We are studying the Torah to discover the footprints of Messiah Yeshua of Nazareth in using the ancient Hebraic system of interpretation common to the teachings of Yeshua (Jesus) and his disciples. They were used by the New Covenant (New Testament) writers to show that Yeshua was, indeed, the Messiah expected by Israel.

Today this system of interpretation is called PaRDeS, an acronym for a four-part method of Bible interpretation.

• The P stands for pashat, meaning the simple or plain meaning.
• The R stands for remez, meaning a hint or allusion to something else in the text than what the text plainly means.
• The D stands for d’rosh, the practical application of the text to our lives.
• The S stands for sod (pronounced sood), and it means something hidden in the text that takes the Holy Spirit to reveal, usually about the Messiah.

With our hermeneutical method stated, we continue our study of Torah with its first verse, Genesis [Bereishit] 1:1. The text of Genesis 1:1 reads:

`#r ~yIm:ßV'h; taeî ~yhi_l{a/ ar"äB' tyviÞarEB.
Beresheit bara Elohim Aleph-Tav HaShammayim ve-Aleph-Tav haeretz

Beresheit (“in-beginning-of”)
bara (“created”)
Elohim (“God”; plural of Eloha used to amplify with absolute, infinite intensity)
Aleph-Tav (usually a pointer to the direct object; interpreted also as a reference to the
Messiah—the Aleph and the Tav, i.e., “the First and the Last”)
HaShammayim (“the heavens”)
vav-Aleph-Tav (“and-Aleph-Tav”)
haeretz (“the earth”)

In previous lessons we demonstrated how ancient Hebrew sages studied using all four methods of PaRDeS in their interpretation. We uncovered:

• the peculiarities and meanings of the numbers 7, 8, 10, 12, 37 and 73 in the first verse
• the peculiar form of the first word of the Bible, bereishit which literally means “in-the-beginning-of,” not “in the beginning” as commonly translated. We saw that this peculiar word construction begged for a word that was missing in the text, or better said, was hidden.
  The hidden word in this first verse of the Bible is clearly understood by studying the Prophets and Writings of the Bible. We find the Prophets and Writings detailing God’s purpose in creation to relate to his creation through the written Torah and its author, the Living Torah, namely, the Messiah who created the world as God’s Word in power and wisdom.
• the importance of the fourth and mysterious word in Genesis 1:1—Aleph-Tav, detailing how it corresponded to the fourth day of creation, to fourth generations and to the fourth millennium.

In this lesson we explore other truths found in Genesis 1:1.

Reviewing the Fifth and Sixth Words of Genesis 1:1

Recall that the ancient Jewish sages found a prophetic parallel between the seven words of Genesis 1:1 and the Hebrew calendar. Many understood the seven words to prophetically represent watersheds of time. Each word was explained to correspond to a thousand year period since Adam, the first man. The history of mankind was seen through these seven words of Genesis 1:1 as unfolding through seven corresponding, succeeding millennia until its culmination with a Sabbatical millennium.

The fifth word—hashammayim, “the heavens.” Briefly, we return to the subject of the fifth word of the seven to expand on “the-heavens” [hashammayim] and how it relates to the sixth word, spelled vav-Aleph-Tav. The fifth word, “the-heavens,” was considered by Jewish sages of old to be a thousand year period of time in length. We caution about holding to this view exclusively since time in the heavens may be different from the 24-hour lengths of time on earth. We must be careful not to be so predictive that we think we can specify a year, a season, a month or day when Yeshua returns the second time. Nevertheless, we must remember as well that the ancient Jewish sages still clung to the 1000 year period represented by the fifth word. We should be mindful of this strongly held view, realizing the imminence of our Lord’s return.

The sixth word—vav-Aleph-Tav. This sixth word in Genesis 1:1 remains untranslated in our English Bibles. The Greek New Testament renders use of the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet in Revelation 1:8 as “Alpha and Omega,” the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. In John’s vision of the revelation of Yeshua in Revelation, the LORD announces Himself to John with his opening words in this fashion: “I am the Alpha and Omega.” Of course, this is not exactly what Yeshua said. He spoke Hebrew and Aramaic. Greek was not his language of preference. John would have written the original copy of the book of Revelation in either one of these two languages, but not Greek. Therefore, Yeshua said, “I am the Aleph,” instead of the Alpha. And He said, “I am the Tav,” instead of Omega. This difference is significant from a Hebraic perspective.

