Congregation Shema Yisrael

Since last fall, I’ve been teaching a class that I don’t think gets taught in Messianic circles often, much less in Evangelical Christian circles; a class on the 613 Commandments. According to Judaism 101, the 613 Mitzvot (Commandments)“…is based primarily on the list compiled by Rambam in the Mishneh Torah”. These are the commandments in the Torah (Five Books of Moses) that Judaism believes are given by God to form the basis for righteous living.

Christianity says that “the Law is dead” and was replaced by Grace. Messianics traditionally believe that Torah and Grace are two sides of the same coin, and that they have always co-existed in God’s Kingdom and have always been available to the Children of Israel and to the rest of us. I had previously taught an elementary class called Understanding the Torah or Torah 101. This is a primer for Evangelical Christians and people new to the Messianic movement on why Torah isn’t dead and why it plays a role in the lives of all believers in the Messiah today. After going through a couple of “semesters” of teaching this, I felt that we needed to dig deeper into our understanding of Torah for Jewish and Gentile believers.

If we believe that Torah is the preferred lifestyle for the redeemed community, how are we supposed to live it out? Rather than let Messianic theology or the modern Jewish synagogue service dictate our worship practice, what does the Bible actually say to do? In attempting to answer that question, I thought that a detailed examination of the 613 Commandments might yield an answer (Rambam established the most recent and popular version, but these commandments have been available in some form or another a thousand years before he was born).

To that end, I organized a list based on how the commandments are presented at the Judaism 101 site (see the link above) and developed a “scorecard”. The scorecard is a standardized set of questions the class is to apply to each of the commandments to determine if and how each individual commandment is to be applied to the life of the believer today. We already know that the commandments that directly relate to Temple worship and the Levitical Priesthood cannot be obeyed today (though it seems quite likely that when “Ezekiel’s Temple”; the Third Temple is built, some sort of sacrificial system will be reinstated under Messiah Yeshua himself), but what about all the rest? The church separates the commandments into ceremonial and moral laws, which is a pretty unsatisfying categorization. It is also an all too easy way to disguise the fact that we are choosing to obey only those parts of the Word of God we feel comfortable with as Gentiles.

I won’t publish the scorecard here, but anyone interested can post a comment in this blog requesting the class materials and I’ll gladly email them to you. Also, starting with the 3rd class in the series, I’ve been audio recording the classes and they are available online in mp3 format for anyone who is interested. The web page dedicated to this class is found at What are the 613 Commandments Class.

Between September 2008 and April 2nd 2009, we have held 13 classes and have covered 31 out of the 613 commandments (a little over 5%). As you can see, this class is open ended and potentially will take years to cover. Our goal is to honestly and carefully examine each of these commandments in relation to the Bible as a whole and to determine as Messianic believers, how we are accountable, both individually and corporately, to the Torah.

For the sake of space, time, and “readability”, I will post the class conclusion to the first 16 commandments we studied. In subsequent blog posts, I’ll publish additional list items. What I think you’ll find, as we did, is that thus far, the vast majority of the commandments of Torah do have a meaning in the lives of modern Jewish and Gentile believers in the Messiah. The Law is not dead. It is ignored at our own peril. Here are our conclusions so far.

Our Relationship with God

To know that God exists
Source: Exodus 20:2 and Deuteronomy 5:6
In Judaism, this is considered the 1st commandment of the 10 commandments that Moses brought down from Sinai. To Christians, it seems to be a declarative statement rather than a command, but if we don’t believe in the existence of God, all other commandments don’t make sense.
Conclusion: The class agreed that this commandment applies to both Jewish and Gentile believers today.

Not to believe in any other god but the Eternal God of the Bible
Source: Exodus 20.3
This is a call not only to monotheism but to specifically consider that the one true God is the God of the Bible (as opposed to the “God” of the Koran, for example). While it is unlikely for Evangelical Christians and Messianic believers to adhere to a God other than the God of the Bible, we are all aware (or should be aware), that human beings (believers and non-believers alike) tend to make all kinds of things “gods”, such as money, cars, food, sex, alcohol, or anything we consider more important in our lives than Him.
Conclusion: The class agreed that this commandment applies to both Jewish and Gentile believers today.

Not to blaspheme the Name of God, the penalty for which is death
Source: Exodus 22:27 (v28 in Christian Bibles) and Leviticus 24:16
To blaspheme the Name of God is to curse or to use irreverently the Name of God.
Conclusion: The class agreed that the commandment not to blaspheme the Name applies to us today, but not the commandment to execute someone who violates this command. The original Biblical penalty for breaking this commandment was death by stoning. Contrary to what most people believe today, “stoning” wasn’t just a riotous mob grabbing some hapless fellow and throwing rocks at him until he died. The suspect had to be arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin (the court system God originally established as seen in Numbers 11). An investigation was conducted and witnesses were questioned. Only when the court handed down a guilty verdict was the punishment for this capital crime executed. We don’t have that court system in existence in America (or in any other country) today, so we are not obligated to respond to this section of the commandment.

