Tag Archives: The Torah

The Blessing and Glory of the Torah—Readjusting Prejudicial Mindsets

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Exodus 20:1, And Elohim spoke all these words, saying.

The following is an excerpt from a larger article on the subject of the Torah, which can be found at http://hoshanarabbah.org/pdfs/torahprimer.pdf.

What Is the Essence of the Torah?

Let us answer the question by posing a question. Why do you call yourself a believer, Messianic, Christian or otherwise? Why do you believe that the Scriptures are the Word of Elohim? Why are you currently reading this teaching article? Why were you created and what is your purpose in life? What is the meaning of life and what is your future destiny? Is there a Supreme Being in this universe and what does he expect from you, as a human, if anything at all? Does he care about you personally, and if he does, does he have anything to say to you about life – and about your life, in particular?

Torah reading in a synagogue with a hand holding a silver pointer

Very few humans alive, or who have ever lived, have answers to these questions. Most humans simply exist. Few actually live with purpose and meaning to their lives.

But you are privileged, for you are about to learn the answers to which so-called philosophers, sages and religious luminaries have been seeking since man has existed. Tidal waves of religion, philosophy and politics have swept across this planet carrying away peoples and nations promising to answer men’s most perplexing questions. Though volumes have been written, though countless libraries are full of millions of books, scrolls, papyri, clay tablets, documents and computer files, the answer to it all is surprisingly simple. In fact one word: It is T-O-R-A-H! The Torah of YHVH-Elohim is the Light of Truth from the Originator of Light and Truth. And it has been miraculously transmitted from heaven to earth, from the infinite to the finite, from the spiritual, boundless, eternal, omniscient and all wise mind of Elohim to the limited confines of physical existence on earth. Like a beam of Light shot through space from the great beyond, penetrating the darkness of human existence that Light became the written Torah, the Word of Elohim in the form of a Torah scroll written in Hebrew script of the set-apart Hebrew tongue (lashon kadosh) thousands of years ago.

The Torah-Word of Elohim forms the very bedrock foundation of the Scriptures. The spiritual building of the Prophets, Writings and Testimony of Yeshua rests squarely and securely upon the foundation of the Torah without which the rest would instantly crumble into nonexistence. Elohim was so determined to make that foundation so rock solid that he literally dictated it audibly letter-for-letter and word-for-word to the man Moses, who like a stenographer, wrote down exactly what he heard. This become the Books of the Law of Moses, or the Torah of YHVH Elohim. None of the Prophets or Writings in the Tanakh, though the inspired and infallible Word of Elohim, were so transmitted. The only words in all of Scripture that approach this level of purity and perfection are those words of the Written Word or Torah made flesh; namely, the words of Yeshua as recorded in the Gospels of the Testimony of Yeshua.

The level of one’s understanding of  the written Torah is the key to having a deep and abiding understanding of Yeshua, the Living Torah, and ultimately of having a blessed, a right, eternal relationship with our Father in heaven. ­Having a deep walking-it-out understanding of the Torah will also determine one’s level of rewards in the Kingdom of Elohim — whether YHVH bestows the title of The Least or The Greatest upon one (Matt. 5:19).

Below are quoted some deeply held, age-old convictions that the Jewish sages have lived and died for regarding the Torah. As you read them, please keep in the forefront of your thoughts the concept of Yeshua, the Living Torah-Word of Elohim, who was made flesh Continue reading →

 

New Video: The Torah Revealed from Genesis to Revelation

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Do you have a biblical paradigm based on doctrines and traditons of men, or on the light of biblical Torah-truth? The Torah-law and Yeshua, the Living Torah-Word of Elohim, are indivisible. One isn’t opposed to the other as the mainstream church would have you believe. It’s time to remove the spiritual sunglasses that filter out the light of Torah-truth as revealed from Genesis to Revelation.

 

The Torah revisited

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Defining the Word Torah

A comprehensive grasp of Torah, both with the head and heart, is essential if one is to not only understand the heart of YHVH Elohim, but to understand the Hebrew roots of the Christian faith, for a love and comprehension of Torah is to grasp with the heart and mind the very fabric, foundation and bedrock of the Testimony of Yeshua (New Testament). But what does the word Torah actually mean? Hebrew is a rich language. A single word can have a multiplicity of connotations at all levels of human comprehension, experience. Spiritual implications beyond the ken of human understanding can be found therein.

Moses 10 Cs 2

For nearly 2000 years since the time the Christian church departed from its Hebrew roots (in the early to mid second-century of the common era) the Hebrew word Torah (Strong’s H8451, TWOT 910b) has been translated in the writings of Christian theologians and in all of the most common English Bible’s as law. Is this an accurate translation of the Hebrew word Torah? Does it capture the true essence, heart and meaning of the word? This is an important question to answer.

