The Case For Torah

Arguments For Adopting Torah Practice.

We spend a lot of time answering common arguments against Torah observance, correcting common misconceptions and defending our position generally against the vitriol we get from many Christians. However, in the midst of all this we often do not spend enough time on offense. There is a plethora of reasons to begin a Torah observant lifestyle, but we rarely talk about them. In this article I want to take a small step into the offense for a change.

This is by no means meant to be an exhaustive list of arguments in favor of Christians observing Torah, but I hope for this to be a stepping stone towards helping people understand why we Practice Torah. We have spent plenty of time proving that the New Testament writings are not against Torah practice, but this approach alone only gives reason to “get Christians off your back” about it. It fails to give reason to them to help them understand in a positive way why you choose to live according Torah, and why you think they too might benefit from some Torah in their own life.

I must warn Christians here, because this is an offense style argument, you may be inclined to feel offended or attacked. It is not my intention to do so, this is just the natural output of going on the offense. (They say you have to crack a few eggs to make an omelet) However that being said, since Christians usually have no regard for Torah observer’s feelings when attacking them, (in many cases feeling free to directly insult us) I too feel no obligation to soften the language. I’ll simply speak the truth, no matter how offensive it may come off.

So with that disclaimer out of the way, here are my top 5 reasons for Christians to practice Torah, in no particular order:

Discipleship

The very definition of being a disciple would imply Torah Practice. Allow me to explain.

Historically, and especially in Judaism (which is the religion Jesus and his disciples practiced) discipleship was not at all how we might think of it today. In Jesus day being a disciple was quite the responsibility which came with big expectations.

In the first century, almost nobody owned a Bible. A Torah scroll is incredibly expensive! Today a torah scroll can cost as much as $80,000. Scrolls require a master scribe to write it, a skill which was acquired from years of training and study. The amount of ink alone is very expensive, much less all the lambskins needed to make just one scroll. A synagogue would be lucky to have one or two in their Ark, and only the incredibly wealthy could afford to purchase one for themselves.

All this to say, there was no “go and read it for yourselves” in the ancient world (assuming you could even read and write to begin with). This is where the Rabbis come in.

Rabbi is just the Hebrew word for “teacher” as many of you may already know, but the role of a rabbi was more than just an educator you would see once a week for a sermon. In the ancient world, a rabbi was literally your ONLY connection to the Bible. As a layperson, if you wanted to learn the Bible and grow closer to G-d, the only way to do this was to attach yourself to a rabbi.

The rabbis of the ancient world were the ones who devoted their whole life to being a conduit by which you could reach G-d. They did this by memorizing the whole Torah and also memorizing all the passed down interpretations and details that came with it (commonly called the Oral Torah). They were in effect, lawyers also, meant to help the laypersons facing an issue of the law. Because of this too they needed to be familiar with case law. All this just so they can teach the scriptures to people when they left the comfort of the academies.

From the perspective of the layperson, the rabbis are (and I choose these words on purpose) a living breathing Torah scroll and the word of G-d in all its facets. His very words are, as far as you can tell, the word of G-d at some capacity. Either literally as he would cite passages from Torah in his teaching, or interpretively, as he would expound on the word of G-d with his training, likely reciting interpretations from memory from the rabbis that came before him, going all the way back to Moses himself.

Basically if a rabbi spoke, it was either the word of G-d or the words of Moses, and at that level, really what difference does it make. Moses and the Sanhedrin are given the authority by G-d to make rulings on the matters of Torah. The rabbis job is to be part of the line that preserves any of the sayings of Moses and subsequently any of the sayings of the rabbis that came after Moses who ruled in laws later that Moses did not address.

For most Jewish laymen simply listening to what they say is enough. Do as they tell you, because they are, as far as you know, teaching the very words of G-d or Moses. Sound familiar?