To sanctify the Name of God
Source: Leviticus 22:32
To sanctify the Name of God is in actuality to speak and behave in a way, as believers, that brings honor to and upholds the reputation and glory of God. It means to live out a lifestyle that is completely consistent with our faith and our Creator.
Conclusion: The class agreed that this commandment applies to both Jewish and Gentile believers today.

Not to desecrate the Name of God
Source: Leviticus 22:32
This is the converse of the previous commandment. To desecrate the Name of God is, as a believer, to live out a lifestyle or behavior that brings dishonor to and drags down the reputation and glory of God. It’s to say that we honor Him but to act in shameful and sinful ways. It’s behaving as a hypocrite. This, and the previous commandment, are really important. Many non-believers tend to think that Christians aren’t any different than the average person, except that they go to church on Sunday. When Christians don’t live lives that counter this impression, they are not only failing to help others draw close to God, they (we) are actually pushing them away. We not only fail ourselves and God, we fail everyone else.
Conclusion: The class agreed that this commandment applies to both Jewish and Gentile believers today.

To know that God is One; a Complete Unity
Source: Deuteronomy 6:4
In Judaism, this is a call to strict monotheism; that God is a single unit or entity and is not “subdivided” into smaller components or parts. This commandment is the basis of the Shema; the most holy prayer in Judaism, and is said by observant Jews twice daily. Also consider Yeshua’s definition of the Two Greatest Commandments as cited in Matthew 22:34-40.
Conclusion: The class agreed that this commandment applies to both Jewish and Gentile believers today.

To love God
Source: Deuteronomy 6:5
This is also part of the Shema and was also cited by Yeshua as one of the Two Greatest Commandments as cited in the previous commandment.
Conclusion: The class agreed that this commandment applies to both Jewish and Gentile believers today.

To fear God reverently
Source: Deuteronomy 6:13 and 10:20
Fear can also be thought of as Fear and Awe, and encompasses the appropriate human response to an All Powerful Creator. In fact, the Hebrew word “Yirah” best describes this particular “enactment” of the command. The term “Fear of Heaven” is sometimes a circumlocution used to describe this command.
Conclusion: The class agreed that this commandment applies to both Jewish and Gentile believers today.

Not to put God to the test
Source: Deuteronomy 6:16
The most noteworthy example of this commandment in action can be seen in Luke 4:1-13 when Yeshua is being tempted by the Adversary. Yeshua quotes Deuteronomy 6:16 in direct response to one of the temptations. Psalm 95:8-9 and Psalm 106:32-33 also speak to this commandment. It does tend to fly in the face of those believers who subscribe to the “name it and claim it” theology, where they cite a particular Bible verse, and then “claim their prize” so to speak. God isn’t the genie in Aladdin’s lamp and He doesn’t have to do what we ask of Him. What He grants us is out of His Love, Grace, and Mercy…not because He’s obligated to us and has no choice, because it’s written in the Bible. We are subject to Him, not the other way around.
Conclusion: The class agreed that this commandment applies to both Jewish and Gentile believers today.

To imitate His good and upright ways
Source: Deuteronomy 28:9
You will want to see John 5:19 and Matthew 5:48 for more context of this commandment. This really speaks to being a disciple (as opposed to being a convert). In short, a disciple is a student who learns by imitating their Master. When we acknowledge Yeshua as our Master (Lord of our lives), one of the things we’re agreeing to is to live our lifestyles as an imitation of his. This doesn’t mean dressing in 1st Century Israeli clothing, only speaking in Hebrew or Aramaic, and growing a long beard (for men). It does mean living life the way he showed us how to live it, in obedience to God and at peace with others, as much as that peace depends on our behavior. As you can see from this and some of the previous commandments, if we are obedient, how we appear in our behavior is going to sometimes be very different than the world around us and sometimes even very different from other Christians.
Conclusion: The class agreed that this commandment applies to both Jewish and Gentile believers today.

