Joy Joy Joy

Dear Mishpocha in Yeshua,

Since November 7, 2023, at the suggestion of the Board of Jewish Jewels, I have been creating videos for YouTube. They are five minutes or less and consist of segments on our Jewish roots, Israel, and a Hebrew understanding of the Bible. One of the most recent posts was about the Torah and was named, “Is the Torah really a JOY?” These posts are quite a challenge for me to write, but I enjoy the challenge. Have you ever heard a sermon less than five minutes in length? I try to explain the essence of a topic and, Lord willing, touch hearts with the truth in a “short.” My prayer is that in some small way I am combatting antisemitism and touching souls worldwide since YouTube is seen in countries all over the world.

Since many of you do not watch or have access to YouTube, I decided to share my script on the Torah to give you a glimpse of our newest Jewish Jewels endeavor. Please pray that it bears much, lasting fruit for the Kingdom of God:

“There is a traditional Jewish holiday that immediately follows the Feast of Tabernacles (or Sukkot). It is called Simchat Torah, the Joy of the Torah. The celebration marks the conclusion of the annual cycle of public Torah readings and the beginning of a new cycle. In other words, the last portion of Deuteronomy is read followed by the first one of Genesis. The congregation dances and sings joyfully, carrying the Torah scrolls.

These are miniature Torah scrolls (I show physical scrolls). Two different kinds. The one in the metal case is a Sephardic scroll, and the other one is an Ashkenazi scroll. But both are Torah scrolls.

Is the Torah a source of joy for Christians today? Or is the New Covenant enough? What about being a joy for secular Jewish people? Is the Torah just LAW or something else? When most people hear the word Torah they think of the first five books of the Holy Scriptures: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy—also known as the Pentateuch or the Law. But in Jewish understanding, the word Torah can also include the Tanakh (the Old Testament), the Word of God, and even the teachings of the rabbis.

I have always loved a verse from Jeremiah 15:16 that says, ‘Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts.’ In 1978, I wrote a song based on this scripture.

Let’s begin with the word torah to understand how it can be a joy. The term comes from the Hebrew verb yarah ירה (yah-RAH) meaning to throw, cast, or shoot. A noun, moreh מורה (moh-REH) meaning ‘teacher,’ is related to the verb. Listen to what Proverbs 1:8 says about a wise mother: ‘… do not forsake the law [torah] of your mother.’ In other words, the teaching of your mother. So, torah literally means ‘instruction’ or ‘teaching’ more than ‘law.’

I like to think of the New Covenant scriptures as the fruit, and the Hebrew scriptures—including the Torah—as the root. The root grounds us and is foundational.

In Genesis, B’reisheet בראשית (beh-ray-SHEET), we read about creation and early human history. God gets His name from this book of the Torah. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Jewish patriarchs. In Exodus, Shemot שמות (sheh-MOHT), we learn about Israel’s deliverance from Egyptian bondage and the God who sets His people free—and gives them, at Mt. Sinai, His instructions on how to live. In Deuteronomy, Devarim דברים (deh-vah-REEM), we see a God who prepares His people, instructing them on living a new life in Him.

Five books. Five is actually the number of ‘grace’ in the Bible, and there is ‘grace’ in the Torah, as God, the Master Teacher, patiently instructs His—often rebellious—students. Through it all, God shows Himself to be Faithful to His people, keeping the unconditional covenant that He made with His friend Abraham.

The New Covenant is only fully understood as an extension of the covenant that God made with Abraham when He said, ‘since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in Him’ (Gen. 18:18). How would all the nations be blessed through Abram? God sent the Messiah through Abraham’s family tree. In Yeshua, salvation came to the entire world.

Without the Torah promise, there would be no New Covenant through the blood of Yeshua. There is a fascinating verse in the New Covenant in Galatians 3:8 that makes the connection clear: ‘And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, ‘In you all the nations shall be blessed.”

