Jews and Torah

[WARNING: long post!]

I've been thinking about the relationship between Torah and the Jew. What is the Jewish person's responsibility to Torah today? I've been corresponding with some other inquirers about the subject, and below are my thoughts. I hope I have expressed myself with civility, mutual respect, and by an eagerness to think clearly about difficult issues.

The topic actually raises several questions.
1) What is the perspective of Jesus/NT writers on Torah?
2) Should a Jewish non-follower of Jesus (from here on, JNFJ) keep Torah?
3) Should a Jewish follower of Jesus (JFJ) keep Torah?
4) Should a Gentile follower of Jesus (GFJ) keep Torah?
5) Should a Gentile non-follower of Jesus (GNFJ) keep Torah?
By “should,” I mean “Does G-d require…” By the way, out of respect for Jewish readers, I will try to avoid writing out the full name of the deity, but this is not my habit; please forgive me if I err.

W/re:to question #1, it seems to me that we see two important strands of thinking about Torah in Jesus/NT. First, there is recognition of the divine source of Torah, that Torah is a blessing, and is fundamentally good. I suspect most of us know the references, so I won’t bother listing them. (And in this category I would also put all the positive comments about Torah in the Old Testament, like all of Psalm 119, etc.) Second, there is a complaint against Torah that it is ineffective in achieving what it requires, and that, in some sense, its effect on humans is negative. Torah, though just, is somehow inherently weak.

How could Torah be a negative thing? Torah could become a negative if 1) it is over-valued or 2) misused. By overvalued I mean this: if Torah were to become more important in and of itself than the relationship to G-d which it was intended to improve, then the net effect has been negative. The relationship with G-d, which was in need of some kind of repair, continues to be in a state of disrepair, only for different reasons. The proper role of Torah was to teach and instruct G-d’s people in how to live as a “peculiar people.” By way of analogy, if a gift I give to my child becomes more important than that child’s relationship to me as his/her father, then the gift has become a problem. The gift, though well-intended, is counter-productive.

By “misused,” I mean this: if Torah were to be used for some reason other than that for which it was intended, again the net effect could very well be negative. In other words, if Torah, though once given as an expression of G-d’s grace to his people, became instead a slavish means of achieving status with G-d, or of proving one’s piety to others, then Torah has had a negative effect on people.

I think when Jesus/NT writers speak disparagingly of Torah, they do so with these issues in mind. They do not condemn Torah for being the “record of the cultural biases of an ancient people,” as one scholar once put it, or of being wrong, or evil; rather, they condemn those who in one way or another misuse Torah. Jesus condemns his fellow religious Jews for valuing human interpretations of Torah more than Torah itself (and I see this same tendency, in Christian circles, to value human traditions over Scripture all the time), or for their hypocrisy in Torah observance (again, I see this all the time in Christian circles). [Incidentally, every charge Jesus levies against his fellow religious Jews can be paralleled in other rabbinic literature of the day, within a century or so. In other words, we should not read, say, Matthew 23 as an anti-Semitic screed. The problems in the Judaism of Jesus’ day were recognized by others.] Jesus was in a long line of prophetic voices calling G-d’s people back to authentic Torah observance. [What separated Jesus from the prophets, in my opinion, is that his call to radical Torah observance included, and in fact, began with, a radical commitment to him as a person, and then involved a recognition that with the announcement of the Kingdom of G-d, some changes were about to take place in the structure and demands of the covenant between G-d and those who fear him. Many of the NT writers spend lots of time trying to argue that these changes were to be expected and were in fact implicit in the nature of what was known to them by that time as the “Old Covenant.”]

Paul condemns his fellow religious Jews for using Torah as a means of power by keeping Gentile fearers of G-d from genuine acceptance into G-d’s covenant community. He also acknowledges, in his letter to the Jewish and Gentile followers of Jesus in Rome, that Torah, although good and holy, is weak, because of human nature’s inability to follow it and because Torah provides no means of helping humans follow it. The message of Messiah Jesus, accompanied as it is by the giving of “the Holy Spirit,” does several things. First, it clarifies the role of Torah in G-d’s universal plan, namely, Torah was not meant as a be-all-end-all but a “tutor” and a “pointer.” By this, I think Paul means that Torah taught the Hebrew nation basic principles of relationship with G-d and pointed forward, in a variety of ways, to the promised messiah, which Paul identifies as Jesus. Secondly, this “New Covenant” comes with a means of helping believers to obey the legitimate moral demands of Torah (i.e., the New Testament teaches that the Holy Spirit helps the follower of Jesus to stop doing what is sinful and to do what is holy). We may disagree with Paul that this is in fact the case, but we should not charge him at this point with rejecting Torah. Torah, says Paul, can only demand; it can’t empower, but the Gospel both demands AND empowers, and in that sense, it is superior to Torah.

So, I hope these comments are helpful w/re:to question #1 above.

Next, let me make a few comments about question #3 above, because my answer will, I think, begin to answer question #2.

#3: Should a JFJ keep Torah? To answer this question, we need to make some observations. First, assuming everything I said above is true (and I hope it is!), obviously no Jewish person should keep Torah for any of the wrong reasons. Second, in light of the covenant changes brought about by the ministry of Messiah Jesus, covenant requirements have changed.