If we were to ask you to technically define any English word you could avail yourself of a dictionary which should give you the precise meaning of that word. In any college level dictionary a word will have a primary meaning, Continue reading →

 

Paul the Pro-Torah Apostle

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Paul the apostle strongly upheld and defended the validity of the Torah as defining the path of righteous for the redeemed believer in numerous places in his writings (Rom 3:31; 7:7, 12, 14; 13:8–10; 1 Cor 7:19; 9:21; Gal 3:10; 6:2; 2 Tim 6:14; Tit 2:14). What’s more, he even claimed to follow the Torah himself (Acts 21:24; 24:14; 25:8; 28:17; 1 Cor 9:21).

The Torah

The Torah

Not only that, Paul claimed that he himself was NOT without the Torah of Elohim, but that he was actually “under the Torah toward Christ” (1 Cor 9:21). Yes, Paul was “under the Torah.” That’s what the Bible says! He wasn’t under the Torah by trying to earn his salvation through his good works. Neither was he under the penalty of the Torah that occurs when we sin by violating the Torah. Yeshua had washed his sins away and taken that penalty upon himself when he died at the cross. Rather, Paul was following the Torah through faith in Messiah, and through the power of the Holy Spirit living in him. The hard and stony heart of rebellion against the laws of Elohim had been cut away and he had been given a new heart to wholly love and obey YHVH.

To claim that Paul teaches the abrogation of the Torah-law given to Moses and the Israelites by YHVH Elohim is setting the Word of Elohim in opposition to itself and replacing the truth of the Bible with men’s traditions. This is sin, rebellion and secular humanism in its rawest form and is nothing more than a perpetuation of the lie of the serpent (the devil) when he questioned the Word of Elohim at the tree of knowledge in the garden and he asked man the question, “Hath God indeed said…?” (Gen 3:1). Ever since then, rebellious man has  been trying to do an end-run around the Torah-Word of Elohim. Paul describes this mentality to a tee in Romans 8:7–8,

Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

Anyone who claims that Paul came to unhinge Torah-obedience from the walk of the redeemed believer has sadly bought into the unbiblical and anti-Semetic theological lies and traditions of the church system, which are nothing more than traditions of men by which the word of Elohim has been made of none effect. This seems to be a recurring spiritual disease of religious institutionalism, for Yeshua accused the religious elite of his day of the same thing (Matthew 15:3–9 and Mark 7:7–9).

The religious folks of Yeshua’s day didn’t like his stinging rebukes in this regard any more than they do today. They first murdered him with their mouths, and then they murdered him physically instead of repenting of their sinful (Torahless, 1 John 3:4) ways. To be sure, murder with the mouth goes on today against those who stand for truth (see John 16:2).

At the present time, YHVH is calling his people out of spiritual and religious Babylonism (Rev 18:4), which contains a mixture of sublime Bible truth and toxic demonic doctrines of demons going back to the serpent in the garden. YHVH is preparing for Yeshua his Son a bride whose robes will be without the spot of sin (Torahless, 1 John 3:4), and who will be those who keep the commandments of Elohim and have the faith or testimony of Yeshua (Rev 12:17; 14:12). They are in love with Yeshua and they demonstrate this by keeping his Torah-commandments (John 14:15).

 

Psalm 119 — “O How Love I Thy Torah!”

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If you were to open your King James Bible (or any other similar Bible, e.g., NAS, NIV, NKJV, etc.) to the exact middle, where would you land? Somewhere in the Book of Psalms at or near Psalm 119. Actually, by chapters, either Psalm 117 or 118 is the exact center of the Bible—so Psalm 119 isn’t too far off.

Interestingly, Psalm 117 is the shortest chapter in the Bible with only two verses, while Psalm 119 is the longest. In this chapter, David exuberantly declares that all people everywhere should be praising YHVH because of his merciful kindness (or his grace) toward us, and for his truth (i.e., his Word or Torah, which is the biblical definition for truth, see Ps 119:142,151).

David playing a harp

The mercy of YHVH and having faith in him is the theme of the first part of Psalm 118. The latter half of the chapter goes on to teach about the salvation of YHVH, and many understand this to be a messianic prophecy pointing to Yeshua, our heaven-sent Savior and Redeemer, who is the Living Torah–Word (John 1:1,14).

