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Is Torah the bridge to God?
'Torah is the mysterious bridge which connects the
Jew and God, across which they interact and communicate, and by means of which
God fulfils His covenant with His people to sustain them and protect them.'
So says Rabbi Shraga Simmons in an article on the Aish website about
Shavuoth. He also tells us that:
Let us examine these statements.
Direct
revelation or divine mediation?
Did the entire Jewish nation 'directly
experience divine revelation'? Rabbi Simmons bases this claim on this verse
from Deuteronomy:
God spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you
were hearing the sound of words, but you were not seeing a form, only a sound.
He told you of His covenant, instructing you to keep the Ten Commandments, and
He inscribed them on two stone tablets. (Deut. 4:12-13)
However the
following verse shows that Moses was the mediator through whom God gave the
Torah to Israel:
And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you
statutes and judgments, that you might observe them in the land which you cross
over to possess. (Deut. 4.14)
This section of Deuteronomy retells the
events that took place 40 years earlier at Sinai for the benefit of the
generation that survived the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness and were
about to enter the Promised Land.
In the Exodus account of the Torah
actually being given to the generation that came out of Egypt, the emphasis is
on the separation of the people from Mount Sinai and from the encounter Moses
had with the Lord:
'Then the Lord came down on Mount Sinai, on the top
of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain. And the
Lord said to Moses, 'Go down and warn the people lest they break through to
gaze at the Lord and many of them perish. … But Moses said to the Lord,
'The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai: for you warned us saying, 'Set
bounds around the mountain and consecrate it.' (Exodus 19.20-23).
'Now
all the people witnessed the thunderings and the lightning flashes, the sound
of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they
trembled and stood afar off. Then they said to Moses, 'You speak with us and we
will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.' (Exodus 20.18-20).
This passage shows that the communication of God's commandments did
not come directly to Israel but through the chosen mediator, Moses.
What about the Oral Torah?
According to Rabbi Simmons the Oral Torah
preceded the Written Torah. He writes: 'The Oral Torah is not an interpretation
of the Written Torah. In fact, the Oral Torah preceded the Written Torah. When
the Jewish people stood at Mount Sinai 3,300 years ago, God communicated the
613 commandments, along with a detailed, practical explanation of how to fulfil
them. At that point in time, the teachings were entirely oral. It wasn't until
40 years later, just prior to Moses' death and the Jewish people's entering the
Land of Israel, that Moses wrote the scroll of the written Torah (known as the
Five Books of Moses) and gave it to the Jewish people.'
Yet in the
Bible we have no mention of the existence of an Oral Torah. Here is something
very strange. If God had given Moses both the written and the oral Torah surely
something would have been mentioned in the written Torah pointing to the
existence of this other teaching, which was necessary to understand the written
Torah. But what do we find? Not a word about it.
In fact we find
evidence to the contrary. It is hard to see how Rabbi Simmons can justify the
statement that the oral Torah preceded the written Torah when Exodus 24 says
'Moses wrote all the words of the Lord. … Then he took the Book of the
Covenant and read in hearing of the people.' (Ex. 24.4-7).
Moreover
the Book of Joshua tells us that Joshua (to whom Moses is supposed to have
communicated the unwritten Oral Torah) possessed a written word, which he read
to the people of Israel as they entered the Land. This written word contained
all that Moses had passed down:
'And afterward he (Joshua) read all
the words of the law, the blessings and the cursings, according to all that is
written in the Book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses
commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel with the
women, the little ones and the strangers who were living among them.' (Joshua
8.34-35)
It is hard to reconcile these verses with the idea of an
unwritten Oral Torah, which precedes the written Torah and is equally inspired
given by God at Mount Sinai.
Is the Torah bitter or sweet?
It
is true that the Torah has sweet nourishing value to those who study it. As
David wrote in Psalm 19.7-11:
'The Torah of the Lord is perfect
converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple;
the statutes of the Lord are right rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the
Lord is pure enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean enduring
forever; the judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to
be desired are they than gold yea than much fine gold; sweeter also than the
honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is thy servant warned and in keeping
of them there is great reward.' See also Psalm 119.