At this point in our discussion, I have to introduce a thorny problem. Some theologians have tried to draw distinctions within Torah itself, the most common of which is the distinction between moral, civil, and ceremonial laws. The problem is that individual laws that are moral, or civil or ceremonial in nature are often intermingled with and appear right next to laws of different kinds with no hint that they are of a different category. Theologians have attempted to argue that the civil law applied only to the nation of Israel (and therefore no longer applies); the ceremonial law applied only before the supreme sacrifice of G-d’s ultimate Passover lamb, the messiah (and therefore no longer applies); the moral law is a reflection of G-d’s nature and therefore applies eternally to all people. I concede that these categories are too neat and are difficult to demonstrate, but I agree that there are “more important laws” and “less important laws.” Jesus accused his fellow religious Jews of neglecting “the weightier matters of the Law” (see Matthew 23:23 – “But you have neglected the more important matters of the law – justice, mercy and faithfulness”).

So, the question “Should a JFJ keep Torah?” is complicated. I certainly do not believe that such a person would need to observe sacrifice laws, since that is a practical impossibility, but also for the theological reason I mentioned above. As a whole, or to put it differently, as a system, or as a covenant, I think Torah, according to Jesus/NT writers, has outlived its purpose. What I mean is that the role Torah had in the history of G-d accomplishing world-wide redemption, namely, teaching the Hebrews about G-d and pointing to his messiah, is complete. G-d’s people survived as a distinct culture and messiah has come. Of course, I would continue to affirm the necessity of, for lack of a better term, the “moral law,” i.e., lying, adultery, killing, etc. These the NT writers also affirm. I am certainly NOT saying that Torah is worthless; not only is it the inspired Word of G-d, it is one of the great moral documents of human history, and in that sense, it is always worth reading, consulting and teaching, but, it must, in my opinion, be read and applied in its theological context and in its context in salvation history. In terms of much of its specific teaching and individual laws, Torah is beautiful and is eternal in its application; in terms of a system, or a covenant, however, Torah has an expiration date.

So, if a JFJ asked me if I thought he or she should observe Torah, I would attempt to have a long conversation with that person, discussing these issues. If that person still wanted to keep Torah, I would have no problem, except when it comes to table fellowship. How would a JFJ deal with this issue when eating with Gentiles, which they would surely have to do from time to time? I’m not familiar enough with congregations of JFJ to know how they handle that issue, but it would seem wrong, at least to me, if their keeping of Torah kept GFJ from enjoying table fellowship with them. I would put the observance of Torah for a JFJ in the same category as family or national traditions, i.e., something we should do, for a variety of reasons, but not something we must do, or we would be sinning against G-d. In fact, I would encourage JFJ, even GFJ, to celebrate the feasts of Ancient Israel because they are very useful for teaching children, creating family memories, and remembering the heritage of the Jewish people, but I would hesitate to say that a JFJ sins if he or she fails to observe a feast.

[Note: I like so much the idea of bar/bat mitzvahs that my wife and I chose to use this template with our children. When each one turns 13 (not 12), we have a family ceremony during a special meal. We’ve written out a complete liturgy, and at the end of this meal, I, as father and head “rabbi” (complete with Jewish prayer shawl), charge the child to take upon him/herself the yoke of Torah as taught by our chief rabbi, Jesus. This yoke is the two most important laws, to love G-d with all one’s heart and love one’s neighbor as oneself. These bar/bat mitzvahs have become very meaningful to my family. We have also celebrated Passover meals as well. This is what I mean.]

Having said all that, should a JNFJ keep Torah (question #2 above)? It depends who you ask! If you ask an orthodox Jew, the answer would probably be, “Yes, of course!” If you asked a liberal Jew, the answer would probably be, “It’s up to each individual.” If you asked a secular Jew, the answer would probably be, “No, why live like that?” If you asked me, as a follower of Jesus, I would attempt to say the things I said above about the changes in application of Torah due to the ministry of Messiah Jesus and the inauguration of the New Covenant. Hopefully, that person would see the significance of the work of Messiah and would become a member of the New Covenant community, in which case, their perspective on Torah would change.

Questions #4 and #5 can only be answered after we have drawn some conclusions about the nature of Torah. Is there universally applicable teaching in the Torah? Does G-d wish for all humans (created in His image) to follow Torah? In my opinion, it was never G-d’s intention for all of humanity to keep all of Torah; rather, it was his intention for Israel as a nation to spread among the nations an awareness of G-d, to live as a peculiar people in the context of pagan cultures, and to watch for the coming of Messiah, to whom their Torah (and Prophets and Writings) pointed. In the context of the New Covenant, those aspects with continuing application to people today, Jew or Gentile, follower of Jesus or not, would be sorted out.

Some might say that we Christians must still be waiting for the New Covenant, because it says in Jeremiah 31:34: “No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the L-RD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest…” And clearly that cannot be said. I would suggest that Jeremiah 31:34 is a figurative way of saying that, in the New Covenant, knowledge of G-d will be widespread and immediate (i.e., without a priest). I think this is true of the New Covenant community; even children can know G-d and we can all read Scripture and enjoy fellowship with G-d apart from the intervention of a priest. Jesus, Paul and the writer of the letter to the Hebrews all affirm that the Church is the New Covenant community.

Thanks for reading; I look forward to your comments.

A Summary of NT Arguments against Torah:
-Torah can only demand, and therefore, only condemns; it never empowers.
-Because it never empowers, it is weak, compared to Gospel, which demands AND empowers.
-Torah, as a system or covenant, had a temporary, limited purpose anyway.
-Moreover, nobody can really keep it.
-Ironically, Torah, as a system, leads to human boasting.
-Finally, faith precedes Torah in Scripture.