According to the Hebrew calendar we are in this window of time represented by the sixth word of Genesis 1:1. This is year 5765, corresponding to our year 2005. How accurate the Hebrew calendar actually is no one knows. Who is to accurately say that the sixth millennium will end in, say, plus or minus 235 years? At best we guess, but with this caveat: no one knows the time or day the Lord Yeshua will return to the earth to set up his kingdom among the nations. Only the Father knows (see Acts 1:7).

Yeshua presently is in the heavens. We know this from the fact of Scripture. But long before in ages past, this knowledge that He would return to the heavens after his first coming was alluded to by the fifth word—“the heavens” [hashamayim] immediately following his first appearance as the Aleph-Tav. By virtue of the sixth word in Genesis 1:1—vav-Aleph-Tav—He is returning to earth near the end of the sixth millennium to set up his Sabbatical kingdom on earth for 1000 years. This is the Hebraic emphasis of interpretation of the sixth word—vav-Aleph-Tav.

In using Hebraic hermeneutics known today as PaRDeS, this knowledge would be called a remez, i.e., a hinting at or allusion to something eventually to be revealed in fullness.

Uniqueness of the second appearance of Aleph-Tav. Recall that the untranslatable word Aleph-Tav appears twice in Genesis 1:1, as the fourth word and the sixth words, thus representing occurrences of the Messiah’s appearance on earth in two different millennia, the fourth and sixth. In the first case, as the fourth word, it does not have the Hebrew letter vav attached to it like the sixth word vav-Aleph-Tav.

In Hebrew the letter vav is the sixth letter of the alphabet. Interestingly, the sixth letter of the alphabet is attached as a prefix to the sixth of the seven words in Genesis 1:1. Because it is there, and not one word or letter of the Torah is wasted, it has significance worth pondering. For literary purposes, the letter vav serves as a connective between the last word and the next words. It simply means our English words for “and,” and in some cases, “but” and “for.” So we could translate the sixth word of Genesis as “and-Aleph-Tav.”

But because the letter vav is prophetically attached to the second occurrence of Aleph-Tav, we should look deeper into its significance beyond its being a literary device. We, then, look for the remez, i.e., the second stage of ancient Hebraic hermeneutics to that which the letter vav hints or alludes to for our consideration.

The sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet signifies an upright man. We’ve already mentioned that the letter vav is the sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet and that it is part of the sixth word of seven in Genesis 1:1. Is there any significance to the double-sixes—the sixth letter beginning the sixth word?

We should remember that every one of the seven words of Genesis 1:1 is not only taught to correspond to a time period of one millennium per word, but also that each word was taught to correspond to a separate day of creation. When we take the sixth word of Genesis 1:1 which is really three Hebrew letters—vav-Aleph-Tav—and correspond these letters to the sixth day of creation we see that God made land animals to be bent over to the earth, but the very same day he created man (‘Adam) as upright and righteous. The letter vav shows us this connection to upright Adam.

Ancient Hebrew, now called Paleo-Hebrew, looked quite different from the Hebrew letters used in the first century and today. Paleo-Hebrew was used to write the original Torah, Prophets and Writings—the Tanakh—or Old Testament with the exception of books written after the return of the Jewish exiles from Babylon. Today, as in the time of Yeshua of Nazareth, Hebrew letters have the square-looking style of Aramaic.

Before the first temple was destroyed in 568 B.C., leading to the dispersion of the Jews to Babylon, ancient or Paleo-Hebrew was used exclusively in Israel. During the seventy years of exile in Babylon, the Jews adopted the square-looking script used in that country that we call Aramaic. In other words, the original Hebrew shaped characters were discarded and replaced by the Aramaic alphabet.

When the Jews returned to the land of Israel in 538 B.C., the Aramaic alphabet for Hebrew sounds was ensconced in the Jewish culture. Jewish rabbis ruled that Bible scrolls read publicly could no longer be written in the original Hebrew style and must have the shape and form of square Aramaic letters (B. Talmud, Shabbat 115b and Soferim 1:6; see also Sanhedrin 21b and 22a).

