THE TORAH
The Weekly Parsha
                                                  The TORAH - Its Place in Scripture
The TORAH & Holiness
The TORAH & Israel
The TORAH & THE LAND
Is the TORAH for believers?
THE ORAL TORAH - Its Origins
​THE TORAH & THE NEW COVENANT
​The TORAH & Galatians - The Most Misunderstood Epistle of Paul
​Understanding TORAH  ​​

THE TORAH AND ITS PLACE IN SCRIPTURE

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​The first five Books of the Bible - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy - are the books of Moses and are called the 'Pentateuch' or in Hebrew 'Torah'. The word Torah occurs over two hundred times in the Hebrew Scriptures and its equivalent word in the Greek – nomos - occurs also over two hundred times in the 'New Testament'. In most English translations of the Bible, translators have tended to mistranslate the words 'Torah' and 'Nomos' as 'law'. However, Torah is derived from the verb yarah which means 'to teach' or 'to instruct'. Hence Torah means the 'Teaching or Instructions of God'. It is an archery term that means 'to hit the mark'. So the picture employed is of an archery target with the Torah forming the bulls-eye with the arrow hitting the bulls-eye representing the keeping of the Torah. Unsurprisingly then, the Hebrew word for sin - 'chatah' – means to fall short, that is, to miss the mark, the bull's-eye. It is only with much practice that we are able to hit the bulls-eye with the help of the Holy Spirit, Ruach HaKodesh. More on this in the next newsletter.

The picture can also be used to come to a better understanding of the place of the Torah in Scripture. The Torah forms the centre of the Bible and in the archery target above, is pictured in yellow with the red and the blue concentric circles representing the Prophets (Nevi'im) and Writings (K'tuvim) respectively making up the Hebrew Scriptures, the Tanach. Finally the 'B'rit Hadashah', the New Testament forms the outer black circle with the white, the book of Revelation of Yeshua, completing the Bible.


If we consider the Torah itself made up of the five Books of Moses we find God's signature at the beginning of each of these books! As shown below, in the first two books, Genesis 1:1-5 and Exodus 1:1-5 starting from the first ת if one counts 49 letters, one can spell תורה Torah (note that Hebrew is written from right to left). If one, then looks at the last two books, Numbers 1:1-4 and Deuteronomy 1:1-5 one finds the word Torah spelt backwards הרות every 49 letters (note that Hebrew is written from right to left). However, in Leviticus 1:1 one finds the personal Name of God, יהוה (Tetragramme) spelt out every 7 letters. The probability of this happening by chance is almost impossible. Hence, the four outer books point into their centre Leviticus which contains The Name, HaShem. Consequently, the very centre of the Bible is Leviticus, the book every orthodox Jewish boy starts to learn in yeshivah, Jewish school.


Hebrew is one of the few languages that is not only phonetic, but numerical and pictorial. The four letters תורה that spell Torah represent the numbers 5+200+6+400=611! Now traditionally there are 613 commandments that are contained in the Torah, so what about the two missing commandments?

As recorded in Matthew 22:36 - 40, Yeshua was asked which is the greatest commandment in the Torah and the Prophets and He states;

“ ‘You shall love יהוה your Elohim with all your heart, and with all your being, and with all your mind.’ Deu_6:5. “This is the first and great command. “And the second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ Lev_19:18. “On these two commands hang all the Torah and the Prophets.”
So the love of the Father and the love of others leads to the Ten Commandments or Utterances of Exodus 20 with the first five relating to our love of the Father and the second five relating to how we are not to treat others. The fifth commandment about honouring parents related to seeing our parents as God''s representation, as well as impacting on how we treat other people. All of the rest of the 611 commandments given in the Torah can be fitted into these Ten Commandments as shown below.

So if we do not have love of the Lord and love of others then as Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13:1
"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal."
Consequently, the 613 commandments of Torah hang on these two commandments of love. Hence love is the way for Torah to be written on our hearts as given in Jeremiah 31:33!

  • It is not about salvation but about how to live a righteous and holy lifestyle.

In Summary
To bring about the One New Man the Jewish people need to accept their Messiah, Yeshua HaMashiach and return to Torah to be sanctified. While the Gentiles, once they have accepted the Jewish Messiah need to start walking in the truth of the Torah in preparation for the return of Messiah who is the living Torah, the Word made flesh John 1:1.


Genesis 1:1-5 Torah תורה

בראשׁית ברא אלהים את השׁמים ואת הארץ 2 והארץ היתה תהו ובהו וחשׁך על־פני תהום ורוח אלהים מרחפת על־פני המים׃ 3 ויאמר אלהים יהי אור ויהי־אור׃ 4 וירא אלהים את־האור כי־טוב ויבדל אלהים בין האור ובין החשׁך׃ 5 ויקרא אלהים לאור יום ולחשׁך קרא לילה ויהי־ערב ויהי־בקר יום אחד׃

Numbers 1:1 - 4 הרות

1 וידבר יהוה אל־משׁה במדבר סיני באהל מועד באחד לחדשׁ השׁני בשׁנה השׁנית לצאתם מארץ מצרים לאמר׃ 2 שׂאו את־ראשׁ כל־עדת בני־ישׂראל למשׁפחתם לבית אבתם במספר שׁמות כל־זכר לגלגלתם׃ 3 מבן עשׂרים שׁנה ומעלה כל־יצא צבא בישׂראל תפקדו אתם לצבאתם אתה ואהרן׃ 4 ואתכם יהיו אישׁ אישׁ למטה אישׁ ראשׁ לבית־אבתיו הוא׃

Leviticus 1:1 יהוה

1 ויקרא אל־משׁה וידבר יהוה אליו מאהל מועד לאמר׃