2. Preservation of the Law
Israel’s duty towards the Law includes the preservation of the Law, the application of the Law and the recognition of the true teachers of the Law. Each of these can be broken down into subcategories, and as it is with any living entity, each of its elements is interconnected with every other element.
Israel’s charge to preserve the Law for future generations can be divided along the lines of static and living, or letter and spirit. There are static, unchanging units of information that must be passed on to future generations, and there is an understanding of the Law, a familiarity with the personality of the Law that our children must learn. As a witness to God, the Jew sees it as an imperative of the highest order to transmit to the next generation the Law that he received from the previous generation. The means that Israel applies to discharge her duty are the books of scripture, living observance, the power of the rabbinic institution, and the living discussion.
a) Through scripture
The Torah scroll (- the Five Books of Moses) plays a central role in the preservation of the Law. God Himself established the Five Books of Moses as a principal component in the process of preserving the Law. The basic core of every Law is recorded in the Five Books, and by utilizing the appropriate methods of interpretation, many of the details of the Law can be inferred from between the lines. By reading the Five Books as part of a living community, much of the spirit of the Law is perpetuated from generation to generation. It is the nation’s duty to preserve the integrity of the Five Books and to inspire their children with the appropriate respect for the Five Books and for the role they play in the nation’s destiny. The scholars and the judges of each generation must pass on the methods of interpretation that they received from their own teachers, so that their disciples can see into the soul of the scripture as their fathers did before them.
The remaining books of scripture (- the Prophets and the Writings), perform a minor role in the preservation of the letter of the Law, but God designated them to fortify the nation’s grasp of the spirit of the Law. The historical narratives represent God’s relationship with the nation and with individuals. The criticism of the prophets help us understand the perfection that God demands of His beloved nation, while the reassurance and the hopeful prophecies inspire an appreciation for the holy beauty of the perfect Law. The yearnings of the Psalmist give voice to the heart of Israel and inspire future generations of Jews to discover the God of their fathers. Through the words of the prophets, the Jew preserved a sense of the national relationship with God, and an appreciation for the central role that the Law plays in that relationship.
As long as the nation resided in her own land and spoke the language of their fathers they saw no need for an official translation of scripture. This changed with the Babylonian exile. At that point in time the Aramaic language gained predominance amongst the people. With the introduction of this foreign language a gap was created between the masses and the scriptures. This presented a challenge to the nation’s responsibility to preserve the Law. A solution to this problem was found in the Aramaic Targumim. These were authoritative translations of the scriptures that were read in public together with the Hebrew scriptures. Every translation will necessarily reflect some of the thought process of the translator. The Targumim actually take this one step further. The authors of the Targumim included much extra-scriptural material in their translations. Being that these were translations with wide popular usage, they reflect the mind-set of the nation in her approach to scripture. Not only did the Tragumim serve to connect the people with scripture, the helped preserve the sense of reading scripture as a Jew – a member of Eternal Israel.
b) Through the living teaching process
Another means through which the nation discharges her duty to maintain the Law, is the instrument of the living teaching process. Every Jew is enjoined to study the Law and to teach it to his children. This process generates discussion. These discussions take place on many levels. A child may question his mother concerning the practical observance of the Law as it relates to his own life. Students will hear the Law from their teachers, and interact with their teacher as they try to understand the Law. After a day’s work, the laborer and the merchant will gather in the synagogues and houses of study to immerse themselves in the intricacies of the Law. The scholars and the judges will debate the Law according to their own acumen and grasp of the Law. The teaching process and the living discussion preserve the broad measure of knowledge necessary for a nation to apply the Law to their daily lives.
When the nation was concentrated in the Land of Israel, this discussion remained a living process. The aggregate of scholarship united in one basic geographical region maintained the cohesiveness and the integrity of the process. This phenomenon held true even after the Babylonian exile. As long as the lines of communication were direct and open between the centers of scholarship, the discussion was adequately maintained in the hearts, the minds and on the mouths of the people. The later years of the Second Temple era and the period following the destruction were marked by political instability. These circumstances forced the nation to disperse in fulfillment of God’s remonstration (Deuteronomy 28:64). Together with the fragmentation of Israel into scattered and isolated communities came the gradual break-down of central leadership. This situation necessitated the augmentation of the living discussion with the written word. The books of the Mishna and the Talmud were created to support the living process of teaching and interaction. These books helped the nation maintain the cohesiveness and the unity of the thought process. As time went on more books were written as contributions to the ongoing living discussion. Today, a rabbinical library will be filled with books, each one representing another scholar’s share in the eternal conversation. Still, even after all of these books have been written, the teaching process is primarily a living system. The only way to develop Torah scholarship is through interaction with living teachers and peers.