What is interesting, whether we use the ancient Hebrew with its pictographic style of writing, or the Aramaic, block-letter style that was developed in Babylon, the sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the letter vav, still kept its essential shape. The original shape of the letter tav was a vertical, upright line with a slight split at the top. It was a pictogram of a peg or nail. It is easy to see how it is a connector between words like our word “and.” It nails or pegs things down. In the Aramaic block letter style it still remains a vertical line, but with a slight cap on top, like a nail head. In other words, whether you read the original Hebrew or the modern Hebrew, the letter vav looks closely the same. It is still preserved to look like a peg or nail—a fastener.

The upright, vertical look of the letter vav became a correspondent symbol to “man” who was created on the sixth day as one upright and righteous. We see this attachment of the letter vav to uprightness not only here in the sixth day when man was created, but also in the name change of the converted pagan priest, Jethro. Jethro’s story in the Bible is interspersed with life of Moses (Moshe) because Moses married Jethro’s daughter. The Rabbinical commentary, Midrash Rabbah 27:8, tells how Jether, the father-in-law of Moses (Moshe), had his name changed after becoming a follower of the LORD of Israel: “When he was a heathen, he was Jether, for it says, And Moses... returned to Jether his father-in-law (ib. IV, 18); but when he became a proselyte, a letter was added to his name, as in the case of Abraham, and he was called Jethro.”

What was the letter that was added to the name Jether (Yether)? It was the letter vav, the sixth letter of the alphabet, and it carries the sound of the letter “o.” It was added at the end of his name to show that Jether (Yether) had been changed into an upright man. He would be called Jethro (Yethro) from that time forward.

The sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet connects the heavens and earth. Remember the letter vav is a connector, like our word “and.” The vav attached as a prefix to the two Hebrew letters Aleph-Tav in Genesis 1:1 is between the words hammashayim—“the heavens”—and haeretz—“the earth,” connecting them. We see, then, that the Messiah Yeshua who is the Second Adam, the upright man, the Vav of vavim, connects the heavens and the earth.

The sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet signifies nail prints in the Aleph-Tav. We should summarize one other significance of the letter tav as it is prefixed to the Aleph-Tav. As stated, the vav in Paleo-Hebrew, or ancient Hebrew, was a pictograph of a nail or peg. The picture is of a nail fastened to the front side of the Aleph-Tav. We get a picture of the Messiah as having been pierced by nails when He returns the second time.

In the first occurrence of the letters, Aleph-Tav, as the fourth word of the seven words of Genesis 1:1, the sign of nails is missing. Yeshua did not come the first time with nail prints in his hands and feet, or pierced markings on his head from a crown of thorns or in his side from the thrust of a spear. This happened near the end of his ministry on earth. But when He returns to earth from the heavens, He will appear as the Pierced One with nail prints, thorn prints and a spear print. He will be seen as having been nailed to a Roman cross.

The prophet Zechariah anticipates the appearance of the pierced Messiah in vivid description. First, Zechariah tells Israel about an ominous future time when Israel will seem hopeless to defend herself against the nations set to destroy her. Then he adds that the Messiah will come from heaven to defend the tiny nation and will defeat the nations around her. But notice how the prophet details what the Messiah will look like and the reaction of Israel to his appearance to save her. The LORD says, “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on me—Aleph-Tav—whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn” (Zechariah 12:10). Did you hear it? The Messiah says, “They will look on me—Aleph-Tav—who they have pierced …”

The prophet Zechariah, who used the mysterious letters, Aleph-Tav in mid-sentence, is quoted by John in the Book of Revelation in 1:7: “…and every eye will see him—Aleph-Tav—even those who pierced him.” Though our Greek text, translated from the Hebrew, did not pick up this salient feature of Zechariah’s prophecy, it was clearly intended to be the main thrust of what John intended the readers of Revelation to read. Sadly, the Greek translator left it out! As a result, none of our English translations from the Greek text of Revelation adds it back because they didn't know it was missing.

When Yeshua reveals Himself to John in the vision of the exalted Lord, He immediately announces, “I am the Aleph-Tav.” John simply shows the basis for Yeshua’s announcement of this truth by quoting from Zechariah 12:10 that Israel and the rest of the nations would look on Him—Aleph-Tav—the one they pierced. Israel would repent as a consequence, realizing that Yeshua is the authentic, human sent by God as the Messiah Aleph-Tav.

The prophet saw nail prints in the Messiah, the Pierced One, when He comes to deliver Israel from her enemies to establish his kingdom on earth.