Yet there is
another side to the Torah. The people responded to the words, which Moses had
written down and read to them by saying 'All that the Lord has said we will do
and be obedient (Exodus 24.7)'. Yet not long afterwards they were worshipping
the Golden Calf, leading to God moving in judgement against them:
'And
the Lord said to Moses, 'I have seen this people and behold it is a stiff
necked people! Now therefore let me alone that my wrath may burn hot against
them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation. (Exodus
32.9-10)'
Without Moses acting as the mediator on this occasion God
would have destroyed the entire nation as a judgement. Even with Moses'
mediation 3000 perished as a result of this sin.
In the summing up of
the Torah in Deuteronomy 28, God tells Israel of the blessings which result
from obedience to the Torah as they enter the land, but also warns of the
curses (judgements) which result from disobedience. The last of these is to be
scattered from the land and live 'with a trembling heart, failing eyes and
anguish of soul' (Deut 28.65) amongst the Gentile nations. The history of
Israel written in the Bible tells of the outworking of this principle in the
blessings in the land at times of obedience and the judgements following
disobedience. The bitter side of the Torah is to be found in these judgements.
Is the Torah the bridge to God?
The bitter side of the Torah
shows us the gulf, which separates us from God. On the other hand, according to
Rabbi Simmons, Torah is the way to self-perfection, and the Shavuot night
learning is called Tikkun Leil Shavuot, which means 'an act of self-perfection
on the night of Shavuot.'
But the Bible shows that no person can reach
self-perfection by his own efforts. In Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) 7.20 we read,
'There is not a just man on the earth who does good and does not sin.' Isaiah
64.6 tells us 'We are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses
(kol tsidkoteinu) are like filthy rags; we all fade as the leaf and our
iniquities like the wind have taken us away.'
Human experience
testifies to the truth of this and religious people of all faiths often lead
the way in putting people off from believing in God by the gulf between what
they claim for themselves and what they do.
It is interesting to read
on the Aish website the list of 613 commandments as recorded and classified by
Maimonides in the 12th century. This listing is taken from his classic
compendium of Jewish law, the "Mishneh Torah." Numbers 301 to 442 are all to do
with the Temple and sacrifices and cannot be kept literally by anyone today.
According to Rabbinic opinion Numbers 596-8 no longer apply because the nations
referred to have already disappeared. This is just as well because they read:
596 'Destroy the seven Canaanite nations. 597 Not to let any of them remain
alive. 598 Wipe out the descendants of Amalek.' Numbers 37-41 are also rather
unfriendly! 37 'Not to love the missionary. 38 Not to cease hating the
missionary. 39 Not to save the missionary. 40 Not say anything in his defence.
41 Not to refrain from incriminating him.'
Even leaving these out, the
commands, which clearly are relevant today, are hard if not impossible to keep.
How many people can read the 10 commandments and honestly say, 'I have never
broken one of these'? Who really fulfils the command to love God 'with all your
heart, with all your soul and with all your strength' (Deut 6.5 - number 4 in
the 613 commandments)? Or to 'love your neighbour as yourself'? It is
interesting that this command (Leviticus 19.18 - number 13 in the 613
commandments) becomes 'to love Jews' (i.e. not a general command to love your
neighbour whoever he / she is, but only if he / she is Jewish).
If no
one is able to keep all of these commandments, those who seek salvation by this
method are left in a state of condemnation. As we have said our failure to keep
God's commandments shows the gulf, which separates us from God and our need of
a mediator to bridge this gulf. This is why God promised that he would make a
new covenant with the house of Israel, not because he found fault with the old
one, but because of the impossibility of keeping it. Concerning this new
covenant we read in Jeremiah:
'Behold the days are coming, says the
Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the
house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in
the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, my
covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But
this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those
days, says the Lord: I will put my law in their minds, and write it on their
hearts; and I will be their God and they shall be my people. No more shall
every man teach his neighbour and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the
Lord', for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of
them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will
remember no more.' Jeremiah 31.31-34.