Then we come to Psalm 119, which, for 176 verses divided into 22 sections (one for each of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet), extols the supreme and inimitable virtues of the Word of Elohim (i.e., the Torah). David treats the Torah as if he were a jeweler who, after discovering the world’s rarest, largest and most beautiful diamond, carefully and in awe scrutinizes its every facet and all of its unique qualities, and then expresses his unspeakable delight over its supreme virtues. Continue reading →

 

Torah Central (this is some deep stuff!)

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The Torah Is the Central Theme of the Bible — A Brief Overview

Torah is the dominant theme at the beginning, middle and end of the Scriptures.

In Genesis one, at the beginning of the Bible:

  • Gen 1:1, The Hebrew grammatical marker word consisting of an aleph and tav (the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet) are found twice in verse one, just before and after the word heaven. They are the fourth and seventh Hebrew words in this sentence. This is a prophetic reference to Yeshua, who is the Beginning and the End (the Alpha and Omega, Rev 1:8,11; 21:6,22:13), and it testifies to the fact that Yeshua would come from heaven in the fourth millennia and would come back to earth from heaven in the seventh millennia.
  • Gen 1:3, Light was the first creative act of Elohim. Light is a biblical metaphor for Torah/the Word of Elohim (Prov 6:23; Ps 119:105). Light pierced the darkness of evil. Darkness is a biblical metaphor for Torahlessness or all that which is of the world, the flesh and the devil and which is contrary to or in rebellion against the will and Word of Elohim (John 1:5; 3:16–21).
  • Gen 1:3–5, Light is mentioned five times here. This is referred to as the five points of light—a reference to the five books of the Torah (Gen through Deut), and to Yeshua, who was the light of the world before the sun was created on the fourth day in Gen 1:14. Yeshua, that same spiritual Torah-light, will replace the sun in the New Jerusalem (Rev 21:23; 22:5).
  • In Gen 1:3, we find the complete spelling of the word light (aleph, vav, resh), as opposed to a defective spelling minus the vav that the physical sun gives (see Gen 1:14, the first reference to light in that verse is spelled defectively). This points to the supreme and supernal Torah-light from heaven, which is Yeshua, the Torah-Word of Elohim that was made flesh and dwelt among men (John 1:1,14), and who was the spiritual Light of the world (John 1:4–5; 8:12).

Psalm 119 is the middle of the Bible. This is the Bible’s longest chapter and the highest praise of Torah to be found in all of the Scriptures

In the Book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, we find a number of references to the written Torah, and to Yeshua, the Living Torah.

  • Rev 22:14, Blessed are they who keep his [Torah] commandments.
  • Rev 21:23; 22:5 (also 2 Cor 4:6), The Torah-Sun. Yeshua is the Light of the World (John 1:4–5; 8:12) and the Sun of Righteousness (Mal 4:2) whose face shines like the sun (Rev 1:16).
  • Rev 22:3, There will be no more curse because there will be no more sin or Torahlessness (1 John 3:4, sin is the transgression of the Torah) in the world to come, which brings on the curses of the law (Deut 28:15–68), for the wages of sin is death (Ezek 18:4; Rom 6:23), which is the ultimate curse for violating Torah-laws,which are Elohim’s instructions in righteousness.
  • Rev 22:12, Yeshua is bringing spiritual rewards to his servants based on how faithful they were to obeying and teaching the Torah (cp. Matt 5:19).
  • Rev 22:13, The alpha and omega/aleph and tav—the beginning and end of the Torah-Word of Elohim—is another reference to the written Torah and to Yeshua, the Living Torah.
  • Rev 22:15 (also 21:7), Outside of the New Jerusalem are found sinners or the Torahless ones.
  • Rev 22:17, The Spirit and Bride say come. Who gets to come? Those who have prepared themselves for the marriage supper of the Lamb by putting on the robes of the righteous acts of Torah (see Rev 19:7–9, NIV and NAS). The Scriptures defines righteousness as obedience to the Torah (Ps 119:172).
  • Rev 22:18–19, Don’t add or subtract to or from the book. This echoes the warning Moses wrote at the end of the Torah (Deut 4:2; 12:32).
  • Rev 22:20–21, The Hebrew word amein is found twice in the last two verse of the Bible including the very last word of the Scriptures. Amein is a Hebrew word meaning “verily, truly” and derives from the Hebrew word emet/<nt meaning “truth.” Emet is comprised of aleph, mem and tav, which are the first, middle and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Therefore, emet is a word that signifies all that is revealed on the subject from aleph to tav comprising of all that can be written on it and no more can be added to it. This is a one-word picture of Torah which points to the highest head and source of all knowledge (as the paleo-Hebrew word pictures for each individual letter illustrates).