How can one know for sure that the Torah is not an invention?

The People of Israel has been called since time immemorial “the People of the Book,” after the Torah book (and the Tanakh in general) that was given to us and united the people around it for thousands of years. The Torah, the five books of the Torah, was written in the spirit of prophecy by Moses our teacher according to the word of God, and it is not an ordinary human book.

There are those who claim that the one who wrote the Torah was a clever person who succeeded in deceiving an entire people, but when the claim is examined in depth, it turns out that it has no basis whatsoever. Instead, the Torah is full of clear and sharp evidence that it could not have been delivered by a human being.

Why did all the other religions fear a mass revelation?

Many religions are based on a divine or spiritual revelation of one kind or another. For example, in Christianity, in Islam, and even in Eastern religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. However, in all these cases, the revelation was to one person — the prophet or founder of the religion — who later told others about it. Thus, religions and beliefs in the world were established by individuals such as Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, and others.

The Torah is exceptional in this regard. In several places it describes the greatest event that occurred before the eyes of the People of Israel — the event of Mount Sinai. In this event stood all the children of Israel who left Egypt, about three million people, who were present at an extraordinary divine revelation. The Torah repeats this many times and emphasizes that all the people saw the event. In the Torah itself, verses are written that address directly that generation that received the Torah and was present at Mount Sinai, and they note the presence of the children of Israel at that divine revelation.

Now let us assume that someone wanted to “implant” a folk story that never occurred anywhere during the course of history. What would be more logical: that he would tell about a private revelation he experienced (as the founders of other religions did), or about a collective event that did not occur in reality, while indicating the personal presence of the recipients of the book? Clearly, a story of the second type would cause absolute lack of credibility and rejection of the book. No person would believe a story in which it is stated that he himself experienced a divine revelation, when in reality it did not exist.

3 million witnesses: an event that cannot be forged

This, by the way, is why among all the religions that exist in the world there is not even one that claims a mass divine revelation — because such an event cannot be forged. Judaism is the only religion that is based on a mass revelation that took place before the eyes of 3 million people.

The Torah is the only one that is claimed to have been written at the time of the events described in it. It quotes direct statements of the Creator and Moses our teacher, as well as direct statements toward the people. The Torah of Israel is in fact the only Torah in the world that describes miraculous events on a national scale written immediately alongside the time of their occurrence (in the second person, in the present tense), which does not allow it to be forged.

“You saw”: the verses that make the Torah impossible to forge

Here are several quotations from the Torah that indicate the presence of the recipients of the Torah at the event of Mount Sinai:

1. “Atem nitzavim hayom kulchem lifnei Adonai Eloheichem rosheichem shivteichem zikneichem veshotereichem kol ish Yisrael” (Deuteronomy 29:9-11).

2. “Atem re’item ki min ha-shamayim dibarti imachem” (Exodus 20:18).

3. “Atem re’item et kol asher asah Hashem le-eineichem be-eretz Mitzrayim le-Far’oh u-le-kol avadav u-le-kol artzo” (Deuteronomy 29:1).

4. “Lo et avoteinu karat Hashem et ha-berit ha-zot ki itanu anachnu eileh ha-yom kulanu chayim. Panim be-fanim diber Hashem imachem ba-har mi-tokh ha-esh” (Deuteronomy 5:3-4).

5. “Ateh har’ita lada’at ki Hashem hu ha-Elohim ein od milvado. Min ha-shamayim hishmi’achacha et kolo le-yasrecha ve-al ha-aretz her’acha et isho ha-gdolah u-devarav shamata mi-tokh ha-esh” (Deuteronomy 4:35-36).

6. “Rak hishamer lecha u-shmor nafsh’cha me’od pen tishkach et ha-devarim asher ra’u einecha u-pen yasuru mi-levavcha kol yemei chayecha ve-hod’ata’m le-vaneycha u-le-vei bneycha. Yom asher amadtah lifnei Hashem Elohecha be-CHorev be-emor Hashem elai hakhel li et ha-am ve-ashmi’ema et devarai asher yilmadun le-yir’ah oti kol ha-yamim asher hem chayim al ha-adamah ve-et b’neichem yelamdu’n” (Deuteronomy 4:9-10).

7. “Ki mi kol basar asher shama kol Elohim chayim medaber mi-tokh ha-esh kamonu va-yechi” (Deuteronomy 5:22).

8. “Ha-yom ha-zeh re’inu ki yedaber Elohim et ha-’adam vachai” (Deuteronomy 5:20).

---

One mistake is enough

Skeptics might claim that the tradition was forgotten and that the author was a lone righteous person preserving it. However, this is refuted by an explicit promise within the Torah: “And this song [the Torah] shall testify before them as a witness, for it shall not be forgotten from the mouth of their seed” (Deuteronomy 31:21). If the Torah had been forgotten, this promise would not have come true, negating the book’s divinity.

The laws of kashrut: knowledge beyond human reach

One of the examples of the Torah’s truth is found in the laws of kashrut. The Torah states that a permitted animal must have two signs: split hooves and chewing the cud. It specifies only four animals that have only one of these signs: the camel, the hyrax, the hare, and the pig. Throughout history, no animal has been found to contradict these rules. A human being in those times could not have known the fauna of all continents to make such a claim.

The same applies to fish: “Any fish that has scales necessarily has fins, but not every fish that has fins necessarily will also have scales” (Tractate Niddah 6:9). To this day, 34,000 fish species have been discovered, and the rule remains accurate.

Nostradamus versus the Tanakh: the difference between guessing and prophecy

The prophecies in the Tanakh are concrete and unambiguous, unlike the cryptic predictions of Nostradamus, which can be interpreted to fit any event. Examples of Torah prophecies:

a) The eternal existence of the People of Israel: despite exile and persecution, the Jewish people have remained, in accordance with the promise: “And yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly” (Leviticus 26:44).

b) Safety during pilgrimage: The Torah promised that during the pilgrimage to Jerusalem three times a year, no nation would threaten the People of Israel or invade the land. This promise was tested for hundreds of years while the Temple stood.

Only the One who rules the world could make such promises, tested year after year for centuries.