~~~ TORAH - Mercy Triumphs Over Jugdment ~~~
Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.'
For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.Y'shua
Introduction
In the Hebrew Scriptures, the Torah of the Yah (torat Adonai) refers to the revelation of the Father's will for human beings to live rightly before Him in light of His reality and holiness...
"The Torah of Adonai is perfect, converting the soul"
(Psalm 19:7)
By functioning as a "looking glass" of our inward condition, the Torah of Adonai reveals both the divine standard of life required of the tzaddik (righteous person) and also the truth of our own need for deliverance from ourselves. Nonetheless, in order to be justified before the Adonai, the Torah qua law demands that we live as morally perfect agents, regardless of our heredity, infirmities, social status, education, and so on. "Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be holy: for I am the ADNOAI your YHWH" Leviticus 20:7 As Jesus Himself said in Matthew 5:48
"For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." (James 2:10)
Indeed, even the inner voice of conscience provides evidence for a "categorical imperative" to always do what we (intuitively) know is right. As Immanuel Kant put it, "Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it would become a universal law" (Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals), or as Rabbi Hillel put it, "What is hateful to yourself, do to no other" (Mishnah, Avot), or as Jesus said, "So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets" Matthew 7:12
The moral aspect of the law finds its most concrete expression in luchot ha'even, the tablets of stone inscribed with Aseret Hadiberot - the Ten Commandments - and constitutes the fundamental moral requirements given by the YHWH of Israel to His people.
The moral law of YHWH does not change or accommodate itself to the weaknesses and frailties of mankind, however, and stands forever as the abiding truth of Elohim's requirements for the human soul to be blameless before Him. If we do not realize this, it is because we are asleep or morally deadened; however, the moment we awaken and become alive, life itself becomes tragic. As the Apostle Paul said, "I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died". Romans 7:9.
This is the conviction of our sinful condition, and it is itself a gift from heaven, for without it we would never attend to the need of our hearts for an abiding hope that can overcome the verdict of alienation and death that hangs over us all... We would never pursue teshuvah.
Now in the Jewish tradition, the moral law is often equated with the Torah of Moses, that is, the 613 specific mitzvot, mishpatim, and chukkim that are found in the collective writings of Moses. In the rabbinical tradition, these various commandments, judgments, and decrees are further supplemented and defined by the "Oral Law," which is likewise considered binding on the observant Jew. In fact, in some Orthodox traditions of Judaism, the claim goes even further, in that YHWH Himself is bound to the Torah of Moses in a way that an engineer is bound to the finished blueprints of an architect.
A potential source of confusion regarding the status of the law of Elohim is that while it is true that the underlying moral aspect of the Torah of Moses is indeed unchanging (as Y'shua Himself attested), the various ceremonial and civil laws, which are a function of the covenantal expression of the law, may not be. In other words, were the Adonai to make a new covenant with Israel, then, though the moral aspects of the law would still be eternally binding (e.g., "love the Adonai your Father" and "love your neighbor as yourself"), the ritual expressions of the covenant might undergo change, based on the new terms of the agreement.
This exploratory article attempts to demonstrate that the Torah of Moses, at least with respect to covenantal expressions determined at Sinai as ceremonial and civil laws, is not immutable and the exclusive possession of national Israel, but is rather subject to the greater purposes and plans of the Lord to redeem all of humanity from their lost condition of alienation from Him.
Defining our Terms
The question of whether the "Torah" is immutable and unchanging first requires that we define what is meant by the term Torah. Here are some of the ways to understand this term:
Torah as the writings of Moses. Often people consider the word Torah to refer to the first five books of the Hebrew Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy (sometimes referred to as the "chumash."). Among more Orthodox Jews, Torah literally refers to the individual letters written on kosher parchment as dictated from heaven and perfectly recorded by Moses on Mount Sinai. These writings of Moses have been meticulously preserved by the Jewish scribes (soferim) over the millennia in the form of a Sefer Torah, or Torah scroll, which is considered to be the most sacred object of Jewish life.
"Note"! that Torah in this sense not only refers to the physical parchments that comprise a Sefer Torah, but to the various mitzvot, chukkim, and mishpatim established at the covenant of Sinai, with the Ten Commandments as its underlying foundation.
Torah as the Written and Oral Law. A more traditional Jewish understanding of the word Torah refers to the written Torah scroll of Moses and the Oral torah, both of which are believed to be revealed to Moses on Sinai. The Written Torah (called Torah shebikhtav) is comprised of the Five Books of Moses; the Oral Torah (called Torah sheba'peh) was later codified as the Mishna and Talmud, and provides authorized commentary to the Written Torah. Often the words of the prophets (nevi'im) and writings (ketuvim) are included in this usage of the word Torah (though they are given a subordinate position in terms of revelatory authority). In this usage, then, Torah refers to what would be commonly called the Old Testament Scriptures (i.e., the Tanakh) as well as the Mishna/Talmud.
