What about today’s Jews?
Today’s Orthodox Jews are the direct spiritual descendants of the Pharisees of the New Covenant. The name has changed, but the lineage is direct. Therefore, it is often possible to get a feel for what the Pharisees believed back in the first century by learning what their descendants (the Orthodox) believe now.
Today’s Orthodox, then, believe that Salvation derives because one is genetically Jewish (or Israeli), and because one has properly performed the works of the Torah Law. However, in Orthodox Jewish (and hence Pharisaic) thought, the emphasis is on the proper performance of the Torah Law. To the Orthodox rabbis, in order for a Commandment to have been performed properly, it must have been performed exactly according to all of the rules and regulations stipulated by rabbinic decree. If the Commandment was not performed exactly in accordance with these rabbinical ordinances, then the rabbis consider the performance to be invalid.
As we will show later, it may be that Yahshua taught His disciples to keep those rabbinical ordinances which did not conflict with the Torah. However, whenever (and wherever) the rabbinical laws did conflict with the Torah, Yahshua taught that these man-made additions were wrong: 1 Then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Yeshua [Yahshua], saying, 2 "Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.”[“washing of the hands” was a complicated ritualistic rabbinic procedure] 3 He answered and said to them, "Why do you also transgress the commandment of Elohim (the Torah) because of your tradition (Talmud)? 4 “For Elohim commanded, saying, 'Honor your father and your mother'; and, 'He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ 5 “But you say, 'Whoever says to his father or mother, "Whatever profit you might have received from me is a gift to Elohim 6 then he need not honor his father or mother.’ Thus you have made the commandment of Elohim of no effect by your tradition. 7 “Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: 8 “‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. 9 “‘And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commands of men (the Sages in the Talmud)’.”[Mattithyahu (Matthew) 15:1-9]
Most Christians believe that by rejecting the rules of the rabbis, Yahshua was rejecting His Father’s Torah; but the converse is actually true. What Yahshua rebuked were those rabbinical rulings that contradicted the Torah, thereby making it of no effect: 6 “Thus you have made the commandment of Elohim of no effect by your tradition!” [Matthew 15:1-9]
And Yahshua rebuked the Pharisees for pretending to keep the Torah, while they were actually doing something other than His Father’s Torah. This is a thought that many Christian pastors would do well to consider, as most Christian pastors also teach something other than the Torah. The Christian wants to walk at total liberty, and feels that the performance of the Commandments is bondage (or worse). King David, however, wrote that he actually walked at liberty precisely because he kept YHWH’s precepts: 45 And I will walk at liberty, For I seek Your precepts. 46 I will speak of Your testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed. 47 And I will delight myself in Your Commandments, which I love. 48 My hands also I will lift up to Your Commandments, which I love, And I will meditate on Your statutes. [Tehillim (Psalms) 119:45-48]
More than just saying he kept the Torah, King David called His Law a delight: 92 Unless Your Law had been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. [Tehillim (Psalms) 119:92]
[To get full appreciation of how others considered the Torah a delight, read Psalms 119. Interesting note: It is the exact center of the Bible.]
It may be difficult for Westerners to understand the extent to which rabbinical decrees constrict the lives of religious Jews, but there are rulings and ordinances for everything. Just to give a feel for the degree of constriction the Jews live with, there are ordinances telling the righteous how to tie their shoes: A person must first put on his right shoe, but not tie it. Then he must put on his left shoe, and tie it, and (then) go back and tie his right shoe. [Shulchan Aruch, Orach Hayim 2:4]
Orthodox Jews consider these man-made additions to the Law of Moses to be inspired; and when the rabbis speak of Torah Law, they also mean these kinds of man-made rabbinic additions. The rabbinic literature also states that once Elohim gave Israel the Torah, it was now under the jurisdiction of the rabbis, and Elohim no longer had any say in what the rabbis did with it (Talmud Tractate Baba Metzia 59b). They even teach that rabbinical authority is higher than that of Elohim: Even if they tell you that right is left or left is right, you must listen to them. [Sifrei Deuteronomy 154 (11)]
While the Nazarenes considered the Torah of Moshe a delight (as King David did), they found the rabbinical version of Torah Law to be a yoke and a burden, and they called it just that (see Acts Fifteen, verses 10 and 28).
The classical Israelite definition of a Messiah is a divinely appointed leader who vanquishes Israel’s enemies, regathers the lost and scattered of Israel’s children, and brings Israel’s children back to the Torah. The Apostles understood this to be the role that Yahshua was (and is) fulfilling. In contrast, the modern Christian believes that a Messiah is a divinely appointed leader who vanquishes the Children of Israel, and sets the gentiles free from bondage to the Marital Covenant; not that true gentiles (in the sense they use the word) were ever heir to the Marital Covenant, to begin with. [No wonder the Jews reject Yahshua as Messiah].
However, as opposed to both of those, The Circumcision defined their Messiah as a divinely appointed leader who was re-gathering the lost and scattered of Israel’s children, but was teaching them to keep the exact same rabbinic Torah Law as the Pharisees had always taught. The Apostle Shaul took great exception to this.
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