c) Through Practical observance of the Law
The practical observance of the Law is yet another method which serves to perpetuate the Law in the minds of Eternal Israel. In the natural course of events the first contact a Jewish child will have with the Law is through the living observance of His parents. Long before the child can read, he develops a familiarity with the basic rudiments of the Law. As he matures, he will learn many of the fine details of the Law through his participation in the practical observance of a living community. Through the experience of the living observance, the Jew comes to recognize the personality of the Law in general, and the spirit of each individual commandment. In the mind of a community who lives the Law, the commandments stand as tangible entities of great influence (Psalm 119:24). The other means of preserving the Law, namely the scriptures and the living discussion are immeasurably enhanced by the living observance. Reading about the Law in scripture, or joining a living discussion about the Law without having experienced the Law firsthand, is the same as reading a book about food or joining a discussion about food without ever having tasted it. The activities of reading about the Law and discussing the Law, take on entirely different dimensions for someone who lives the Law.
d) Through the Rabbinic decree
The power of the Rabbinic decree was employed by the nation’s leadership as part of the national effort to preserve the Law. In many situations, when the nation’s spiritual sensors realized that the people were losing touch with the spirit of a given law they implemented a Rabbinic decree to reinforce the nation’s hold on the Law. These decrees are psychological tools calculated to produce a specific effect in the minds of the people. The observance of the decrees in the context of a living society creates an atmosphere that enables the people to connect with the Law.
The three daily prayers stand as an illustration of the Rabbinic decree. God had enjoined the people to offer Him two lambs every day. The practical application of this commandment had the priests in the Temple acting on behalf of the nation at three specific points during the day (Numbers 28:4, Leviticus 6:2 [6:9 in the KJV]). If we look beyond the letter of the Law we see much more than the burning of two animals. We see the nation as a whole standing as one entity before God. Israel is directed by God to stand before Him and express her subservience to Him and total dependence upon Him. This commandment brings Israel’s special relationship with God into conscious focus, for it is in the Temple built by Israel and the offerings brought by Israel that God graciously accepts. The fact that the same offerings were repeated continuously since Sinai (Numbers 28:6), instilled in the nation a sense of standing before God together with their ancestors. These lofty concepts and many more are inherent in the daily offerings. When the spiritual leadership of the nation realized that many people are losing touch with these foundational impressions, they formulated the daily prayers. These prayers unite the Jewish people of all times in worship of God. By practicing this Rabbinic enactment the Jewish people preserved much of the holiness that was implicit in the daily offerings.
Another prominent Rabbinic decree is the hand-washing enactment. The purity laws take up many chapters in the Law of Moses. On a practical level these laws affect certain groups of people in specific situations. These laws pertain to all who partake of the offerings or who enter the Temple precincts, those who eat the second tithe in Jerusalem, and to the priests whose bread is holy. The impact that the purity laws had on these people was tremendous. Once one underwent the purification process it was necessary for them to maintain a much heightened sense of alertness. Any contact with an individual or with an object, no matter how slight is liable to negate the status of purity (depending on the status of the person or object). These laws had a powerful disciplinary effect for they forced the people to keep a high level of mental and physical consciousness and alacrity. Observance of these laws instilled in the people the sense that every action, no matter how slight, is significant before God. On a spiritual level, these laws inspired an awareness that the activity of eating with the appropriate frame of mind is an act of devotion towards God. Eating with the recognition that one is sitting at God’s table is an experience that is central to the Jew’s relationship with God. The laws of purity guided the people in the realization that the food they eat is holy. All of the moral discipline and the spiritual benefits of the purity laws were encapsulated by the Rabbis, in a miniature format, in the hand-washing decree. For more than 2000 years now, the hand-washing decree served to keep the nation in touch with the spirit of the biblical purity laws.
Originally posted on: https://yourphariseefriend.wor...