Torah Lessons
Christian Misconceptions of Torah
Torah translated "law" in the English Bible should have been translated "teaching or instructions." We need to get back to our foundations. We need to acknowledge G-d's standards for our lives instead of living each man every way that seems right to him. We have taken liberty and made it license. Even those that profess to be followers of Yahshua (Jesus) are relative moralists who follow only G-d's standard that seems right to them or even worse convenient. Quiet frankly, the condition of our society now suffers because of these attitudes fostered on us by an ever-increasing clergy that is more concerned about their economic status, numbers in their churches than in teaching the uncompromised word of G-d. The new motto of church leaders is "we give them what they want, not what they need." Hollywood uses the same defense when it defends the trash it promotes for entertainment. They say they give the public what it wants. How can clergy or institutions of religion condemn them when they use the same defense for their own falling away from G-d's word? What kind of world is it that you can’t tell a believer from an unbeliever? Oh we see a lot of ratchet jawing, but do we see the actions to back it up? Unfortunately, no! When we do see programs that purport to be reaching the community or when we see something that might be for the benefit of the great mass of lost people we find it is nothing more than a sophisticated program to beguile the gullible and add another loss soul to the membership and coffers of some dead church.
It's time to be reborn! To be still and listen to the still quiet voice of our Creator. To apply His standards to our lives and see where we are and where we should be. That is my quest, my dream, and my life to reach all those that have ears to hear become Torah Observant. Yahshua best said it in Matthew 11:16 through verse 19 and I quote: "But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, we played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn. For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds."
We can sum up Yahshua's words this way, "No matter what I do-You're not interested," and "let them who have ears hear."
That is my position! If you have ears hear!
YHVH has revealed to us in His Torah the written expression of His heart, His mind, Who He is, His character and His instructions for us to live successful spiritually blessed lives. However, mankind true to our nature has written into it or alongside it a system of performance based rules and regulations that we are required to perform in order to win the approval of our Creator. This is legalism! Not Torah.
Many of us do not know the difference between legalism and Torah, and this confusion leads to conflicts everyday with well meaning Christians and Jews alike who are not Torah Observant nor frankly see a need to be.
Part of the problem is the mistranslation of the word nomos in the B'rit Chadasha. Instead of accurately rendering it as Torah, (teachings-instructions), instead of "law" Christians have persisted that Torah has little relevance for them. The second part of the problem lies with misinterpretation of phrases found in Sha'ul's writings and the language he uses especially in Romans and Galatians.
There are two specific phrases we need to address. One is upo nomen ("under the law") and erga nomou ("works of law"). When Sha'ul uses these terms it is in a negative light.
For example, in Romans 6:14 which reads, "For you are not under the law but under grace." Sha'ul here is stressing that the believer is dependent on Yahshua for reconciliation to the Father and for the process of salvation to begin. Earlier he wrote in Romans 3:25 addressing the unbelievers relationship to the Almighty and giving the remedy for repair that "Whom G-d hath set forth (Yahshua) to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of G-d. Simply, Sha'ul is saying that our past sins are forgiven when we place our trust in Yahshua and this can only be accomplished through the grace of G-d and not through some legalistically based system of works. Now that's as far as it goes! He is not addressing future sins or the believer's response to G-d's gift of atonement (at-one-ment). This is addressed elsewhere. Too many people extrapolate this verse to mean we are forgiven for all sins past, present and future. Sha'ul obviously does not say that. To bring it all together, the legalistic application of law does not "save" or better, reconcile us to YHVH trust in Yahshua's faithfulness does, but neither does it abrogate the Torah and Sha'ul is not proposing that either.
Another example is found in Galatians 2:16 which reads, "knowing that a man is not justified by the works of law, but by the faith of Yahshua the Messiah." Right off I want to say to you since Sha'ul only referred to man does that mean he is that a woman might be justified in a way a man is not or that she may not be justified at all. This is facetious but it exemplifies the way some people interpret and read scripture.