Torah as Jewish Halakhah and Custom. The previous definition of Torah does not really do justice to the traditional (and Rabbinical) view, which considers Torah to be not only the written and oral Torahs, the nevi'im and ketuvim (i.e., Nakh), but also the entire corpus of Jewish religious literature as expressed as the majority view of the rabbis and their legal decisions since the time of the destruction of the Second Temple (the period of the Sanhedrin and zugot) to the present. Collectively this view of Torah may be referred to as halakhah, a line of transmission from God to Moses (in the Torah), through the prophets, through the men of the Great Assembly, the Talmudic Rabbis and the Talmudic literature, down to several medieval codes and their responsa. In short, halakhah refers to the collective corpus of Jewish rabbinic law, custom and tradition. Halakhah also includes the rabbinical idea of gezerah - putting a "fence" around the commandments of the written Torah to ensure compliance with the mitzvot.
Interestingly enough, Jewish tradition seems to go two ways with this idea of Torah as halakhah. On the one hand, it tends to enumerate the various commandments of the Scriptures and engages in various halakhic (legal) discussions regarding the meaning and application of case law, and on the other hand it tends to distill the various commandments to more general principles that are fewer and fewer in number. For example, in Makkot 23b-24a the discussion goes from an enumeration of the 613 commandments identified in the Torah, to David's reduction of the number to 11 Psalm 15, to Isaiah's reduction of the number to six Isaiah 33:15-16; to Micah's reduction to three Micah 6:8 to Isaiah's further reduction to two Isaiah 56:1 to the one essential commandment by Habakuk ("But the righteous shall live by his faith" - Habakuk 2:4. It is enlightening to see how Rabbi Sha'ul (Paul) likewise distilled the various mitzvot to this same principle of faith Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:38.
Torah as Divine Instruction. The word Torah comes from the root word (yod-resh-hey) meaning "to shoot an arrow" or "to hit the mark.
In its noun form, the word basically means the "direction" or "instruction" of mankind regarding the revelation of God's will. Understood in this most general way, Torah obviously predates the giving of the Sinatic law to Israel, as the following examples demonstrate.
• Adam and Eve were instructed that there was only one God whom they were to obey in covenant relationship Gen 2:16-17. This is essentially the first commandment ("I am the LORD your God.")
• After their sin (which was essentially a violation of the second commandment, "you shall have no other gods beside me"), Adam and Eve were graciously given the promise of redemption Gen 3:15 and the law of blood sacrifice Gen 3:21.
• Both Cain and Abel brought offerings to the LORD, but Abel's was regarded as a right (i.e., blood) sacrifice whereas Cain's was rejected Gen 4:3-7.
• After murdering his brother, Cain was given the sixth commandment: "Thou shalt not kill" Gen 4:10-16.
• Enoch was such a godly man that he "was not" in his end. How is it that one man is godly and another is not if there is no instruction from the LORD?
• Seth and his son Enosh began to call upon the Name of the Lord Gen 4:26, and their descendant Noah "walked with God" Gen 6:9.
• The Great Flood was a judgment from the LORD against worldwide apostasy and chronic idolatry Gen 7.
• Noah offered sacrifices to the LORD and distinguished between the "clean" and the "unclean" animals Gen 7:8-20. God furthermore gave him laws regarding not eating blood Gen 9:4 and instituted human governmental authority for capital offenses Gen 9:6-7.
• The idolatrous humanism of ancient Bavel was judged by the LORD Gen 11
• The covenant God made with Abraham was unilateral in the sense that only God participated in the covenant ritual Gen 15:9-21; Abraham's response of faith was counted to him as tzedakah (righteousness).
• Of Abraham it is written that "he obeyed (shema) my voice and kept (shamar) my charge, my commandments (mitzvot), my statutes (chukkim), and my laws (torah) Genesis 26:5
• Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all offered acceptable sacrifices to the LORD, thus implying an understanding of the laws of sacrifice.
• Moses obeyed the commandments of the LORD and went into Egypt to deliver the Israelites from bondage before he was given the lawcode on Mount Sinai.
In this most general sense of the term, then, Torah can be understood as simply as instruction about how to live rightly before God and with men. Presupposed in this definition is the establishment of a covenant between God and mankind wherein the scope of what constitutes Torah (i.e., the terms of the agreement) may be understood.
In this regard, the eight covenants revealed in Scripture (the Edenic, the Adamic, the Noahic, the Abrahamic, the Palestinian, the Mosaic, the Davidic, and the New Covenant) each present a different (though not mutually exclusive) set of laws regarding how to be rightly related to God. Moreover each of the covenants is ultimately predicated upon the promise of the coming Seed who would remove the kelalah (curse) upon mankind and restore the children of man back to God.