2 “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, 3 so do and observe whatever they tell you,..." -Matthew 23:2-3a. (ESV)

What makes a rabbi this way? By being a disciple. The only way to become a rabbi is to become fully devoted to learning about G-d and his word. This means attaching yourself to a rabbi and never leaving his side, hanging onto every single word that he speaks, and committing them to memory. A person who does this is a disciple.

Disciples in the ancient world also went farther than just word memorization, the would mimic the very actions of the rabbi, assuming that his every action and deed was because G-d ordained it so. Disciples would even go as far as walking with a limp if their master had one, or speak with a lisp if their master had one. This rabbi was imitating G-d and therefore you will imitate him so as to imitate G-d! This is discipleship.

The end result of being a disciple was to become a rabbi, and then take on disciples of your own and pass down everything to them also. Thus you are part of a long chain of rabbis who have maintained and preserved everything since Moses day and more. Every scripture and every practice, every interpretation or bit of contextual information needed to understand the scriptures.

Being a disciple is far more than simply being a devoted Jew, making sure to do everything correctly as you should, and attending the weekly lesson at synagogue, praying three times daily and loving G-d with all your heart. Being a disciple meant going way above and beyond this in order to be part of the system that works tirelessly to preserve every aspect of it for generations to come, no matter how small or big.

It is with all of this information in mind that I bring forth the great commission, as is so well known in Christian circles. Matthew 28:19

"Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations..." (HCSB)

The very essence of being a disciple of Jesus would mean, in context, practicing the very things Jesus himself and his disciples did. And that thing is Torah. Which brings me neatly to my next point.

Imitation

The highest form of worship to a Jew is “the imitation of G-d.” The rabbis worked tirelessly to be imitators of G-d so that the laypeople can look to them to know how to live, so that they too can be imitators of G-d. This is their worship.

The New Testament reflects the idea exactly. Paul (a Pharisee btw, so VERY Torah observant) said himself to the Corinthians

"Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Messiah."   -1 Corinth 11:1(TLV)

And again he said:

"Therefore be imitators of God, as dearly loved children;" -Ephesians 5:1(TLV)

G-d himself commissioned this idea when he spoke:

"Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy." -Lev 19:2(HCSB)

A phrase which G-d uses several times throughout the Torah. Peter himself also in his epistle called upon this same verse in 1 Peter 1:16. In the Jewish mind this has been interpreted to mean “do what I do, because I do them, so be like me as my representatives to the earth.”

The underlying logic is this: People should be able to look at you and be looking directly at a mirror image of G-d, they should see you and see G-d.

Whether you’re Trinitarian or not, this should bring some new light to when Jesus said “if you have seen me you have seen the father.” (John 14:9). To a Jew this would simply mean that Jesus is saying he imitates G-d. To a Jew this means he’s perfectly Torah observant.

Paul would say “if you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Messiah” (based on 1 Corinth 11:1) and this would be perfectly in line with Jewish thought. As I previously covered already, imitation is as such in discipleship that to look at any disciple of any teacher a person can easily tell exactly who’s student they are.

The word “Christian” in fact was supposed to be used like this. It means “little Christ” in greek. The word originally would be used of those who “looked like a little Christ” in their life. That just by looking at them you could tell who’s disciple or student they were.

Judaism has today carried on this tradition still. If you know what you’re looking for, you can immediately tell which sect of Orthodox Judaism that person belongs to. They wear particular hat styles, tzitzit (tassels) tied particularly, the words they use and their dialect even, the clothes they wear, how they wear them etc. What to some appears as though everybody looks the same in the crowd of black hat black coat wearing orthodox Jews, to other Jews they may see wide variety of Judaisms. The Jews who follow Menachem Mendel Schneerson LOOK like the Rebbe, talk like the Rebbe, you can easily spot them in the crowd!

Today the word Christian has lost nearly all of its meaning, and no longer at all even remotely reflects its intended meaning from the ancient world. If a Christian today were to travel back in time to the ancient world, nobody would ever call him Christian, no matter how much he tried to explain to others that he was. They would tell him “you look nothing like the guy!” That is to say, Christians today do not practice their religion like Jesus did. They look nothing like him.

