The Heart of the Law
And the Law of the Gospel...

Did Jesus want us to become followers of Moses?  Is the gospel message really a sort of "reformation" of Temple Judaism?  Did Jesus come to renew the covenant made with Israel at Sinai or did he come to give us a new covenant that would somehow supersede it? In this brief article, I look at some statements that indicate both continuity and discontinuity of the Law in the teaching of Jesus.

Olam HaTorah
Justice and Mercy will kiss

Torah Observant Redux
Should Christians Follow the Law of Moses?

Since Jesus lived as an observant Jew, and since we're called to follow Him, shouldn't we live as observant Jews as well? This question is deceptively simple yet enormously complex, as most of you know. If it resolves to the question as to whether we should study and obey the Torah as Jesus did, then the answer is yes, though of course we must be clear exactly what this means, especially in light of the collective teaching of the New Testament.

Taryag Mitzvot -
The 613 Commandments in Torah...

The Hebrew word mitzvah means "divine commandment" (mitzvot is the plural form). Although the word is sometimes used broadly to refer to Rabbinic (Talmudic) law, in its strictest sense the term refers to an explicit commandment given by the LORD in the Torah. In this article, I provide Rambam's list of 613 commandments, and offer New Testament correlations, when applicable.

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Many traditional Christian commentators have used the allegory of Hagar and Sarah (Gal. 4:21-31) as a means of rejecting the importance of Torah study for the Christian. It is clear, however, that Paul uses a common midrashic technique to argue that the idea of salvation by the grace of God is in perfect harmony with the writings of Moses.

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Torah Sheb'al Peh
The Oral Torah and Jewish Tradition

During Shavuot we revisit the miracle of the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, but you might be surprised to know that Rabbinical Judaism believes that two Torahs were given to Moses at that time -- the written Torah and the oral Torah (in Kabbalistic traditions there is even a third or "hidden" Torah as revealed in the Zohar). This brief essay considers some aspects of the oral Torah and its significance to us as followers of Jesus.

A Taste of Pirke Avot
Finding Wisdom in the Mishnah

Since I recently wrote about the role of oral Torah in Jewish thinking, I thought it would be worthwhile to look at Pirke Avot ("The Chapters of the Fathers"), a popular collection of ethical maxims found in the Mishnah (i.e., the core text of the Talmud). Though it is found in part of Seder Nezikin (a section of the Mishnah concerned with legal liabilities), some scholars believe Pirke Avot originally was intended to be a summary of the entire Mishnah itself.

Spiritual Acoustics
Avoiding Esoteric Nonsense...

Over the past few years there has been an increased interest in the Proto-Canaanite cuneiform that is surmised to predate and underlie ancient Hebrew. Is there any value in studying these ancient Proto-Canaanite symbols? Can we find "deep" or "esoteric" meaning in the Hebrew Scriptures by studying the Hebrew pictographs? In this brief article, I survey some of the linguistic and exegetical issues....

Some people tend to find nuanced distinctions abhorrent and seek "either/or" answers to complex questions. Unfortunately, it's just not that simple when it comes to understanding the role of Torah in our lives as Messianic Jews and Christians...

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So you want to be
Torah Observant?  

Torah Awareness
Why Christians Should Study Torah

All-to-human idealizations, whether they take the religious or humanistic form, are nothing but trash talk when it comes to understanding a divine love that reaches down in compassion to heal and save those who are shattered by life in its concreteness.

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The Jewish New Testament
And the meaning of "under the law"

Recently someone asked me about Dr. David Stern's Jewish New Testament translation (which was later appended to the older JPS translation of the Tanakh (1917) to form the "Complete Jewish Bible"). Is it a good translation?  Do I recommend it?

Shiv'im Panim laTorah: "The Torah has 70 faces." This phrase is used to indicate different "levels" of interpretation for each pasuk (verse) of the Torah. This brief article explains the meaning behind the dictum and an overview of basic Jewish exegesis.

An article written by Dean VanDruff concerning the popular drift among some Christians to embrace legalistic "Torah Observance" as a supposed step of spiritual maturity. Worth your consideration, especially if you are a Messianic.

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Should a Christian
be Circumcised?

If you're a follower of the Messiah Yeshua struggling with the question of whether to become "Torah observant," it is essential for you to seriously consider some of the contrasts between the "old" and "new" covenants as described in the New Testament. By doing so, you will better appreciate the life-transforming differences between the Torah of the New Covenant (given at Zion) with the Torah of the older Covenant (given at Sinai).

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