Quotes about Torah

Jesus himself was law observant, but what distinguished his praxis was that he did so through the law of double love. To do the Torah through love is to do all the Torah says and more.

As the priest and Levite thought they could follow the Torah and not offer aid to the stranded, dying man (Luke 10:25—37), so Isaiah's community thought they could abstain from food and pass by the needs of others on their way to God. Fasting never stands alone. Fasting, if it is genuine, brings us into a communal spirituality because it is a response to the lack of justice in the community.

In Acts 10—11, in the encounter of the Torah-observant Peter with the God-fearing Gentile Cornelius, we see what "fulfill" looks like for the apostles: it means some radical revisioning without abolishing. Paul's words about accommodating himself to Gentile ways in 1 Corinthians 9:19—23 also illustrate how the apostles "applied" this claim by Jesus. Second lesson in Bible reading: looking to Jesus means following him and through him the Torah.

The clearest way to put this is to say that Jesus thinks that following him means following the Torah. Those who follow him (and his teaching of the Torah) will be called "great" in the kingdom. Anyone who denies his teachings and teaches others not to follow him (and through him the Torah) will be called "least" in the kingdom.

Just as the Shechinah is in exile, so is the Torah in exile.

The laws of the Torah ask of each generation to fulfill what is within its power to fulfill. Some of its laws (for example Exodus 21:2 ff),14 do not represent ideals but compromises, realistic attempts to refine the moral condition of ancient man.

Knowledge of God is knowledge of living with God. Israel's religious existence consists of three inner attitudes: engagement to the living God to whom we are accountable; engagement to Torah where His voice is audible; and engagement to His concern as expressed in mitsvot (commandments).

The Torah is primarily divine ways rather than divine laws.

There are five incomplete phenomena (or unripe fruits). The incomplete experience of death is sleep; an incomplete form of prophecy is dream; the incomplete form of the world to come is the Sabbath; the incomplete form of the heavenly light is the orb of the sun; the incomplete form of heavenly wisdom is the Torah.

The way to understand the meaning of torah min hashamayim ("the Bible is from heaven") is to understand the meaning of hashamayim min hatorah ("heaven is from the Bible). Whatever taste of "heaven" we have on earth is in the Bible.

First-half-of-life religion is almost always about various types of purity codes or "thou shalt nots" to keep us up, clear, clean, and together, like good Boy and Girl Scouts. A certain kind of "purity" and self-discipline is also "behovely," at least for a while in the first half of life, as the Jewish Torah brilliantly presents.

What is Scripture? The Hebrew word is torah. Torah means teaching, learning.