And this reason is actually one of the biggest and most primary reasons why Jews today take issue with claiming Jesus is Messiah. The messiah of Judaism would NEVER teach his followers to abandon the Torah! Jews take a look at Christians and see nothing but pure Torahlessness, and conclude then that he’s a false messiah. The very fact the Christians today look nothing like the guy is positive evidence against Jesus’ legitimacy.

This simple fact alone should give Christians pause. Their own behavior (or really a lack thereof) is acting against the person they call “Messiah.” And it may shock many Christians to find out that most Jews take no issue with Jesus and his teachings, so why don’t they believe in him? Well it’s a couple of things, the Trinity being one of them, but also if his followers are anything to go by, Jesus was far from messianic material.

In fact I’m willing to say that Chassidic Jews today look far more like Jesus than his current “disciples” do. That fact alone should be embarrassing for Christians. The people from which Jesus came, his fellow brothers, Jews, look at you, the “Christian”, and they cant recognize him at all.

You’re supposed to be an agent of Messiah, a representative, but instead, right now, you stand against him to his own people. You’re supposed to be set apart from the world, like Jews are, but instead you look just like the rest of the world. Christians have drastically failed to imitate the Messiah in almost every way.

Defining Sin

Whether we like it or not, whether we agree with it or not, or whether we feel like its not really a sin or not, any violation of the Torah is be definition “sin.”

We do not get to decide what sin is, we are not G-d after all. G-d gets to be the one to do that, and G-d made it clear that “sin” is a violation of the Torah. Just about every writer in the New Testament agrees as well.

"Everyone who commits sin also breaks the law; sin is the breaking of law." -1John 3:4 (HCSB)

"What should we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin if it were not for the law." -Romans 7:7 (HCSB)

Most interestingly, almost all Christians agree with this point. Sin is defined as the breaking of Torah. But many Christians will then “negotiate with” the biblical text in order to justify being allowed to break the Torah laws (except the moral ones of course) with excuses like “Jesus fulfilled the law” and “we aren’t under the law anymore we are under the new covenant law” or something to that affect.

As we said at the beginning of this article, we have already addressed many of these arguments in the form of apologetics before, so I do not intend to go over anti-torah positions here. So instead here we will take the offense approach by illustrating that the definition of sin does not change, and that Christians are called to try to be as sinless as possible.

The Law does not divide itself into the commonly used categories of “civil, moral, and ceremonial” laws, this is a sort of “oral tradition” invented by Christians. The Torah in Judaism is only divided into two categories: negative and positive commands. Simply put, a negative command is a “don’t” law and a positive command is a “do” law. Sin is a violation of the Torah whether you do something you are not supposed to do (violate a negative commandment) or you fail to do what you are supposed to do (violate a positive commandment) as James, the brother of Jesus put it,

Therefore whoever knows the right thing to do and does not do it—for him it is sin. -James 4:7 (TLV)

This is sometimes referred to as the “sin of omission.”

Part of the problem is the Christian understanding of sin itself. To a Christian, sin is a moral imperative. This is how and why things that are never listed as “sins” end up becoming sins to the Christian mindset, such as drinking, cussing and smoking. Sin to a Christian can only mean something that is morally abhorrent. Sometimes, even Christians fall into the trap of using modern culture as a reference to morality, making certain moral claims entirely subjective.

Of course moral objectivity is a biblical position, but “sin” is not a moral issue absolutely. The word for “sin” in Hebrew is “Chet” from the root word “chatah” which is an archery term that means “to miss the mark” or “fall short.” Conversely the word “Torah” is the Hebrew word for “instruction” (not “law” as is the common misunderstanding) and the root word is “yarah” meaning “to shoot” or “throw” something, as well as to “direct” something. In other words, this word is usually used when you’re aiming at a target. This word also happens to be an archery term.

