1st of Nisan, 5770
Parashat Vayikra
Rosh Chodesh Nisan
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The Children's Torah Portion The Children's Torah Portion
Rabbi Cartoon animated The Sefer Torah is made up of five books:
Genesis Bereshit Bereshit (Genesis)
Exodus Shemoth Shemoth (Exodus)
Leviticus VaYikra VaYikra (Leviticus)
Numbers BeMidbar BeMidbar (Numbers)
Deuteronomy Devarim Devarim (Deuteronomy)
They are often referred to as the Chumash which means "five". The Torah scroll itself is hand written by a scribe in black ink on parchment. The parchment sheets are sewn together with the veins of a kosher animal. Wooden rollers are attached to the ends so that we can read from portion to portion on the scroll without the parchment being handled, this is because it is all hand written and the ink becomes brittle with age. Looking at a Torah scroll you can see that there are no vowels or punctuation marks. Start early and practice for your Bar or Bat Mitzvah !

The Torah is part of the TaNaCh which is explained in detail here.

Having trouble keeping track of who did what and when in the Torah? Try our Torah Timeline.

Before you start studying the Torah you need to repeat this blessing.
Blessing before studying the Torah
Baruch ata Adonai, Eloheynu melech ha-olam.
asher kid-shanu b'mitzvotav, v'tzivanu 
 la-asok b'divray Torah.

I praise Adonai, who is Lord and Ruler over all, for blessing us with mitzvot and gives us the mitzvah of engaging ourselves in the words of the Torah.