What did Messiah Yeshua think about the Torah? He said in Matthew 5:17, ”Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” What did He mean by that? To fulfill the law meant to bring it to its full intent or completion, showing the true, deeper meaning of God’s instructions—like setting a bone back in place after a break. Yeshua showed us how the Torah was meant to be ‘all about the heart’—not about external rule keeping. In that way, the Torah, and by extension, all of God’s word really becomes a source of JOY: SIMCHA שמחה (seem-KHAH).

You will never experience the joy of the Torah until you open this book (I held up the Bible), and begin to read for yourself. You will find not only words on a page but living words from a Living Torah, the Messiah Himself. I invite you to join in the joy!

You know that song that I wrote in 1978? Listen to the words of the second verse, ‘Yeshua is the Living Word and the joy and rejoicing of my heart. He is the Bread sent down from heaven to feed the flock of Abraham.’ Yes. Yeshua, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, came in the flesh to save us from our sin. The Torah, and the entire Word of God, is a revelation of His great love that causes our soul to rejoice.”

After each YouTube post, I say: “For more Jewish Jewels, please subscribe, like, and click the bell icon to be notified of each new post. Jewish Jewels is one of the longest running Messianic television series on the air, and you can watch over 100 of our most popular episodes on our YouTube channel @JewishJewelsTV. God bless you!”

Simchat Torah and a Spiritual Marriage

In traditional Jewish understanding, God married Israel at the Exodus. The bride price, mohar מהר (MOH-har), was the blood of Egypt’s firstborn sons: (see Psalm 74:2 on God’s “purchase” of Israel). The Lord gave His bride jewels, courtesy of the Egyptians (see Exodus 3:22), took her for her bridal mikvah מקוה (MICK-vuh), “ritual immersion” in the Red Sea, and then brought her to Mt. Sinai where He gave Israel her ketubah כתובה (keh-TOOH-bah) or marriage contract—the Torah.

In recognition of God’s marriage to Israel, Jewish communities around the world wrap their Torah scrolls in beautifully embroidered—often white—”bridal gowns.” The man selected to have the great honor of reading the final verses of the Book of Deuteronomy is called the Khatan Torah חתן תורה  (khah-TAHN TOH-rah), the Bridegroom of the Law. There is also a Khatan B’reisheet חתן בראשית  (khah-TAHN beh-ray-SHEET), the Bridegroom of Genesis, who is called up immediately after the Khatan Torah to read the opening verses of the Book of Genesis.

Bridal imagery continues with lots of joyful dancing with Torah scrolls in what is known as hakafot הכפות (hah-kah-FOHT). An interesting insight from Chabad.org: “Note that it is not called ‘joy with the Torah’ or ‘joy from Torah,’ but ‘joy of Torah.’ This is because the Torah itself rejoices. And when we sing and dance with her, we provide the Torah with legs and partake in her celebration.”

What about kissing the Torah? This gesture, where a worshipper touches the Torah with their fingertips, Bible, or prayer book as it is processed throughout the synagogue, and then kisses their fingers, is done throughout the year, not just on Simchat Torah. The Torah is not worshipped but revered and loved because it is the Holy Word of God.

A traditional Simchat Torah hymn is chanted in some synagogues between the hakafot on Simchat Torah in the evening and morning. The first two of four verses are as follows:

“Rejoice and be glad on Simchat Torah and render honor to the Torah, for it is more profitable than worldly goods, more precious than gold and jewels. Let us be glad and rejoice in this Torah for it is our strength and our light. I will extol my God, find joy in Him, in Him will I place my hope.”

May we, as Messianic believers, also honor and delight in God’s Word and find it more precious than gold and jewels!

Joy of the Torah

The Yoke of the Torah

The “yoke of the Torah” על התורה (OHL ha-toh-RAH) is a classic Jewish idiom that describes a person’s joyful duty to study God’s laws and live by His teachings. To accept the yoke of the Torah is to choose to obey God’s will instead of following one’s own selfish desires. The worshipper voluntarily takes on this yoke out of a desire to be guided and ruled by God. This is not an act of punishment but rather a joyful acceptance of purpose.