In this passage we clearly see that "works of law" is clearly being used in a negative manner. In this book Sha'ul was rebuking the Galatians for "trusting" in works of law. That clearly means that they trusted in a system of works to win approval of YHVH for reconciliation to Him. This is legalism! Clearly we must first be reconciled through trust in Yahshua's faithfulness as Sha'ul clearly teaches, but again he is not abrogating Torah or it's place in a believer's life. Nowhere does it say that.
In these passages Sha'ul was teaching against legalism not G-d's Torah for if he had he would have also been teaching against Yahshua for He is the Living manifested Torah. You can’t have it both ways; being reconciled to G-d through the Living Torah, Yahshua, and abrogating the written Torah that is the essence of who He is.
Now we need a small grammar lesson in Greek. There are no sufficient words in biblical Greek to express "legalism." Instead he had to use certain phrases when interpreted incorrectly could easily lead one to believe that he was against the Torah. That, and ignoring the other scriptures where he plainly upheld Torah.
C.B.E. Cranfield is a prominent and respected Christian scholar. Let's let him address the question of Sha'ul disparaging the "Law" meaning Torah.
In his book Romans (Edinburg, 1975, 1990) II 853 he wrote the following:
"It will be well to bear in mind the fact (which, as far as we know, had not received attention before it was noted)…that the Greek language of Paul's day possessed no word-group corresponding to our "legalism," "legalist," and "legalistic." This means that he lacked a convenient terminology for expressing a vital distinction, and so was surely seriously hampered in the work of clarifying the Christian position with regard to the law. In view of this we should always, we think, be ready to reckon with the possibility that Pauline statements, which at first seem to disparage the law, are really directed not against the law itself but against the misunderstanding and misuse of it foe which we now have a convenient terminology. In this very difficult terrain Paul was pioneering. If we make due allowance for theses circumstances, we shall not be so easily baffled or mislead by a certain impreciseness of statement which we shall sometimes encounter."
We need to now address another long-standing misinterpretation of nomos/torah found in Galatians 5:18. "But if you be led by the spirit you are not under the law." Moreover, such people have "fallen from grace" in 5:4, and lastly in 5:2 "I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you."
Christians have used these rather harsh sounding statements for eons to denigrate any believer who follows Torah. Especially, in regard to circumcision, Sabbath observance, or any other non-moral matter.
How do we address this? It is quite simple. The first is the hermeneutical principle. Hermeneutics first rule is that the bible cannot contradict itself, and the second is the context. In Galatians we have to consider the context of the whole book as contrary to the context of a chapter o verse. The context of the Book of Galatians was that of justification by faith. He was warning them not to make a "law" out of the Torah, by turning G-d's teaching into a list of legalistic laws. The Galatians were abandoning the principle of justification by faith and resorting to justification by works. Sha'ul provides several indications that this was the case with the Galatians. The first is 2:16: "nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified." The issue on Sha'ul's mind was G-d's requirement for justification.
Now let us examine the Greek of 2:16. Pay close attention to me here. In the manuscript the definite article "the" found in our English texts is not there. It should have been translated simply 'works of law" and not works of "the" Law. In Greek the definite article is always used to indicate deity, such as "the G-d" and here adding the "the" unjustly aids the reader to assume Sha'ul is speaking of G-d's Torah while in fact "works of law" is a phrase indicating a man-made system of works and not G-d's Torah.
In Galatians 5:4 we read: "You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace." Many use this verse to demonstrate that those who follow Torah have fallen from the grace of G-d because they are obeying "law" instead of Yahshua, who it is argued set them free from the law. In defense of this position they cite preceding verses 2-3. Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law.
What do you answer to that? Sha'ul himself provides the key for the correct understanding of this passage in verse 4, in which he tells us anyone seeking to be justified by law, will encounter serious problems. Simply, he is saying that the Galatians or anyone for that matter who believes they can be justified before G-d by legalistic works of law, no matter how conscientiously applied can secure righteousness. This person has moved from grace into that of legalistic works, and they think reconciliation to G-d can be attained as a result of what he does. Sha'ul is emphasizing that such a person has fallen from the principle of grace to the principle of "law." In effect when someone believes such a teaching the atonement accomplished by Yahshua has no value for him, since he is relying on what he does for reconciliation instead of what Yahshua did for him. The teachings of the Torah were never intended to be used for such a purpose.
