DEFINING THE WORD "TORAH"
Andre Widodo
© ORI
Shalom,
Often people consider the word TORAH
to refer to the first five books of the Hebrew Bible : Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. But let us wait and hold for a
second.
We must go deeper to examine and make a proper definition what TORAH really means.
H8451
תּרה / תּורה
tôrâh
BDB Definition :
1) law, direction, instruction
1a) instruction, direction (human or divine)
1a1) body of prophetic teaching
1a2) instruction in Messianic age
1a3) body of priestly direction or instruction
1a4) body of legal directives
1b) law
1b1) law of the burnt offering
1b2) of special law, codes of law
1c) custom, manner
1d) the Deuteronomic or Mosaic Law
Part of Speech: noun feminine.
Defining the word "TORAH"
1. TORAH as the writings of Moses. Among more Orthodox Jews, Torah literally refers to the individual letters written on kosher
parchment as dictated from heaven and perfectly recorded by Moses on
Mount Sinai. These writings of Moses have been meticulously preserved by
the Jewish scribes (soferim) over the millennia in the form of a Sefer Torah, or Torah scroll, which is considered to be the most sacred object of Jewish life.
Note that Torah in this sense NOT only refers to the physical parchments that comprise a Sefer Torah, but to the various mitzvot (commandments), chukkim (statutes), and mishpatim (ordinances) established at the covenant of Sinai, with the Ten Commandments as its underlying foundation.
2. TORAH as the Written and Oral Law. A more traditional Jewish understanding of the word TORAH refers to the written TORAH scroll of Moses and the Oral TORAH, both of which are believed to be revealed to Moses on Sinai.
The Written TORAH (called TORAH shebikhtav) is comprised of the Five Books of Moses.
The Oral TORAH (called TORAH sheba'peh) was later codified as the Mishna (Repetition/Oral Law) and Talmud (Interpretations), and provides authorized commentary to the Written Torah.
Mishna is the earlier part of the Talmud; divided into six orders or parts (sedarim) of sixty three tractates. Each sedarim
focuses on a different area of Jewish life : Agriculture, Shabbat and
Holidays, Civil Law, Family Relations, Temple Sacrifices and Ritual
Purity.
Talmud is an encyclopedic collection of legalistic interpretations consisting of the Mishnah (oral law) and Gemarah (commentary on the Mishnah). Talmud is also called Shash, an abbreviation for Shisha Sidarim, the six orders of the Mishnah that form the basis of the Talmud. Shas and Chumash with Rashi is considered a good Jewish religious education. Sometimes the Talmud is also referred to as Gemarah.
After the Mishnah
was published it was studied exhaustively by generations of rabbis in
both Babylonia and Israel. Over the next three centuries additional
commentaries on the Mishnah were compiled and put together as the Gemarah. Actually there are two different versions of the Gemarah, one compiled by the scholars in Israel (400 AD) and the other by the scholars of Babylonia (500 AD).
Together the Mishnah and the Gemarah form the Talmud, but since there are two different Gemarahs, there are two different Talmuds. The Mishnah with the Babylonian Gemarah form the Talmud Bavli (Babylonian Talmud) and the Mishnah with the Jerusalem Gemarah form the Talmud Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Talmud).
Since the Gemarah functions as a commentary to the Mishnah, the orders of the Mishnah form a general framework for the Talmud as a whole (however not every Mishnah tractate has a corresponding Gemarah).
Often the words of the prophets (nevi'im) and writings (ketuvim)
are included in this usage of the word Torah (though they are given a
subordinate position in terms of revelatory authority). In this usage,
then, TORAH refers to what would be commonly called the Old Testament Scriptures (the Tanakh) as well as the Mishna/Talmud.
3. TORAH as Jewish Halakhah and Custom. The previous definition of TORAH
does not really do justice to the traditional (and Rabbinical) view,
which considers Torah to be not only the written and oral Torahs, the nevi'im and ketuvim,
but also the entire corpus of Jewish religious literature as expressed
as the majority view of the rabbis and their legal decisions since the
time of the destruction of the Second Temple (the period of the
Sanhedrin) to the present.
Collectively this view of TORAH may be referred to as halakhah,
a line of transmission from God to Moses (in the TORAH), through the
prophets, through the men of the Great Assembly, the Talmudic Rabbis and
the Talmudic literature, down to several medieval codes and their
respons.
In short, halakhah refers to the collective corpus of Jewish rabbinic law, custom and tradition. Halakhah
also includes the rabbinical idea of putting a "fence" around the
commandments of the written TORAH to ensure compliance with the mitzvot.
Interestingly enough, Jewish tradition seems to go two ways with this idea of TORAH as halakhah. On the one hand, it tends to enumerate the various commandments of the Scriptures and engages in various halakhic (legal)
discussions regarding the meaning and application of case law, and on
the other hand it tends to distill the various commandments to more
general principles that are fewer and fewer in number.
