Growing up Jewish
According to the Jewish law, halacha, a Jew is someone whose mother is Jewish, or someone who converted to Judaism. Conversion is complex. It takes time and study. There is no missionary movement and there are no sanctions for not being Jewish, but rather you have different obligations and roles, according to the old Jewish law.
Boaz - Proud Jew, US Veteran, Family Man, Rabbi, Law Geek Author
The Torah is included in the Tanakh (what you consider to the the Old Testament). That is what makes us Jewish. We follow the Torah. We are considered Torah Observant. We have other writings that we read and follow as well, but bulk of what makes us Jewish is in the Torah.
Many versions of the “Old Testament” are VERY poor translations and misinterpret a lot. For example, the KJV of your Bible tried as much as possible to do a one for one translation of the Hebrew. That makes it almost impossible to really pull the meaning out. When you look at how much Jewish scholars can argue over the meaning of one word in a sentence and the many meanings that it may have based on the full context—you can see how much trying to translate in such a manner is a challenge.
Another VERY SIMPLE example…look at the different versions of the 10 Commandments:
The difference between “Murder” and “Kill” in the Sixth Commandment is massive in its implication on morality and establishing ideologies.
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Growing up jewish in Jesus time
The Jewish written Torah, also known as the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible, is the first part of the Hebrew Bible and consists of the five books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). According to Jewish tradition, God revealed this text to Moses on Mount Sinai, and it contains the foundational laws and narratives for Judaism. A Torah scroll is a sacred object, handwritten on parchment by a scribe, and is central to Jewish worship and tradition
In biblical times, the Jewish Oral Torah was understood as a tradition of unwritten laws and interpretations given to Moses at Mount Sinai, passed down orally from generation to generation. It was considered necessary to provide the details and applications of the concise Written Torah, such as the specific rules for kashrut or how to fulfill the Sabbath commandment. However, this tradition was not written down in a codified text like the Mishnah until centuries after the biblical period, following the destruction of the Second Temple
Written Torah - Speed Overview
(coutesy of The Bible project Torah Series)