We must ask the question. Where did the prophet Zechariah learn this truth about Aleph-Tav being pierced? Yeshua had not yet been sent by God. He was not yet born or conceived by a virgin. The prophet was announcing this amazing fact a few centuries before Messiah Yeshua came the first time to die on a cross where he would be pierced for our transgressions.

How did the prophet know this incredible fact? The answer: it’s in the Torah, precisely in Genesis 1:1, the sixth word of seven where a vav—a nail—is attached to the Messiah’s identity when He returns.

A curious remez in vav-Aleph-Tav. A remez, you recall, is one of the four methods of biblical interpretation found in the acronym PaRDeS and means a hint or allusion in the text. In finding more hints or allusions (remez) in the sixth word to the Lord’s return in prophetic fulfillment, the familiar method used by ancient sages (and modern Rabbinic Judaism) is to identify the original meaning of each letter of a word and see how they relate to all the others in the word. Using this method, we discover that in Paleo-Hebrew the letter vav represented a nail, the letter aleph symbolized the mighty chief, strong one, the head, or the supreme authority, and the letter tav meant a cross, like the letter “T” but with both vertical and horizontal lines intersecting. This forms a complete meaning for the word: “On the cross the mighty chief, or head man, was fastened by a nail.”

Messiah’s second return to Israel and Antichrist. We need to discuss one small matter that someone will likely have a question about later. It’s about the Messiah’s second return and the advent of Antichrist in close proximity to his appearing.

The number for the Antichrist, or Substitute Messiah, is six hundred and sixty-six (666). It is not six plus six plus six, nor a variation. It is a number based on hundreds, tens and digits. When you see that the sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet prefixes the sixth word of Genesis 1:1 and corresponds to God’s creation of man on the sixth day, someone may say “666.” And that’s incorrect.

First, these three sixes are different in several ways. The sixth letter and sixth word are literary observations. They simply relate numerically to the alphabet. If you add them together you get twelve (12). By looking for a hint or allusion in the double sixes, we can quickly see the connection to Israel—the twelve tribes of Israel. So underlying the first two sixes is this allusion to Israel. Messiah is coming back from heaven to the earth to Israel. Again, we find a remez, a hint or allusion in the text. In this way, the first two sixes stand together as a literary hint with a deeper meaning about Israel.

The next six we encountered was the relationship of the sixth letter prefixed to the sixth word to the sixth day of creation where we saw man as the upright creation of God. This gives us three sixes, of course, but the story is incomplete.

Each word of Genesis 1:1 is the story of the Hebrew calendar, each word representing a thousand years. The sixth word, therefore, represents the sixth millennium, or the period between 5,000 and 6,000 years. So let’s look at our sixes. We have four of them. One stands for 6,000 years. The other three are simply units of six playing off each other in an interactive, literary way. If you add these three together you get the value of 18. So, if we want to stretch the imagination here by looking for a sum of all four sixes, it would be 6,018, not six hundred and sixty-six.

Jewish people have a habit of adding up all the numbers of a greater number to get a single digit, believing there is often a remez, or hint, in the final number between 1 and 9. If you take the number 6,018 and add the numbers together you get 15. Then add the two numbers in 15 together, you still get six—the number of man.

If you add the three numbers 666 together, the sum is 18. Reducing it to one number in the same fashion, the sum of 1 plus 8 is nine (9). Nine is the number of judgment in the Bible, not the number of man which is six (6). What do we learn in this remez, or hint? Antichrist will be judged by the man who was nailed to the cross—Aleph-Tav.

The Torah is Five Holy Books about Messiah

As we expand from the lead verse of the Bible, Genesis 1:1, into the whole of Torah and the rest of the Scriptures, we should review the word Torah, its meaning and uniqueness.

What we obviously know from our Hebraic roots of faith in the Messiah is that the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, is about the Messiah, the Living Torah. His footprints stamp each page throughout the Torah, Prophets and Writings—the Tenach. Some footprints are heavy, some light, but they are unmistakably those of the Messiah. If we look carefully, we can see his footprints on every page of the Scriptures.

What does Torah mean? Most people I know who are Christians do not know the word Torah. It is alien to their working vocabulary. But they do know the word Law which they replace Torah with without critical thought. Does Torah mean Law? We will examine this question shortly.

The earliest form of the Bible was the Torah. All other books came later. It is the original Bible. These five books are called the Books of Moses. He is reported to be the author of all five books, though such a claim is not made within the books themselves. This view comes from ancient tradition long before the time of Messiah on earth.

