If there is ever an area of misguided theological thinking for believers, it is in the study of Torah. In fact, most evangelical Bible colleges and seminaries do not even have an area of study called "Torah." In contrast, however, the study of Torah is one of three main areas of study in yeshivot and Jewish seminaries, along with "God" and "The People of Israel." This means, according to Messianic Jewish scholar David Stern, that at least one third of the material studied by potential rabbis is hardly even considered by evangelical believers. Is it any wonder that there is very little to talk about between Jewish people who do not yet know their Messiah and the followers of Yeshua?

Stern crystallizes the need for believers to wake up to the necessity of understanding the Torah with this comment."I believe that Christianity has gone far astray in its dealings with the subject and that the most urgent task of theology today is to get right its view of the law [Torah]."'

In this book, we will begin to delve into the rediscovering of Torah. In this first chapter, we will describe what kind of document the Torah is. In chapter two, we will look into the different purposes for the Torah. Chapter three will talk about who may follow the Torah. After that, we will examine the motivations for Torah obedience.

In traditional Jewish thinking, the word "Torah" is used in a rather broad way It is a word which is used in reference to all the authoritative teaching of the rabbis through the centuries. In a more narrow usage, "Torah" means all Jewish law as it is recorded in both the Bible and the Talmud (a compendium of oral Torah). Getting simpler still, "Torah" has also been used in reference to the Tenakh (the complete Old Testament). Finally, in its most limited usage, "Torah" means just the first five books of the Bible, Genesis through Deuteronomy (also called the Chumash).

Rabbinic Jewish thinking has declared that there are two Torahs: written and oral. When the rabbis talk in these terms, they usually mean that the written Torah is the Chumash (Pentateuch, or first five books of the Bible). Moshe wrote this Torah as he received it from God Himself on Mount Sinai. On the other hand, the oral Torah, the rabbis' claim, was also received by Moshe from God on Mount Sinai. However, instead of this Torah being passed on in writing, it was passed down through the centuries orally, by word of mouth. Perhaps the clearest statement of this idea is found in Pirke Avot, "Sayings of the Fathers," a section found in the Mishnah (the written version of the oral Torah). In Avot 1:1 we read, "Moshe received Torah at Sinai and handed it on to Joshua, from Joshua to the elders, from the elders to the prophets, and the prophets handed it on to the men of the great assembly."

Eventually this oral material was itself written down. This began to happen around the year 200 CE under the authority of Rabbi Yehuda haNasi. As one can see, since the rabbis claim this material was from God at Mount Sinai, for them it carries almost as much authoritative weight as the written Chumash. For us it does not. By saying this, however, we do not mean that there is no value in reading and studying the Talmud and other rabbinic writings. This will be discussed at further length in chapter six.

For the purposes of this book, when we use the word "Torah," we are using it in two ways. First, we use it to refer to the first five books of the Bible. All of which, we assert, are from the mouth of God and written with perfect accuracy by the hand of Moshe. Second, we will use it to refer to the specific teachings within the five books of Moshe.

To begin, we want to reintroduce this divine document to you. You may have known it previously as a list of do's and don'ts. Now it is time for you to examine what a unique and diversified document it really is! 

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