The response to the unmerited favor of G-d given to those that don't deserve it is to be received by trust; yet, if we obey Torah in order to enjoy the blessings of G-d for this grace bestowed upon us we have not fallen from grace.
Real biblical faith is the kind of trust in YHVH Elohim that always results in changed lives, and the Torah describes what that life looks like. So we see that the statements in Galatians that seem to teach against Torah do not do so at all.
The letter to Romans is similar to that to the Galatians. The main topic is justification. Sha'ul in Romans is expounded on the theme of righteousness in all its various aspects. As in Galatians there were some in Romans who were attempting to be justified by the legalistic application of "works of law." The churches tradition of interpretation of the law passages in Galatians is similar to that of Romans. Since the Church has consisted mostly of Gentiles throughout the centuries they neither comprehended nor appreciated the Torah and therefore they do not interpret the law passages correctly. There are two key passages from this book hat have been especially misunderstood resulting in a gross anti-Torah sentiment among Christians.
The first is in Romans 10:4. Rom 10:4 "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." Many understand this verse to mean that Yahshua put an end to G-d's Torah and anyone who professes Him no longer has any responsibility to follow Torah, because Yahshua followed it for him.
Again we have to examine the Greek a little closer. It reveals a different meaning. The Greek word translated "end" is the word telos. This word stresses the "goal" or purpose for something. When we use this word we can say that the Messiah is the goal of the Torah. We all know that the Torah points to the Messiah. In other words the Messiah is the goal at which Torah aims. Within this context Sha'ul is teaching that people seeking the righteousness of G-d should seek it as revealed in the Torah and most fully realized by the Messiah. Dr. David Stern a Jewish Greek scholar says it this way:
The goal at which the Torah aims is acknowledging and trusting in the Messiah, who offers on the ground of this trusting the very righteousness they are seeking. They would see the righteousness which the Torah offers is offered through Him and only through Him.
Instead of teaching that through faith in Messiah the Torah is now done away with, this verse teaches is that the Torah's goal is to point someone to the righteousness found through faith in the Messiah and thus becoming a new creation he is now able to live the Torah lifestyle through the power of the indwelling G-d. The Torah lifestyle is the very living out of that righteousness. Jeremiah tells us in chapter 31:22 that the very Torah of G-d is written on our minds.
The seventh chapter of Romans is particularly a difficult one, the key questions are: What has died? What has changed? Was it the Torah that died or was it something else? We know from reading Matthew 5:17 that the Torah could not have died. It is G-d's eternal Word! Therefore something else has died and that is our relationship to Torah because of our changed relationship to sin. Our relationship to Torah can now change because it was not the problem of Torah but sin. Sha'ul says, "therefore, did that which is good (meaning Torah) became a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin effecting my death through that which is good, that through the commandments sin might become utterly sinful" (Romans 7:13).
Christians hear a different interpretation of this passage. The real message here is that Sha'ul is teaching that sin is our real enemy and not the Torah. Because we are a new creation in Messiah our entire relationship to sin has changed, therefore our relationship to Torah has also changed. Since we have trusted in Messiah the Torah has become what it was meant to be all along; a holy; righteous, guide for believers to apply to their lives responding in obedience to the great unmerited love of the Father.
Sha'ul also says it this way:
Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of G-d, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto G-d, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of G-d.
And how do we know what is acceptable, and perfect and the will of G-d. Through His Torah!
Let me end with these quotations from the Bible:
Prov 28:9 He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.
And:
Psa 119:34 Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.
Psa 119:35 Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight.
Selah
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Studying Torah
"Trap of the Intellect"
As a Rabbi, and probably I may speak for many ministers, and or pastors who encounter the same phenomena, and that is the "trap of the intellect."
