WHAT IS THE TORAH?

The Jewish Bible

“O how I love Your Torah! It is my meditation all day.” Psalm 119:97

What Bible do Jews use? This is a remarkably common question. Another common question is where can I get the Torah? In this article we are going to define the Torah and discover the Jewish Bible which was also the Bible of Yeshua the Messiah.

The Jewish Bible is the Tanakh which is an acronym for Torah, Nevi’im and Ketuvim. This is equivalent to what Christians refer to as the “Old Testament” (the term “Old Testament” was coined by the heretic Marcion of Sinope c. 85-160. Marcion – a follower of Paul who he believed to be the only true Apostle – preached that God had sent Jesus Christ who was an entirely new, alien god, distinct from the “vengeful” God who had created the world. Hence the designation of the “Old Testament” which was intended to insinuate that the Tanakh was an irrelevant text. In as much as Marcion was denounced as a heretic, his core theological premise remained in the church which was that the new superseded the old.) The word Torah refers to the Law of Moses. The Nevi’im are the Prophets and Ketuvim are the writings which include Psalms, Proverbs, the Chronicles and Job among others. These twenty-four books constitute the Holy Scriptures of Judaism; the infallible Word of the Living God.

Torah is the Foundation

“Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the Torah of HASHEM… I have treasured Your word in my heart, so I might not sin against You… Open my eyes, so I may behold wonders from Your Torah.” Psalm 119:1,11, & 18

Many people are surprised to discover that the Torah (The Law of Moses) consists of the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy in their entirety. Therefore, the Law is far more than the Ten Commandments. This also presents an impossible theological problem for Christians. According to the paulinian gospel (a.k.a. the Roman gospel established in 325 CE), Jesus Christ abolished the Law of Moses. This would mean that the Messiah came to abolish, make obsolete, annul, lead us to disregard the writings of these five books. Clearly that is not a tenable theological position, and it is certainly not supported in the scriptures nor the Gospels which Lapid Judaism considers a part of the Holy Scriptures (Lapid Judaism does not consider the letters of the Apostles nor the writings of Paul to be scripture). As a matter of fact, the scriptures actually state the opposite, namely, that the Law of Moses is eternal and will never be set aside.

The Word of God is the Torah

“In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

John 1:1

“The Torah of Adonai is perfect, restoring the soul.” Psalm 19:8

The Torah is literally the first five books of the Bible but, generally, it consists of the entire corpus of scripture. In this sense, the Law of Moses is synonymous with the whole Word of God. Therefore, when one wonders if the “Law is for today?” one need only ask themselves if the “Word of God is for today”? Clearly the answer is yes. In like manner this logic can be applied to the concept of being “under the Law”. From the gospel that Paul conceived, being “under the Law” is viewed as a negative; something from which one needs to be delivered. However, in light of the above truth, the reader must conclude that there isn’t anything negative about being “under the Law”! According to the theological interpretation, being “under the Law” implies being subject to the power of the Law. The Law of God is, as we have discovered, the Word of God. Thus, to be “under the Law” is to be subject to the power of the Word of God! How is that a negative in any context? Am I, dear reader, “under the Law”? Absolutely, by all means! By HaShem’s grace I pray that I am subject to the power of the Word of God. We need to be set free from the power of sin not from the Word of God.

Breaking down the Word Torah

“I wrote for them the great principles of My Torah, but they regarded them as something alien.” Hosea 8:12

The word Torah (תורה) literally means instruction. It is, at its root, an archery term (ירה), yarah, with the connotation of shooting an arrow. In fact, the word is used in 1 Chronicles 10:3 for archer. Therefore, the Torah is like a target at which an archer aims. Not coincidentally, the word for sin (cheit) is also an archery term meaning “to miss the target”. Therefore, to sin is to break the Torah, to fall short of its aim; its directives. The Law of Moses is what we shooting for; it is our targeted way of life. Torah is Divine Teaching, the Will of God and Divine Wisdom. Torah is the Law of God, but it is called the Law of Moses because Moses received the Torah and brought it to Israel.