A pictorial commandment. The word Torah is really only four letters in Hebrew, all of them consonants. Vowel sounds of the “o” and “ah” are not written as letters of the alphabet. They are understood to be present when certain consonants appear.

• The letter “T” comes from the last word of the Hebrew alphabet, the letter tav. In ancient Hebrew with each letter being a pictogram of an object from which meaning was derived, the letter tav was two lines intersecting just like a cross.
• The “o” sound is produced by a consonant that is the sixth letter of the alphabet, the letter vav. It is written in ancient Hebrew as a nail, or peg.
• The “r” sound in Torah is the letter resh. It is a pictogram of a man’s head with a trailing body and looks similar to our number nine. It is a man, emphasizing his head at the top.
• The last letter is the consonant hey. It produces the vowel sound of “ah.” It is comparable to our letter “h.” The accent is on this “ah” sound—Torah. In ancient Hebrew the letter hey was a stick figure of a man with his arms outstretched wide. Standing alone, the letter could be read as, “Behold!” or “See!” In the Southern United States, a call often heard is “Hey!” It’s meaning is quite similar in Hebrew.

The Old Hebrew way of writing the word Torah would be with four distinct pictures in a row, each representing one of the four letters, and each picture in combination with the others revealing the thought behind the word. In Hebrew you generally start at the back and work to the front when reading letters in a word to get its Paleo-Hebrew meaning. So we start with the last letter. It is the letter hey and means, “Behold!” The next to last letter is the resh, or “r” sound. It means a head man, a chief man. So far we have the phrase, “Behold the chief Man!”

Now take in the meanings of the last two pictures, reading backwards. The next letter is vav, and it means “a nail.” And the first letter of Torah is the sound of “T” or the letter tav written in the shape of a cross. So putting all the letters together as one thought, one word, we read: “Behold the chief Man nailed on a cross.” This is the literal meaning of the pictographic way of understanding the word Torah. It is a picture of the Messiah Yeshua dying on the cross for our sins. He is Torah in his life, death, resurrection and glorification. Apart from Him there is no Torah.

Obviously, we do not consider the death of Yeshua, figuratively represented by the pictorial meaning of the word Torah, to be understood as Law. We don’t go around saying among ourselves that Messiah is the Law Man. But that’s what we do, in fact, when we prefer to call the Torah “Law” instead of what God calls it—Torah.

Of course, the Torah does contain laws—613 of them to be exact—but it is mostly narrative, collections and arrangements of human interest stories that reveal God at work in our lives, pointing us to the chief man who died with nails in his hands and feet on the cross.

Torah means instruction or direction. The word Torah is a noun. It comes from the Hebrew root verb yarah which literally means “to throw, to shoot [like an arrow], to cast, to set in place [as a cornerstone (Job 38:6) or pillar (Genesis 31:51)], to point out, to show, to teach.” In Assyriac, or Aramaic, the corresponding word is aru (“to lead,” “to guide”). In Amharic, the corresponding word is ware (“to inform,” “give news”). In Arabic, the corresponding word is warra (“to throw”).

The idea behind this root word for Torah is to shoot an arrow at a target. To hit the bull’s eye is to be perfect. To miss the bull’s eye, no matter how close you get to it, is “to miss the mark.” Whether the missed bull’s eye is close or wide, the result is the same—a miss. One of the early meanings of the word “sin” is simply “to miss the mark.” Torah is holy, the opposite of missing the mark, the opposite of sin. It hits precisely God’s target.

From this we glean the meaning behind the biblical saying, “For whoever keeps all the Torah and yet stumbles in one commandment, he is guilty of all commandments” (James 2:10 – translated from Hebrew New Testament).

So we understand something more about Torah. It informs us, teaches us that we have missed the mark God set for us when He created us free from evil. Because sin entered into the world through our first parents when they gained the knowledge of evil, sin was passed on to us such that all have sinned and come short of God’s glory. We need God’s direction.

The Torah is, as the apostle Paul taught, “a school master,” teaching us that we are not perfect. We possess a nature bent and shaped by sin.

The Torah also teaches us that God is perfect. He is holy, and He desires his people to be holy as He is holy. The Torah clearly teaches us these truths in the light of revelation. We all have conscience, something that tells us inside our minds the difference between right and wrong. Conscience may mislead. But Torah instructs us with pure teachings and directions from God Himself that only He can save us from our sins.

