopted hini as his heir. Torbido seems to have remained at Verona, executing commissions for portraits, and painting frescoes in churches and on the fronts of houses, as was the Veronese fashion of those days. His work shows the varying influences of his Venetian master and of the Veronese artists, which he finally blended into a distinct style of his own, but retained the rich, glowing colour schemes acquired from the great Giorgione. Fine examples of his frescoes may still be seen at Verona, in the cathedral ("Nativity" and "Assumption", signed and dated 1534) and in the Church of St. Fermo ("Virgin and Child in Glory"), whilst others are in St. Eufemia and St. Zeno. His portraiture can be studied at Naples, at Venice, and in the Brera Gallery. Two portraits represent the artist himself, one at Munich, signed and dated 151&, the other, a red chalk drawing, in the Christ Church Collection.