I don’t think that the Messiah Yeshua would object to this yoke since, at its core, it is about loving God with all one’s heart, soul, mind, and strength. What He would object to might be another traditional yoke: the “Yoke of the Commandments” על המצות  (OHL ha-mitz-VOHT). Taking on this yoke includes committing to obey and keep the rules in the Mosaic law—although not all 613 commandments can be observed today. A really heavy yoke! Strict, demanding, and legalistic—also impossible to keep. That is why Yeshua spoke about a different yoke, His yoke, in Matthew 11:28-30, “‘Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.'”

Yeshua invites us to walk right beside Him. He helps bear our burdens, and shares the weight. He is gentle, not harsh. Yoked to Yeshua is to be yoked to love itself, and to find peace and rest. It is to be yoked to the Torah fulfilled and made flesh. When we are yoked to Yeshua in loving submission, He becomes our teacher, and His instruction rejoices our heart.

We read in the Brit Hadashah that the Torah, the Law, functions as our teacher, “Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Messiah, that we might be justified by faith” (Gal. 3:24).

The Value of Torah Scrolls

Over the centuries, Jewish people worldwide have preserved Torah scrolls at the expense of their lives. They have rescued them from fire and flood, from Antiochus and Hitler, from earthquakes and antisemites who hate the God of Israel and His revelation at Sinai. Torah scrolls are meticulously made. They are handwritten on parchment by a specially trained scribe, sofer סופר (SOH-fehr). While in Jerusalem one year, my late husband Neil and I visited a scribe in his studio. He explained that the parchment must be from the hide of an animal—sheep, goats, or calves. His special pen was a turkey quill, taken from a kosher fowl. The ink must be black and specially prepared.

Since a scribe is considered to be engaged in sacred work, it is customary for him to immerse himself in a mikvah (ritual bath) on the day he begins writing a new Torah scroll. Before beginning to write, the scribe prays. Each time before writing the name of God, he says aloud, “I am writing the name of God in honor of His holy name.”

Writing a Torah scroll can take as long as a year. It is considered “sacred work,” and the conscientious scribe keeps in mind the sentiment from Exodus 15:2, “This is my God, and I will glorify Him.” The sofer must pronounce each word as he writes it, ensuring intense concentration. He works from a printed copy of the Torah text but never from dictation.

A fascinating fact from This is Torah by Alfred J. Kolatch: “To make sure that the ink is proper in color and viscosity and that the quill is properly slit at the tip to produce the desired thickness of lettering, the scribe runs a test by writing on a piece of paper the name ‘Amalek’ and then drawing lines through it several times.” (See Deut. 25:17-19 for an explanation of Israel’s archenemy.) While minor errors in writing a Torah may be corrected if they do not affect the meaning of the text, the omission or misspelling of God’s name is considered the most serious of all scribal errors, and the scribe must rewrite the entire sheet of parchment.

Psalm 119: All About the Word of God

Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible, has been described as a profound, meticulous celebration of the value of God’s Word. Each of its 22 stanzas matches a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Every verse in a specific stanza begins with that same Hebrew letter.

Some of the most famous verses of Psalm 119 include: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (v.105). “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You” (v.11). “Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law” (v.18). “Your word, Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens” (v.89 NIV). “Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long” (v.97 NIV), and “Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord” (v.1 NIV).

One of my personal favorites from Psalm 119 is verse 32, “I will run the course of Your commandments, for You shall enlarge my heart.” This verse became my prayer after I saw the movie “Secretariat” about the greatest racehorse of all time. After his death, an autopsy showed that this “super horse” had a heart larger than normal. While an average thoroughbred’s heart weighs about 9 pounds, Secretariat’s heart weighed about 22 pounds. That’s why he could run like the wind. I asked God to make me like Secretariat—with an enlarged heart for Him and His Word.

“Abba, please give us enlarged hearts for you in 5787, and may Your Word be to us the JOY and REJOICING of our heart.”

Love in the Living Torah,