commandments

Parashat Behar (Leviticus 25:1-26:2)

Parashat Behar begins, "The LORD spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying..." We get the name of the parashah from this opening line. The word behar, in Hebrew, means "on the mountain." But why do we need to know this information? Didn't all of the commandments and instructions given by Moses originate at Sinai when he was given the Torah in its entirety? Why hasn't the Torah reiterated this fact prior to our current reading? Why do we need to be reminded of this obvious fact? 

Shining The Light Of Torah

When most people think of “the Law of Moses,” they don’t get warm fuzzies. But God’s people shouldn’t be most people. According to this week’s Torah portion, God’s people should be the exception to the rule, and should have a connection with the Torah deep within our hearts. Through Moses, God told the Children of Israel that when they took His commandments seriously and lived them out, the nations would recognize this and praise God:

Leviticus 25:1-26:2

Parashat Behar begins, "The LORD spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying..." We get the name of the parashah from this opening line. The word behar, in Hebrew, means "on the mountain." But why do we need to know this information? Didn't all of the commandments and instructions given by Moses originate at Sinai when he was given the Torah in its entirety? Why hasn't the Torah reiterated this fact prior to our current reading? Why do we need to be reminded of this obvious fact? 

In this series we are working to expose the myth that humans are incapable of keeping God’s Law. In our previous article we began seeking to understand what Peter was referring to when he described a yoke “that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear” (Acts 15:10). Was he referring to the Torah in this context, or was he referring to something else? We began by discussing misconceptions within Christianity and what the Scriptures themselves have to say about the Torah and the perceived difficulty of following its directives.

We were slaves to Pharaoh in the land of Egypt. And the Lord, our God, took us out from there with a strong hand and an outstretched forearm. And if the Holy One, blessed be He, had not taken our ancestors from Egypt, behold we and our children and our children's children would [all] be enslaved to Pharaoh in Egypt. And even if we were all sages, all discerning, all elders, all knowledgeable about the Torah, it is a commandment upon us to tell the story of the exodus from Egypt.

A great and chronic myth has been perpetuated within Christianity that needs to be addressed. It is the belief that the Law (i.e., the Torah) has been and always will be impossible to keep, and that Yeshua came to live out the Torah perfectly and thus "fulfill" it so his followers would not have to. This article seeks to examine the veracity of this claim and expose the problems of misunderstanding the Torah and its function. We will be examining some familiar passages, but hopefully in a new light that will begin to illuminate this subject.