4. TORAH as Divine Instruction. The word Torah comes from the root word (YOD-RESH-HEY) - (YARAH) meaning "to shoot an arrow" or "to hit the mark".
H3384
ירא / ירה
yârâh / yârâ'
BDB Definition:
1) to throw, shoot, cast, pour
1a) (Qal)
1a1) to throw, cast
1a2) to cast, lay, set
1a3) to shoot arrows
1a4) to throw water, rain
1b) (Niphal) to be shot
1c) (Hiphil)
1c1) to throw, cast
1c2) to shoot
1c3) to point out, show
1c4) to direct, teach, instruct
1c5) to throw water, rain
Part of Speech: verb
The word basically means the "direction" or "instruction" of mankind regarding the revelation of God's will. Understood in this most general way, TORAH obviously pre-dates or before the giving of the Sinatic Law to Israel, as the following examples demonstrate :
# Adam and Eve were instructed that there was only one God whom they were to obey in covenant relationship (Gen 2:16-17).
Gen 2:16 KJV
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
Gen 2:17 KJV
But
of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of
it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
This is essentially the first commandment ("I am the LORD thy God.")
# After their sin (which was essentially a violation of the second commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me"), Adam and Eve were graciously given the promise of redemption (Gen 3:15) and the law of blood sacrifice (Gen 3:21).
Gen 3:15 KJV
And
I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and
her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Gen 3:21 KJV
Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
#
Both Cain and Abel brought offerings to the LORD, but Abel's was
regarded as a right (blood) sacrifice whereas Cain's was rejected (Gen
4:3-7).
# After murdering his brother, Cain was given the sixth commandment: "Thou shalt not kill" (Gen 4:10-16).
#
Enoch was such a godly man that he "was not" in his end. How is it that
one man is godly and another is not if there is no instruction from the
LORD?
# Seth and his son Enosh began to call upon the
Name of the Lord (Gen 4:26), and their descendant Noah "walked with God"
(Gen 6:9).
# The Great Flood was a judgment from the LORD against worldwide apostasy and chronic idolatry (Gen 7).
#
Noah offered sacrifices to the LORD and distinguished between the
"clean" and the "unclean" animals (Gen 7; Gen 8:20). God furthermore
gave him laws regarding not eating blood (Gen 9:4) and instituted human
governmental authority for capital offenses (Gen 9:6-7).
Gen 8:20 KJV
And
Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and
of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
Gen 9:4 KJV
But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
# The idolatrous humanism of ancient Bavel was judged by the LORD (Gen 11)
#
The covenant God made with Abraham was unilateral in the sense that
only God participated in the covenant ritual (Gen 15:9-21); Abraham's
response of faith was counted to him as tzedakah (righteousness).
# Of Abraham it is written that "Abraham obeyed (shema) my voice and kept (shamar) my charge, my commandments (mitzvot), my statutes (chukkim), and my laws (torah).
Gen 26:5 KJV
Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
Note :
Before Sinaic Laws, God had given His Commandments, Statutes, Laws.
#
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all offered acceptable sacrifices to the
LORD, thus implying an understanding of the laws of sacrifice.
#
Moses obeyed the commandments of the LORD and went into Egypt to
deliver the Israelites from bondage before he was given the lawcode on
Mount Sinai.
In this most general sense of the term, then, TORAH can be understood as simply as INSTRUCTIONS ABOUT HOW TO LIVE RIGHTLY BEFORE GOD AND WITH MEN.
Presupposed
in this definition is the establishment of a covenant between God and
mankind wherein the scope of what constitutes Torah (the terms of the
agreement) may be understood.
In this regard, the 7 covenants
revealed in Scripture (the Edenic, the Adamic, the Noahic, the
Abrahamic, the Mosaic, the Davidic, and the Messianic/New Covenant). Each covenant presents a different set of laws regarding how to be rightly related to God.
Moreover, each of the covenants is ultimately predicated upon the promise of the Coming Seed (Ben Elohim) - (Son of God) who would remove the kelalah (curse) upon mankind and restore the children of man back to God.
Example :
From Abrahamic Covenant :
Gen 22:16 KJV
And
said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast
done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:
Gen 22:17 KJV
That
in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy
seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea
shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
Gen 22:18 KJV
And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.
From Mosaic Covenant :
Deu 18:15 KJV
The
LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee,
of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;
Deu 18:18 KJV
I
will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee,
and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all
that I shall command him.
Deu 18:19 KJV
And
it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words
which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.
So, now, what is your understanding with the word "TORAH"?
My own view as the follower of Yeshua the Messiah, is that the TORAH is eternal, and the New Testament has not abrogated it. But in its totality, the TORAH must be understood and interpreted in the light of what Yeshua the Messiah.
Next article I will be sharing the TORAH OBSERVANCE AS MESSIAH FOLLOWERS.
Blessing in Yeshua's Name.