Our Relationship to Torah (Word of God)

To honor the old and the wise (a sage)
Source: Leviticus 19:32
The commandment and the Biblical source seem a bit at odds, and more so once you throw in the traditional Rabbinic interpretation. In Judaism, the commandment “to honor” applies not only to the aged but to a Torah scholar as well. It is sometimes associated with the commandment to honor Mother and Father. Proverbs 16:31 provides some additional context.
Conclusion: The class agreed that we should honor the aged and show them respect, though we can’t always assume that a person is automatically “wise” just because they’re old. Nevertheless, we agreed that the elderly should be treated with respect. Since showing the same honor to a Torah or Bible scholar cannot be derived from the plain meaning of the text, the class agreed that this interpretation of the commandment didn’t apply (which is not to say that we would treat a Bible scholar poorly, just that the commandment doesn’t address that group).

To learn Torah and to teach it
Source: Deuteronomy 6:7
The plain meaning of the verse is to teach Torah to your children only. If you apply it with Deuteronomy 31:12, then you can justify that everyone should learn Torah, not just children, though everyone can likely learn Torah if all parents teach it to all children (and in this context, I’m defining “Torah” as the entire Word of God; Genesis through Revelation). Additional verses that add context are Psalm 119:9 and Matthew 28:19-20. The latter particularly commands the disciples (and us) to teach the nations (everyone on the planet) what Yeshua taught his own disciples. Of course what that tells us to teach can be interpreted differently depending on what you think Yeshua taught, but there is nothing in his teachings that contradicts anything else written in the Biblical text prior to Matthew. In Messianic circles, we think of Yeshua telling us to teach the total of Torah…the entire Bible.
Conclusion: Given the other texts cited while studying this commandment, the class agreed that this commandment applies to both Jewish and Gentile believers today.

To cleave to those who know Him
Source: Deuteronomy 10:20
The plain meaning of the text is somewhat at odds with the stated commandment, since the verse in Deuteronomy is telling us (the Children of Israel and I believe, those of us “grafted in”) to cleave to God only. Traditional Judaism interprets the commandment as a directive to cleave to Torah scholars and anyone who is close to God in truth.
Conclusion: The class agreed that the command to cleave to God applies to Jewish and Gentile believers today. While we didn’t agree that this was also a commandment to cleave to other people who are close to God, we did conclude that we tend to do this anyway when we gather as a congregation. We also agreed that, having our closest and most intimate relationships with non-believers could lead to us drifting away from a Holy lifestyle, at least in some ways, and that being closer with believers would help to encourage us in our walk with Him. This isn’t to say that we should never have associations or be friends with unbelievers, but our closest mentors and confidants should be people who will support our faith.

Not to add to the commandments in Torah, written or oral
Source: Deuteronomy 13:1
This is a prohibition to not “modify” the Word of God (Bible) by adding anything to these texts. From a traditionally Jewish point of view, the commandment applies to the oral traditions and customs as well, which are Rabbinically, but not Biblically binding. Since Messianic believers usually don’t recognize the Rabbinical traditions, we applied the commandment to the written Word only. To add anything to the accepted Canon is to say that we know better than God and that in fact, we are at least altering, if not creating a new understanding of God or perhaps even a new “religion” (those of us in Idaho and Utah are very familiar with a large religious group that has added quite a bit to the accepted texts in the form of other “authoritative books”).
Conclusion: The class agreed that this commandment applies to both Jewish and Gentile believers today.

Not to take away from the commandments in Torah, written or oral
Source: Deuteronomy 13:1
This is the converse of the previous commandment. Certainly, if we are not to add to the Bible, we should also not take anything away either. The result would be the same as the comments I wrote for the previous commandment.
Conclusion: The class agreed that this commandment applies to both Jewish and Gentile believers today.

Every person shall write a scroll of Torah for himself
Source: Deuteronomy 31:19
The plain meaning of the text is for Moses to teach his “song” to the Children of Israel, implying that if he’s teaching it, the Children of Israel are learning it. The song is recorded in Deuteronomy 32:1-43. Rabbinical interpretation of this commandment states that this “really” means learning all of the Torah and writing it down, and not just memorizing the song. Deuteronomy 17:18-20 does state that the King over Israel is to write for himself two copies of the scroll of Torah, but this doesn’t apply to the common Jew (or the common Messianic believer).
Conclusion: The class agreed that the plain meaning of the text does not obligate the Jewish or Gentile believer to hand write a copy of the Five Books of Moses or the entire Bible for himself or herself. That said, the class did agree that owning a copy of the Bible (and in some countries in the world, this isn’t as easily accomplished as here in the U.S.) and studying it is a good and desirable act.

Ending Statement

As I mentioned before, I’ll publish more of this list in subsequent blog posts. Please feel free to make comments in the blog regarding what I’ve written, particularly if you have any questions. I realize that the topic of “Law vs. Grace” can sometimes become emotionally charged, so if you have strong feelings about all this, please take some time and compose your thoughts before responding. While I welcome differing view points, I do ask that we all treat each other with respect.