I’ll put it another way: The Torah (instruction) is the teacher (instructor) which points to the target (yarah) by instructing you how to hit the target. The Torah is showing you the goal/target, and instructing you how to hit it, so to sin is to miss the target. The Target is the Torah.

Paul himself used the image of an instructor to describe the Torah by calling it a “pedagogue” in Galatians 3:24

Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. (KJV)

Paul used the word translated as “schoolmaster” which more accurately means “guide” or “guardian” or “tutor” emphasizing the Torah as being a type of trustworthy instructor. In context, the idea Paul is trying to convey here is that the Torah is the instructor which was meant to guide us to the Messiah, by showing us and teaching us what the Messiah would look like so that we would recognize him when the time came.

Think of it this way: The driving instructor is meant to teach you how to drive properly, so that when the time comes to test for your license you will pass and have a license to drive legally. The driving instructor is the Pedagogue, and the license is Jesus. Now that you have your license, do you then have no need for the driving instructors teachings? Or do you continue to drive legally as per the teachings you received?

The Torah is the pedagogue teaching us what the goal is, not just for ourselves in how to live, but also teaching us how to find the Messiah. As Paul also put it this way in Romans 10:4

For Messiah is the goal of the Torah as a means to righteousness for everyone who keeps trusting. -(TLV)

Without spending too much time on it, the word “telos” in Romans 10:4 is often translated as “end” by Christians, but this only reveals their bias. Telos can mean “end” but only inasmuch as it means “goal” and not “finished.” Telos is where we get the word “telephone” because the sound is coming from “the other end.”

So the Torah shows us by instruction what the goal is, and to miss that goal is “sin.” The Messiah is that goal too as he was a living breathing Torah in the flesh, the word of G-d (Torah) dwelling among us. So if we have any doubt as to what proper Torah looks like, Paul argues that you need only look to Jesus to see.

I’ll reiterate again that this is why Paul said things like “imitate me as I imitate Messiah” and to be “imitators of G-d.” Paul understood and wanted his audience to also understand that we are supposed to “aim” for the “target” that is the Torah, and to look towards Jesus (and himself sometimes too) as the model example. The Torah is your guide, Jesus is your guide, and they are both teaching the same lessons.

To circle back to defining sin; This means whether we like it or not, and whether we feel like this is the case or not, Jesus and the Torah are the “mark” and every time we fail to do exactly as the Torah commands or live exactly how Jesus lived (which is to keep Torah), we miss that mark and that is “sin.”

“Now we know that we have come to know Him by this—if we keep His commandments. 4 The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God is truly made perfect. We know that we are in Him by this— 6 whoever claims to abide in Him must walk just as He walked.” -1 John 2:3-6 (TLV)

Now we all know that it is impossible for any of us to be sinless our whole lives, this is true. However this does not give us a license to keep on sinning. In fact the Bible teaches that it is possible to live without sinning eventually, that over time as you learn and grow, one can almost completely eradicate all sin from his lifestyle moving forward.

“No one who abides in Him keeps on sinning; no one who sins has seen Him or known Him. 7 Children, let no one mislead you! The one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as Yeshua is righteous.” 1 John 3:6-7 -(TLV)

We are not saying that you have to be sinless, but we are arguing that when you become a believer, you are expected to “sin less.” With the goal of trying to live in imitation of the Messiah himself. If this is not your goal, well then according to scripture, you are not a “Christian” (Christ follower), much less a disciple. You are merely what I call a “Christ admirer.”

Don’t get me wrong, everybody learns and grows at drastically different rates and I am by no means saying that one has to be a Torah observer overnight or in short time to be “right with G-d.” You are justified by faith. Torah observance is not a salvation issue, it is a sanctification issue, a lifestyle issue. We are simply arguing that the intended lifestyle of the Christian was meant to be one that directly reflects the actual life of Jesus in every way.