Because we cannot save ourselves from our sins, the promise of the Torah is that God will send us his Messiah to save us from our sins. He will be perfect, never missing the mark, always hitting it perfectly. He will be without sin.

The penalty of sin, of course, is death. We are all condemned to die. This is the teaching of the Torah. Within the Torah God shows that He will provide for us a Savior to save us from ours sins. He will take our place like an innocent lamb to be sacrificed for sins and die for us. The Torah is the good news of God’s lovingkindness that He will make us whole once again in the Messiah.

We see Yeshua in the Torah. I can find no better reason to study Torah than that it presents to us our Savior Yeshua as He intended to reveal Himself to us. We know that Torah is important and priceless to every Jewish person.

But why is the Torah so important for Gentile believers? For the same reason it is to believing Jews. We don’t really know Yeshua well enough, or understand what He did or is about as the Living Torah if we don’t know Him as the revealer and physical identity of the written Torah.

What did Yeshua understand about the Torah? He thought so well of it that Yeshua was given a name by the church in the first century era—Mashiach haTorah—"Messiah the Torah." He was the Torah teacher par excellence by his example and message of the kingdom of God. He was called “Master.”

Yeshua said of Torah teachers that they were instructed in the kingdom of God. This was the message of their teaching. In Matthew 13:52, Yeshua said: “Every teacher of the Torah who has been instructed about [or pointed to] the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.” Everything about this informed Torah teacher is directed towards the fullness of the kingdom of God in Messiah Yeshua.

Rabbinic Judaism founded about two generations after the death and resurrection of our Lord shifted the message away from the kingdom of God to the preservation of their form of Judaism. It remains so today 1900 years later. Torah for them is an end in itself, a turning inward where preservation of tradition is the goal, where Torah is not a pointer or instructor beyond itself to the Living Torah, the Messiah who offers his kingdom to all who repent and receive Him as Lord and Savior. Messianic Judaism, though revering the Torah as God’s holy Word, looks to the goal of the written Torah—to the Messiah and his kingdom revealed in Him.

Torah teachers in the church. Incidentally, when the New Testament talks about our Lord giving gifts to the church, among them are “teachers.” There are apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers. These teachers are not ordinary teachers in the church. They are Torah teachers like Yeshua said they should be—instructing about the kingdom of God from the Torah, Prophets, Writings and New Testament.

Without doubt, Torah teaching in this light is one of the most neglected gifts in the church today—men and women who teach the fullness of the Torah in Messiah to offer the kingdom of God and anticipate its full revelation in the age to come. Torah teachers are kingdom-focused.

Yeshua's mission was to “fill up” the Torah and Prophets in Himself. We use the phrase, “to fulfill,” but a more accurate understanding of the Hebrew concept is “to fill up.” It is like the written words of the Torah is a container and Yeshua the content of it. He filled it up in Himself.

Every shadow and pattern in the Torah became reality in Yeshua. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Colossians (2:17), referring to festivals and certain commandments of the Torah: “These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Messiah (the Anointed One).”

Yeshua said these remarkable words that are basic to understanding his identity as the Messiah:

Do not think that I have come to abolish (i.e., reinterpret or change) the Torah or the Prophets;
I have not come to abolish (i.e., reinterpret or change) them but to fill them up.
I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear,
not the smallest letter (a yod),
not the least stroke of a pen (a tag),
will by any means disappear from the Torah until everything is accomplished.
(Matthew 5:17-18)

If Yeshua said the Torah was important for Him, and if we are in Him, it is important for us.

Is the Torah best understood as Law? Did you know that the study of Torah in the first century church was considered to be one of the highest forms of worship of God? It isn’t so today. For most Gentile believers in Yeshua, the word “Torah” is cold, distant and alien. Its study is hardly the highest form of worship. On the contrary, most of us have heard and may even believe that the Torah is useless or has been abolished or replaced, contrary to the teachings of our Lord.

Has Yeshua been replaced? He is the fullness of the Torah. Therefore, the Torah has not been replaced as is commonly taught in our generation.

There are several reasons for our distant attitude to Torah. A significant one is that far too many believers in Yeshua think of the word “Torah” as a literal synonym for the word “law.” It conjures up images of rules, regulations, bans, limits on freedom and other ideas that smack of a rabid form of legalism.

Of course, the Torah is not synonymous with the word “law.” There are other words that may be translated as “law” in Hebrew. We will review them.