The Soul of HaShem

“Remember the Torah of Moses My servant, whom I commanded at Horeb—statutes and ordinances for all Israel.”  Malachi 3:22

The Torah is the soul of HaShem. The voice of HaShem began to give the Ten Commandments with the utterance of the unusual four-letter word anochi (אנכי) which means “I”. In Hebrew, it is more common to use the word ani. This begs the question of why the unusual form is used? As it turns out, this is an acronym for Ana Nafshi Ketovit Yehovit (Shabbos 105a).   The translation is I wrote these words down and gave them to you. However, the literal translation is I wrote myself, my very soul, down and gave it to you. The Tanya chapter 53 states, “The Word of God which is termed Shechinah (Holy Spirit)…the Shechinah which rested in the Holy of Holies of the First Temple, through its clothing itself in the Ten Commandments, which were engraved in the Tablets resting in the Ark….”. This teaches us that the Word of God, the Holy Torah, is synonymous with the Spirit of God. As it is written in John 1, the Word of God is God. This concept of the Divine nature of the Law of Moses is confirmed in Likutei Amarim chapter 44 (among many other sources) which says, “The Torah and the Holy One, blessed be He, are one and the same”. The Law of Moses is the clothing of the Divine Shechinah!

The Path of HaShem

Then many peoples will go and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of HASHEM, to the House of the God of Jacob! Then He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths.” For Torah will go forth from Zionand the word of HASHEM from Jerusalem.

Isaiah 2:3

It is important to note the timing of when the Law was given to Israel. Was it before or after Passover salvation? The answer is after! This means that Torah is a gift to us for having become born again. It is our birthday gift from our Father!

In the third month after Bnei-Yisrael had gone out of the land of Egypt, that same day they arrived at the wilderness of Sinai. ² They travelled from Rephidim, came into to the wilderness of Sinai, and set up camp in the wilderness. Israel camped there, right in front of the mountain.

³ Moses went up to God, and Adonai called to him from the mountain saying, “Say this to the house of Jacob, and tell Bnei-Yisrael, ⁴ ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I carried you on eagle’s wings and brought you to Myself. ⁵ Now then, if you listen closely to My voice, and keep My covenant, then you will be My own treasure from among all people, for all the earth is Mine. ⁶ So as for you, you will be to Me a kingdom of kohanim and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you are to speak to Bnei-Yisrael.” Exodus 19:1-6

As we see from this passage, the Law was gifted to the people three months after they were saved from Egypt by the miraculous power of HaShem. This salvation culminating in the blood of the Lamb and followed by an immersion in the purifying waters of the Red Sea. Therefore, after being saved and immersed in water, we stood at the foot of Mount Sinai as a redeemed people in order to receive our instructions as a born-again people. We were no longer slaves; we had become a new creation. As new born  babes, we received the Law of Moses. The timing shows us the plan of salvation and the gospel message. The Torah is given to those who have been saved by the grace of God. The evolution of this gospel is as follows:

We were slaves in Egypt.

HaShem saved us by His power and grace, ultimately with the blood of the lamb.

We were immersed in the Sea.

Death (the former master) was swallowed up in the waves.

We came to the Holy Mountain to receive the Law as a redeemed (saved) people.

From this pattern we can see that the Torah is given to those who have been redeemed and “saved”. Therefore, living a Torah observant life is the natural consequence of being saved by grace; redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God!

The Heart of God

“But now your kingship will not last. HASHEM has sought for Himself a man after His own heart.” 1 Samuel 13:14

The scripture describes King David as a man after God’s own heart. What precisely does this epitaph mean? According to the ancient Targum, it means that David is a man who performed the Will of HaShem  and the Bible defines “God’s Will” as the Torah. Midrash Shocher Tov 1:3 states that this means that David emulated HaShem.

Me’am Lo’ez translates the verse slightly differently. He writes it as, “God has sought for himself a man who will act according to His desires…”. The commentary states the following:

“The Torah instructs that the king should not stray from God’s commandments, either to the right or to the left, so that his kingdom should endure many years. The longevity of a kingdom, then, is dependent on precise obedience to God’s commandments.” Me’am Lo’ez to 1 Samuel 13:14

Saul lost his kingdom precisely because he failed to follow the Torah. HaShem chose another man. One who would strive for the heart of HaShem and that heart is the Word of God which is the Torah of HaShem.

The Torah begins with the Hebrew word beresheit (בראשית) in Genesis 1:1 and it ends with the Hebrew word Yisrael (ישראל) in Deuteronomy 34:12. Therefore the first letter is the Hebrew beit and the final letter is the Hebrew lamed. When one puts these letters together, they spell the Hebrew word Lev (לב) which means heart. Like looking into a mirror we see a Divine revelation when we look at this hidden message in the Law. This is a very clear picture that the Torah of HaShem (the Law of Moses) is the very heart of God! Let us then remember the teaching of Ya’akov (James) who was the head of the entire believing community after Yeshua:

^“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror— for once he looks at himself and goes away, he immediately forgets what sort of person he was. But the one who looks intently into the perfect Torah, the Torah that gives freedom, and continues in it, not becoming a hearer who forgets but a doer who acts—he shall be blessed in what he does. Ya’akov 1:22-25