Unfortunately, as stated above in “Imitation,” Christianity has come so far away from it’s intended image that if Jesus was asleep this entire time and came back today neither he nor any of the disciples or Paul would at all recognize it. And in fact I would dare say that they would mistake the Chassidic Orthodox Jewish movement as being their own, since they most resemble what the Christian sect was supposed to look like. This fact alone should bother Christians.

Christians today are, whether they like it or not, willingly engaging in “sin” by failing to live like Jesus lived, eat what Jesus ate, keep the Holidays Jesus kept and in the way he kept them (Chiefly the Sabbath day).

Remember, we aren’t saying that “sin” is the same thing as “moral abhorrence” in the way most Christians understand the word. Not all sin is a morally abhorrent thing. (Though one could argue that disobeying G-d is a big moral issue). “Sin” just means to fall short and miss the mark. Sometimes that’s a moral problem, other times it just means you did not live up the standard of imitating Jesus.

And again, “falling short” is not necessarily a “bad” thing. Nobody lives up to a high standard overnight. Most of us will never get to that point, but the idea is to keep moving forward, however slow that movement may be. You will fall short every day, but we should be “falling short” less and less as time goes on, and looking more and more like the image of Yeshua.

Not because you’re trying to earn your salvation or better favor with G-d, but entirely motivated by love for G-d, which is the most important commandment and should be the motivation behind every other commandment.

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” -Matthew 22:36-40 (ESV)

Every commandment is a chance to connect with G-d. Instead of seeing a list of laws and obligations, as something that you have to do, the Torah is something that you get to do! G-d gave you ways to grow closer to him. If you view these as mere obligations and micromanaging burdens, then you are not acting in a spiritual way. The Torah is spiritual, (Romans 7:14) and we have the unique privilege to do it!

Conversely, every commandment left unfulfilled is a chance to connect to G-d lost. A Missed opportunity. “Sin.”

Enriching Faith/Understanding

Which Leads me nicely into the next segment of why Christians should be Torah observant: The absolutely unmatched positive effect it has on your faith walk.

Living like Jesus and the apostles did will deepen your understanding of the Messiah like no other. The Torah lifestyle is replete with messianic shadows. Your faith suddenly becomes this very tangible thing. No longer is faith an abstract idea of intellectual ascent. Faith is something you’re engaged in and actively doing. (Which is the Hebrew meaning of faith, by the way. “Faith” is a verb in Hebrew).

Additionally your understanding of the New Testament writings will be eye opening. You will begin to see things you never noticed before, simply because you have participated in the lifestyle, now certain details of the stories are meaningful and make sense.

I’ll use my favorite example from the Shema (the primary Jewish statement of faith found in Deut 6:4 which Jesus quoted word for word in Mark 12:29). In Judaism they take the commandment to “write these words upon your door” literally. And so they write the entire Shema on a scroll and place it inside of a small tube like vessel called a “mezuza” (Hebrew for “door post”) and they nail that vessel to the inside of their door posts on all the entrances to their house. (Some even do it on every single door post in the house).

Think about it. The word of G-d, contained in a vessel and nailed to a piece of wood outside on the gates of your house and your doors. Remind you of anybody? I should note here that Jerusalem is known as “the gates of heaven” colloquially. This little command is a shadow of Yeshua, who was the word of G-d contained in a vessel and nailed outside the gates of Heaven. Yeshua is a heavenly Mezuzah! How beautiful.

I think about this every time I pass by my mezuzah daily. Jewish tradition is to touch the mezuzah and kiss your hand as you walk by it, and I use this as an opportunity to remind myself of the work of Yeshua our Messiah.