Halakah. The word halakah may be translated as “law,”and often is, but it really refers to our “walk” with God. The word literally means, “going,” “way,” “walk,” “traveling-company” and “caravan.”

We find it in the New Testament when Paul writes that we should walk circumspectly in the world. He says to the Philippians: “Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Messiah” (1:27). This is a call to halakah by the rabbi from Tarsus.

Yeshua also spoke of doing halakah. He said, “I am the Way and the Truth”—“I am the halakah and the emunah . . .” (John 14:6). From emunah comes our word "Amen." Yeshua is the Amen, the one who is faithful to bring it to pass (cf. Revelation 3:14).

When we set standards of conduct to exemplify our changed lives by faith in God this is called halakah. But as codes of conduct turn out too often, they become legalistic codes of conduct rigidly set to control people to make them conform to the community. These rules and regulations are imposed to control outward appearance when there is no authentic change of heart inside. But this is not what is intended by halakah. It should be voluntary readiness to show to the world a sign (cf. Phil. 1:28, “This is a sign . . .") of what God has done for us in separating us from those who are perishing.

Whatever happens, conduct yourselves [i.e., do halakah] in a manner worthy of the gospel of Messiah. . .
This is a sign to them that will be destroyed, but that you will be saved--and that by God"
(Philippians 1:27-28)

Dath. Let’s look at another word for “law,” the word dath from which the town of Dothan was named (Gn. 37:17). Dothan was named as if it were a legal center where one may presume to find lawyers. Ancient Jewish teachings suggest that Joseph’s brothers left Shechem where they watched their flocks and went to Dothan to seek legal recourse against their brother Joseph.

The word dath meeans “decree,” “law,” “edict” or “usage.” We find a parallel word in Persia (data) which means “law.” It is used predominantly in the book of Esther (1:8; 2:12; 4:3; 9:13) and once in Ezra 8:36. When you hear the phrase “the law of the Medes and Persians” it is this word dath being used. When English-speaking Bible readers use the word "law," they usually mean this word which refers to legalisms, but apply it instead to the Torah.

We also find the word in the name Dathan given to a Reubenite, son of Eliab (Numbers. 16:1, 12, 24, 25, 27; 26:9; Deuteronomy. 11:6; Psalm 106:17) who became a leader in Korah’s rebellion against Moses and Aaron.

Mishpat and choq. Other words translated “law” appear in our Bible. One is mishpat (cf. Leviticus 24:22 – “You are to have the same law (mishpat) for the alien and the native-born. I am the LORD your God.”). The word mishpat is from the verb shafat meaning “to judge," "to govern.” The native-born and the aliens are to have the same equal judgment. The word is used to render judgment over a dispute or controversy before judges.

Refer also to Psalm 81:4 where we see two words for “law” used in one sentence: “For this was a statute (choq) for Israel, a judgment (mishpat) of the God of Jacob.” It means a judgment was rendered by God that is fair to all.

In this verse of Psalm 81 we are introduced to another word for “law”—choq. Here we have translated it as “statute.” The word comes from a verb, chaqaq, which means “cut in, inscribe, engrave, decree.” The meaning is to be right, be just. The noun choq, therefore, means “something prescribed, a statute, a due.” It is only used less than a dozen times in the Torah itself (cf. Genesis 47:22; Exodus 30:21; Leviticus 10:13, 14; Deuteronomy 4:5, et al) and is never used as an over-arching description of the Torah itself.

Mitzvah. This word means “command, precept, charge.” We find it in Jeremiah 32:11: “I took the deed of purchase which was sealed according to the law (mitzvah—“terms and conditions”), as well as the unsealed copy . . .”

Again, this does not refer to the Torah directly as a summary name, but to “terms and conditions” required by governmental law. It is often used of the “commands” of God.

Torah is not legalistic law. Now clearly the word Torah doesn’t mean legalistic “law” in the sense we mean it. But many of us Gentiles have often made it so, changing the Torah from its true meaning of “instruction” to “legalistic law,” thus pitting it against the New Covenant (Testament). The familiar refrain you’ve hear so often—“law and grace”—is often perceived by Gentile believers to be words of contrast between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, between the Old Testament and New Testament.

Grace and "walk," not "grace and "law." Before any law ever was from God or man in any form, first was grace. Grace is never preceded by law at any time in the Bible. Grace is the condition God meets to save us from our sins. After we are saved by faith by the grace of God, then we walk (halakah as "a sign" we are saved in Messiah.