The New Covenant.
According to this passage the new covenant offers forgiveness of sin, knowledge
of God in a personal way and having God's law written on the heart. This will
replace the covenant given at Sinai as the means by which God relates to
humanity (i.e. the bridge to God). When Yeshua (Jesus) took the bread and the
wine on the eve of Pesach (Passover) he described the cup containing the wine
as 'the new covenant in my blood which is shed for you (Luke 22.20).' In doing
this he reinterpreted the familiar symbols, which speak of the Exodus from
physical slavery in Egypt applying them to himself as the Passover Lamb who
takes away the sins of the world. He brings about our Exodus from spiritual
slavery in a world, which has fallen from God's commandments and is in bondage
to sin.
In his letter to believers in Messiah, living in Galatia, Paul
described the Torah as 'our tutor to bring us to Messiah, that we might be
justified by faith' (Galatians 3.24). By this he meant that the Torah shows us
that we don't achieve 'self perfection' and that there is a huge gulf between
what God requires and what we achieve. It was for this reason that I turned to
the Messiah about 30 years ago when I realised that I had broken God's
commandments and was under his judgement.
The Torah shows us that we
all fall short of the glory of God and need to be made right with God by
repentance and faith in the sacrifice God has appointed. Under the old covenant
this was through the blood of the animals offered on Yom Kippur. Under the new
covenant it is through the blood of the Messiah. In this way Messiah Jesus
becomes our bridge to God, fulfilling his word, 'I am the way and the truth and
the life. No one comes to the Father except by me (John 14.6).'
When
speaking to a learned rabbi of his day, Nicodemus, Yeshua said that in order to
enter into this new covenant 'You must be born again' (John 3.7) - not
physically but spiritually, an experience also prophesied in Ezekiel:
'I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the
heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my
spirit within you and cause you to walk in my judgements and you will keep my
judgements and do them (Ezekiel 36.26-7).'
Just as the covenant at
Sinai had to be mediated through God's chosen servant, Moses, so the new
covenant had to be mediated through one whom Moses prophesied as 'a Prophet
like me' (Deuteronomy 18.15-18). Isaiah reveals that this one would be more
than a prophet. Although he would be born as a child, 'His name will be called
Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace' (Isaiah
9.6).
Isaiah went on to describe how this anointed Servant of the Lord
would be put to death for the sins of the people: 'All we like sheep have gone
astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all. … For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was stricken (Isaiah 53.6, 8).' Although
Rashi claims that this prophecy applies to the people of Israel suffering on
behalf of the Gentiles this simply does not make sense of the text. For one
thing it makes Isaiah a Gentile - He (Israel) suffered for my people (the
Gentiles). For another it means that Israel, who Isaiah has been calling to
repentance for their sins, is somehow bringing atonement for the sins of the
Gentiles.
The interpretation of this prophecy which makes sense is the
one favoured by Rabbi Alsech: 'Our Rabbis with one voice accept and confirm the
opinion that the prophet (in Isaiah 53) is speaking of the King Messiah and we
shall ourselves also adhere to the same view.'
We believe Yeshua,
Jesus, to be the Messiah of whom Moses and the Prophets spoke, who has mediated
the new covenant through which we can find the true bridge to God. Through his
death and resurrection he has paid the price required for sin and made it
possible for all humanity, Jewish and Gentile, to come to know God's
forgiveness and eternal life. Those who truly accept him as Messiah, Saviour
and Lord (as opposed to the mass of generally uninformed and unenlightened
Christendom) experience the new birth which Jesus spoke about to Nicodemus
which empowers us by the Holy Spirit to walk in newness of life and gives us
the desire to keep his commandments. Although we remain liable to sin and fall
short of the glory of God, the blood Jesus shed is sufficient to cover our sins
and to give us peace with God so that we know that when we appear before God on
the Day of Judgment He will receive us into eternal life in heaven.
'For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.' John 3.16.