The Shema also says "In your mouth and in your heart that you may do it." As it happens, this is the precise order directly at play with the mezuzah. First one connects to it with their mouth, saying the Shema daily. This corresponds also to "confess with your mouth Yeshua is Lord". The connection from the mouth not only comes from but intensifies and invigorates what is in the heart. In fact, the connection via mouth comes by a gesture that comes from the heart being a kiss. This also corresponds to "believe in your heart that G-d raised him from the dead". What is in the heart should result in behavioral change; action. The connection from the mouth is solidified with the hand which makes contact with the mezuzah "that you may do it". The way we make physical contact with Yeshua is twofold. One is by this symbolic gesture with the mezuzah, but more precisely it is to do his actions, to imitate him.

Passover, Sabbath, Tzitzit, etc. They all point to Yeshua in some way and it really isn’t till you begin to live it that you begin to see it. Every aspect of Torah points to Yeshua. Yes even the funny tassels (tzitzit).

I could spend pages upon pages elaborating but for the sake of brevity here I will not. I just want to make the point that when you practice Torah, it makes concrete your faith and understanding in G-d and Messiah. No longer is faith and belief this abstract concept, it’s something you can taste, feel, do, smell, and see!

WDJD

In the end the biggest reason to live a life of Torah is the simple phrase that every Christian should be more than familiar with: “what would Jesus do?” (WWJD)

This question was designed to help the Christian make decisions in his daily life or in perhaps a complex situation in which there is no clear answer. There is nothing wrong with this usage, but I would like to expand its usage to the simple and most obvious answer, if you haven’t figured it out by now already.

“What would Jesus do?” Well to answer that often time we must look back at what did Jesus do. Jesus kept the Torah. It’s that simple. I propose that the better question is “What did Jesus do?” (WDJD). I do this based on a verse we have already used here in the above.

“whoever claims to abide in Him must walk just as He walked.” -1 John 2:3-6 (TLV)

Put another way to fit a more modern vernacular: Whoever claims to be a Christian should do the things Jesus did.

The word walk here is especially potent in the Jewish mind/context. “To walk” is how one describes his Torah practice. The Hebrew word is halach and its the basis of the word used to describe how one is supposed to practice Torah. These were eventually made into legal rulings called “halacha.” This kind of language is so closely tied to Torah practice that the initial implication from a Jewish perspective on this verse is “to do Torah like how Jesus did Torah.”

The language of "walking" (halach) is in constant use throughout the scriptures to describe the life of the believer. To "walk with the L-rd your G-d" and to "walk in His ways" are common phrases littered through the entire text. The language of walking as a means to refer to Torah is such that it is used of all aspects of Torah practice, even to fall away from it. In Judaism one who has "backslidden" is referred to as "off the derech" or "off the path/the way." That is to say they are no longer "walking" (doing Torah) in the right way if at all. Remember also that Yeshua described himself as "the way" and the early believers described their sect of Judaism as "the way" because they strongly believed that Messiah's "halacha" (his "walk") was on the correct "path/way." This is Torah practicing language!

Different rabbis during this time did have different halachot (plural of halacha) with regards to practicing Torah. Not every commandment tells you exactly how to perform the command and so this lead to some slight differences in interpretation of their practical application. Often times these halachic differences were benign and only illustrated or signaled to others exactly who it was that you follow as your teacher. Other times some halachic differences were very drastic leading to an entirely different sect division, such as the Essenes and the Sadducees, all of whom disagreed with the halacha of the Pharisees. (It’s worth noting here that the Pharisees were considered to be the most lenient of the three listed here, contrary to popular belief)

So for John here to say “walk just as he walked” is an emphatic and resounding affirmation to practice Torah according to the exact way that Jesus himself did it! This may not stand out to a Christian, but any Jew reading this would know immediately that John is speaking about Jesus’ halacha. Walking just as a rabbi walked is the definition of a disciple, as we previously illustrated.

I'll end with this question: How can many truly call themselves "Christians" when their daily lives reflect so little of what Jesus did? They don't resemble Him, they don't practice the things He did that clearly marked His disciples, and often, they outright refuse to walk as He walked in a practical sense.