Historical background for the "law and grace" misunderstanding. Many Christians believe the Torah is a legalistic code mainly, not because they have studied it in depth, but because they were taught that it is Law. Even our English Bibles translate the word Torah as Law to our dismay.

Such pervasive teachings in the Gentile branch of the church stem from the period of the emperor Constantine in the fourth century. His revolution in ridding the church of its Hebraic roots of understanding the Bible and replacing it with a Greco-Roman worldview for biblical interpretation has become the basic frame of reference of the church today—because our Christian culture and tradition taught us so, not the Bible.

This is a sad state for the church, but we didn’t get to this impoverished understanding of the Torah overnight. It took centuries to do so with lots of anti-Semitism under the bridge, including a fourth century edict by the Roman Empire Constantine. He tried and succeeded in stripping almost all vestiges of our Hebraic roots of faith In Yeshua out of the Church.

Most of us have no idea how radically changed the church was under the emperor Constantine. Under his rule, the Church made a significant official change both in doctrinal values and the way doctrine is practiced. In his attempt to pull up our Jewish roots and destroy them, an effort begun in AD 313 that culminated in the Council of Nicea in AD 325, the lights of the church dimmed and eventually darkened to become the Dark Ages. It would now go into a retreat from vital faith to ritual faith based on a Greco-Roman worldview.

Let us move on today to rid ourselves of Constantinian philosophy that fills the Gentile branch of the church and rediscover the Torah from the life and teachings of Messiah on the kingdom of God.

The Written Torah is God-breathed. Before we conclude this part ot the teachings on Yeshua in the Torah, consider the inspiration of the Torah to be God-breathed. It remains God’s Word for us today along with the fullness of all Scripture filled up in our Lord, Messiah Yeshua.

You have heard of Bible codes where equidistance sequences of letters spell out a Hebrew word or phrase. I do not put much stock in this method, particularly when the spread between letters becomes too great. But consider these remarkable facts below.

Beginning with the first word of Genesis 1:1—bereishit—find the first occasion for the occurrence of the first letter of Torah—the letter tav. It is the last letter of bereishit. From that specific letter count to the fiftieth letter. It is a vav, the second letter of Torah.

Count to the next fiftieth letter. It is the letter resh, the third letter of the word Torah.

Now count the next fifty letters and it ends with the last letter of the word Torah—the hey. The word Torah is embedded in the beginning of the first chapter of Genesis (Bereishit) 1 at every fiftieth letter. Amazing! Now do the same with the first chapter of Exodus (Shemot), counting every forty-ninth letter. This brief sequence of four Hebrew letters also spells Torah. Note that Leviticus (Vayikra) does not have this phenomenon to occur. Now do the same with the next book, Numbers (Bamidbar), counting every forty-ninth letter. You find the occurrence of all four letters of the word Torah, but they are in reverse order. Try the same with the Book of Deuteronomy (Devarim) and you discover the same phenomenon. Every forty-ninth letter for the first four letters is the word Torah, but spelled in reverse.

What do you make of this? The word Torah is spelled in correct order in the first two books, skips Leviticus (Vayikra), and then is spelled in reverse order in the last two books. And it is hidden, embedded away in the text beyond the plain or obvious.

The four hidden expressions of the word Torah are like bookends pointing to the middle book Leviticus where the priesthood and sacrificial system is described. Leviticus is the central book of the Torah and the other four books point us to it. As a matter of fact, it is so central to our Hebraic foundations of faith, that the book of Leviticus was the first book of the Torah that a child studied in ancient times.

We discover two things. First, this ordering of the word Torah four different times in the opening chapter of each of the books of the Torah, excluding the middle book, is no accident. Do you think the Holy Spirit inspired the books? I do. You cannot concoct this hidden sequence in such a parallel way over this many books.

Curiously, for those who study chiastic structures in the Bible, the four hidden words of Torah form a chiastic structure where the order is ABCBA. I’ll not go into further detail about chiastic structures in this paper, but the significance of this chiasm is that it shows the Book of Leviticus to be the central book of the Torah. The Book of Leviticus, more than any other book of the Torah, points us to the Messiah’s sacrifice for sin and to his redemptive work for all mankind.

The Written Torah is the written expression of the Living Torah and may not be separated from Him or knowledge of Him without violating his identity.