Let's pause here for a second because I can see a rush to judgment by the listeners right now. Uh huh, a rabbi who is going to admit as I've always suspected that pastors, rabbis and all others of their ilk really don't know what they're talking about, because they want listen to my clever and revelatory insights, and are hardheaded and intractable "know it alls" who only want to pontificate and hog the spot-light. They are just graduates of cemeteries (nee Seminaries) meaning dead in the head, overeducated baboons who haven't a clue to G-d's light as I do.
Unfortunately, I am not speaking about rabbis or even the clergy, that is, in most cases, at least those that are truly called and chosen of G-d. I'm speaking about the individual whose "smart," and who is used to conquering problems by his/her intellect. The one that sits in the church or synagogue every week, harboring resentment at the churches' or synagogues' leadership because they feel their voice is not being heard or given the importance they feel their opinions should receive. It is precisely these individuals who fall into the "trap of the intellect" or I might paraphrase "into the trap of the ego." Aside from the fact that they are a disservice to themselves they become a liability to the institution where they worship frequently sewing strife and disorder all in the unrecognized name of "ego" or recognition if you will.
Yet, this problem is not so simplistic that only "smart people" fall victim to it. There's a too edged sword here. People who aren't so smart, but usually think they are have this problem as well, and it results from too many of us having "too little," as opposed to those that have "too much" self-esteem. Although the concept of "self-esteem" is a much-overworked secular construction there is a biblical basis to it. "Too much" or "too little" self-esteem is one of the greatest drawbacks in the discipline of learning Torah. Having "too much" or "too little" produce the same results. Many who have "too little" overcompensate with argumentative exercises designed to show how smart they are, while those with "too much" seek to impress all within range, of their copious knowledge, however faulty. In either case this type of individual approaches scripture with the idea that they can conquer the material with razor sharp wit, that is, bringing to bear all their accumulated knowledge, regardless of this knowledge's source, its misapplication, misinterpretation, or misrepresentation, be it however inappropriate, and the rationale that accompanies it, no matter how stretched, the construction of which is birthed from the excesses of the need to justify their opinion. These individuals may be able to fool the uninformed, uneducated, unlearned individual, but I'm sorry, they cannot outsmart G-d, nor compromise His written record of Himself, the Torah. If you think you're outsmarting G-d or His Torah you're just fooling yourself. In most cases if an individual is truly honest and analyzes his motives realistically he finds he/she is more interested in their own insights than in what Scripture has to say. The shame in this is that these people never get all they should out of Torah. They short change themselves and lead others astray. Too be honest, what they are experiencing is their own ego, be it "too much" or "too little," getting in the way of what the Torah has to say to them. Too often they listen to disparate voices informed from feelings and not facts. They search desperately for "signs" and "wonders" to justify their representations. They fool themselves and those around them to great misfortune and eventual destruction. The only voice they hear is their own.
Some of these professed fellow travelers even feel Torah is not relevant to their lives, and through intellectual gymnastics they try to invalidate G-d's Word or that part of it that they intellectually do not accept as valid. If we have a problem we need to address it, and in this case the correct alternative in place of intellectual rebellion is that they should be forming a duet between Torah and their soul. Scripture being the melody, and harmony being the soul. One sure guidepost to recognize and acknowledge is that If you are really, truly, studying Torah with the right attitude then you will see that Torah is providing you the means to listen to yourself, not you, to speak to it. A correct attitude also serves to develop a healthy respect for G-d's word and for His appointed teachers. For Torah teaches us that you are not only to listen to YHVH's Torah, but also to YHVH's Torah teachers. Yahshua said when describing Torah teachers in Matthew 23:1-3 "Then spake Yahshua to the multitude, and to his disciples, Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; (but He added) but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not." Yahshua obviously did not mean that all Torah teachers are hypocrites, but even allowing for an attitude of "do as I say not as I do," on the part of some of the Torah teachers he called on the multitude to observe and do what they taught. How could Yahshua make such a broad statement allowing for hypocrites in the ministry? First we have to understand what it means to "sit in Moshe's seat." Simply, it meant they had received the proper training, education and learning of Torah from qualified teachers who were imbued with the Ruach HaKodesh. It meant becoming prepared by years of arduous study to become teachers who are appointed by YHVH Elohim to lead His flock. Nowhere, in any of the other so-called professions can an unqualified and unlearned man or woman become a teacher or leader except in "religion." Unfortunately, however misguided, so much of what has become doctrine today was informed by unlearned men who misunderstood the Scriptures due to a lack of education and have led whole generations astray and to their destruction. Education of course is not the answer without the spiritual qualifications necessary, but neither is the unguided ignorance of those who are self-appointed apostles of G-d who only have limited intellectual resources to draw upon while claiming to prophesize the word of G-d. Believe it or not this is not G-d's normal way. You only have to search Scripture to know this. Only one prophet in Scripture Amos of Tekoa was apparently uneducated while all the rest were well educated and trained from childhood and many descended nobility. Even then Amos probably was trained as every Jewish child was from the age of three in Torah. By and large the prophets of G-d were the "cream of the crop" so to speak.
