Meet the Real Jesus, part 4

The Torah Keeper

Before you begin, I have a question:  Do you want to know the real Yeshua, or are you content with the image of a culturally conceived 'Jesus'?  If your answer is the latter, then you don't want to read on.

Yeshua (Jesus) was a Jew among Jews, born of the tribe of Judah, in the line of King David (Mat 1:1-17), circumcised on the eighth day (Lu 2:21), dedicated at the Temple in Jerusalem (Lu 2:22-40).  He grew in the knowledge of Torah, observed Torah throughout his life faithfully, and his greatest sermon (Mat 5-7) was an exposition on all of Torah.
{The knowledgeable Jewish reader will find that Yeshua's Sermon on the Mount has the feel of a wise perush in the tradition of Hillel.}

Atop a mount as a typical Rabbi in his day, Yeshua sat and taught his Jewish disciples, his Talmidim, saying, "You are the salt of the earth.  But if salt looses its flavor, how can it be made salty again?  It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled on by people."

This is a profound statement, often unknown to Jews, and misunderstood by Christians.  It alludes to a Levitical practice thousands of years old:


"Moreover, you must season every one of your grain offerings with salt; you must not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be missing from your grain offering– on every one of your offerings you must present salt." (Lev 2:13)

Salt is an important symbol, and extremely valuable in the ancient world.  It's a preservative for meats, a cleaning agent, kills and deters some pests, antiseptic, prevents oxidation, polishes metals... before I go too far, I'm going to stop.  There are an estimated 14,000 uses for salt!  Ancient man knew most of them.

Torah teaches us that every offering was given with melach berith Elohi-ka, the salt of the Covenant of Our God.  Salt becomes the very symbol of that Covenant.  HaShem made a Covenant with the people of Israel, contained in Torah.  And the sprinkling of salt with every offering served to remind the God fearing that sacrifice without good works, without regard to observing the deeper parts of Torah, was worthless.  As it is written, "I desire steadfast love, not sacrifice, and knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings." (Hos 6:6)

Yeshua taught 'YOU are the salt' - YOU are the covenant people, the living embodiment of Torah.

In response, many Jews might think , "Oy, I thought that Jesus taught the gentiles the didn't need to concern themselves with Torah!"  Likewise, many Christians might think, "What are you talking about!?  Jesus did away with that Law stuff!"

No, He didn't.  It's time to read the Scriptures and the Brit Chadashah (the ReNewed Covenant) without interpreting the truth through the distorted lens of Roman antisemitism and Jewish isolationism.  It's time to be seekers of Truth.  It's time to discover how Yeshua intended Jew and gentile to be brought together in unity.
 {and one day I'll write all about the rise of antisemitism and the divorce of Christians from the Jewish faith... or just come to a Voice of Judah seminar, where it's all laid out in a 45 minutes session.}

Yeshua continued, saying "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Torah or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them, but to fill them up with fulness.  For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Torah until all is accomplished.  therefore whoever breaks the least of these commands and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.  For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceedingly* surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven." (Mat 5:17-20)

Now it's time to make a choice.  Are you going to take Yeshua at his word, or reinterpret his message to fit what's more comfortable for you?  Do you want to know the real Yeshua, or continue assuming ideas formed around the image of a culturally conceived Jesus?

Not once in the the four testimonies about Yeshua did he ever break a mitzvah (commandment).  And just to cut it off before the excuses start: Paul is often falsely charged with leading Christianity into a non- Torah Observant religion.  But Paul, born Sh'ual, was a rabbi, a talmid of Rabbi Gamaliel the Great (Acts 22:3), and considered himself a Pharisee throughout his entire life (Acts 23:6).  He too, was a Torah observer.

Ya'akov {James} met with Paul saying, "You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed!  They are all zealous for Torah, and they have been told about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or walk according to our customs.  What is to be done?... We have four men who are under a vow.  Take these men and purify yourself along with them and pay their expenses, so that they may shave their heads.  Thus all will know that there is nothing in what they have been told about you, but that you yourself also live in observance of Torah." (Acts 21:20-24)