The Simcha of Mishpocha, Part Two
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
The Simcha of Mishpocha
Part Two: Living Torah With Your Whole Heart
In Part One, we clarified that one of the key purposes of living a Torah-observant lifestyle is to testify to the truth of HaShem and the atoning sacrifice of Messiah Yeshua. Yeshua instructed, "If you love me, you will keep my commands...," a statement that echoed the words of His Father: In Deuteronomy, Adonai equates turning away from Torah with turning away from Him. (29:18) Adonai promises that when the Israelites finally return to Him and pay attention to Torah:
"Then ADONAI your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your children, so that you will love ADONAI your God with all your heart and all your being, and thus you will live." [Deuteronomy 30:6]In affirming His promise to His people, Adonai reminds them that loving Him and walking in Torah go hand-in-hand:
I call on heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have presented you with life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore, choose life, so that you will live, you and your descendants, loving ADONAI your God, paying attention to what he says and clinging to him - for that is the purpose of your life! On this depends the length of time you will live in the land ADONAI swore he would give to your ancestors Avraham, Yitz'chak and Ya'akov. [Deuteronomy 30:19-20, emphasis mine]When one Rabbi asked Yeshua what he should do to obtain eternal life, Yeshua instructed that he should "observe the mitzvot." (Matt. 19:17) When asked which mitzvot should be observed, Yeshua said, "Don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't give false testimony, honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself." [Matthew 19:18-19] Rav Shaul gives a brilliant mini-drash on Yeshua's answer in Romans 13, verses 8 through 10:
"Don't owe anyone anything - except to love one another; for whoever loves his fellow human being has fulfilled Torah. For the commandments, 'Don't commit adultery,' 'Don't murder,' 'Don't steal,' 'Don't covet,' and any others are summed up in this one rule: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does not do harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fullness of Torah."In other words, Yeshua was not "cancelling out" the observance of all 613 mitzvot in Torah; rather, He was explaining His Father's teaching, that love for and in accordance with Adonai is the foundation of the mitzvot. In observing the mitzvot, our works testify to our faith, a faith grounded in our love for Yeshua.
What does it mean to "love your neighbor as yourself?" Messiah taught
I am giving you a new command: that you keep on loving each other. In the same way that I have loved you, you are also to keep on loving each other. Everyone will know that you are my talmidim by the fact that you have love for each other. [John 13:34-35]Although He calls this "a new command," Yeshua is repeating the mitzvah in Leviticus 19:18, "Don't take vengeance on or bear a grudge against any of your people; rather, love your neighbor as yourself; I am ADONAI." The phrase "love your neighbor as yourself," is translated in Hebrew as, Veahavta l'reyacha kamocha. "Reyacha," although translated in most texts as "neighbor," is more closely translated to mean, "very close companion." In commanding the talmidim to "keep on loving each other," Yeshua reiterated Leviticus 19:18, to "love your very close companion as yourself." For, truly, as the family of Yeshua (Matt. 12:50), and the bride of Messiah, how could we be anything but close companions of one another?
I believe that this familial structure was designed in Torah to govern the body of believers, because HaShem recognized from the beginning the adversity His followers would encounter for walking in the halacha of Yeshua, not the traditions of men. Yeshua echoed:
Listen to me, you who know justice, you people who have my Torah in your heart: don't be afraid of people's taunts, don't be upset by their insults. For the moth will eat them up lie clothing, the worm will eat them like wool; but my justice will be forever, and my salvation for all generations. [Isaiah 51:7-8]in stating,
How blessed you are when people insult you and persecute you and tell all kinds of vicious lies about you because you follow me! Rejoice, be glad, because your reward in heaven is great-- they persecuted the prophets before you in the same way. [Matt. 5:11-12]How could He, having lived a human life, expect His believers, however loving and faithful to Him, to withstand such gross persecution and hatred? Because He knew that His believers, whose halacha was based in Him, would understand that loving your close companion as yourself meant watching out for each other in accordance with the teaching in Torah:
"You are not to watch your brother's ox or sheep straying and behave as if you hadn't seen it; you must bring them back to your brother. If your brother is not close by, or you don't know who the owner is, you are to bring it home to your house; and it will remain with you until your brother asks for it; then you are to give it back to him. You are to do the same with his donkey, his coat or anything else of your brother's that he loses. If you find something he lost, you must not ignore it. If you see your brother's donkey or ox collapsed on the road, you may not behave as if you hadn't seen it; you must help him get them up on their feet again." [Deuteronomy 22:1-4]We are to love each other as He loved us. Yeshua loved us so much that He laid down His life for us. He sacrificed Himself so that we, who lost our way, could be saved and set right on the path to eternal life. In turn, as a living testimony to the Truth of our salvation, we are instructed to become like Yeshua in our love for our close companions, our mishpocha in Messiah. We are to look out and care for each other just as Yeshua did for us.
If the greatest command is to "love the L-rd your G-d with all your heart, soul, and strength," and, in order to testify to the truth of this, we must live out the mitzvot, how can we claim the veracity of this greatest mitzvot without also observing the second greatest, "to love your close companion as yourself," with equal fervor?
Stay Tuned for Part Three: From Slave, to Servant, to Friend
Messianic Judaism
Torah
Yeshua
mishpocha
talmidim
posted by Shoshana @ 12:45 PM