Now we know there are false leaders by design or by ignorance so how can we be sure we have an appointed leader? Only by the study of Torah ourselves, by placing our egos aside and letting Torah speak to us directly, learning the rudiments to the extent that we can be assured and rely on our personal judgment being informed by the Ruach of the credibility of those who teach us, and that's by applying their teaching to Torah itself. When we hear something we don't agree with or something that seems frivolous we have to put aside our own insights long enough to allow Scripture to speak to us. Many times our own insight is faulty, and often we don't have the spiritual maturity to see the genius of the statement heard.
Studying Torah is not always easy and many are perplexed by or even bored by it. The solution is that to study Scripture we have to learn it demands a balancing act on our part. Unfortunately, some of us think we are not capable of learning, and some think Scripture has nothing relevant to say to us today. If your self-esteem is too low you will give up. If your self-esteem is too high, you want ever engage in any meaningful Torah study. The answer is that we must all come to a healthy regard for ourselves, and others as well as for our teachers, those who teach faithfully from the pages of Torah.
To illustrate this principle let me recite what Hillel spoke of as the greatest principle from Torah, "Love your neighbor as yourself (Lev 19:18), and about 100 years later Yahshua said almost the same thing. Rabbi Akiva later agreed with Hillel that: "This is the greatest principle in Torah." However, Ben Azzai (Safri Talmud) quoted this verse as the greatest: Genesis 5:1 "This is the book of the generations of Adam. In that day G-d created human beings; in the likeness of G-d did G-d make him." And he said this is a principle greater than that meaning greater than "Love your neighbor as yourself."
Why this disparity? Why did ben Azzai equate this verse as greater than "loving your neighbor as yourself? Yahshua had quoted the first commandment to Love G-d with all your heart and soul and followed it by quoting "loving your neighbor as yourself" as being like unto it, and the greatest commandments. So, maybe ben Azzai has something here. His reasoning was if you don't love yourself, then you want treat yourself the way you should, and likewise you won't treat your neighbor the way you should. But, if you remember that you are created in the image of G-d and that all mankind is created in the image of G-d then you will treat every one as they should be treated. If we remember that G-d is the first, the uncaused cause and that all comes from Him and all is sustained by Him and that you and I created in His image then we must learn to love ourselves and our neighbors as one.
To achieve Torah wisdom we must have that psychological balance in life that engenders an appropriate amount of esteem, not "too much" and not "too little," which assures success in Bible Study. We must learn that knowledge comes from listening intently and not from just being heard. To achieve this balance we have to keep juggling our humility and hubris if we are to allow the Ruach HaKodesh to operate within us, and eventually we will profit from Torah study.
We need the proper focus! If we see ourselves as "too much" or "too little," we only want to share our insights and not listen to G-d's Torah or else we belittle ourselves so much we feel incapable of mastering G-d's word, so, why try.
G-d has assured us in Mat 7:7 that if we Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: but the wise person learns that the context tells us that to find, to have it opened to us we must have the right attitude. The right attitude that insures that when we seek and knock we will be led into Torah, G-d's instructions for us that leads to a happy, healthy, prosperous and wise life. Torah that leads to Salvation.
Selah