What does the word "Torah" mean?

[Jacob Ben Avraham]

What does the word "Torah" mean?


Let’s just talk about the word “Torah” for a moment. It has been mistranslated in Bibles as the word “law” which comes from the Latin “Legis” Something legalistic. Yet the word in the original Hebrew “Torah” means “instruction”, so, every place in the Bible where the word “law” is found should really be translated as “instruction” (from our LORD and God YHVH). Once we get this word from the right perspective, then, a lot of misunderstandings can be corrected. If the word for "Torah" had been correctly translated into Latin, it would have translated as "instructio" or "educatio" not "legis."

So, how many “Torahs” are there? One? Two? Three? If we investigate way back going about six-thousand years. We come to the creation of this world. Up to the time of Moshe (Moses), YHVH spoke verbally to the patriarchs, starting from Adam and Chavah (Eve). They passed on the words of Elohim to their children and their children to their children and so forth. One could say that this was the first “Oral Torah”. Finally, we come to Moshe and YHVH speaks to him in person. Moshe writes down everything the Adonai tells him and thus, we have the first five books of the Bible. The prophets followed, writing down the words of God, continued by a few kings, namely David and Solomon.

Then we come to the New Covenant letters, and books comprised of Yeshua’s talmidim (disciples) and followers. They were all inspired by the Ruach HaKodesh (The Holy Spirit) as to what to write. They wrote down Adonai’s words in Hebrew and in Greek, since the world was dominated by the Greeks. The best way to reach the nations was to write in Greek. From Greek, the Bible was translated into Latin and then into all the languages of the world.

The Hebraic way of understanding God's Word is through the following ways; "Peshat" (the basic and natural, literal meaning of a verse or verses) "Derash" (a "drash" is a moral or spiritual understanding of the verse or verses) "Remez and Sod" are symbolic meanings, using of course, symbolisms, and also "gematria" which is a number system which assigns each Hebrew letter with a number. When two words have the same number value, there is usually a relationship between the two. Mind you this is NOT numerology. Gematria has been used by rabbis for hundreds of years. An example of Hebraic symbolism in the letters that spell "T-O-R-A-H" is that there are only 4 letters, the vowels are not written. But going from right to left, in the ancient symbolism of the letters, we get "The First Covenant of the Nail revealed" which is what the Torah points to, to Yeshua who bore the nails in his hands. There have been many "covenants" but only ONE was a "covenant of the nails" which illustrates our God in human form dying for humanity, receiving the nails in his hands on a rugged cross.

The WORD of God is correct in every detail, there are NO contradictions in it. If there were, that would mean that YHVH is a God of error, and this is not so. Those who say that there are contradictions, do not understand the original words and their meanings, therefore, it is a good thing to have a basic knowledge of Hebrew and Greek. Why did YHVH give us HIS complete and Holy WORD?

The WORD of God is read in a continuous cycle. It is all related, one part with another. There are a few ways in which we can look at it. For example. When we finish reading Deuteronomy, we begin again with Genesis. The last word in Deuteronomy is “Israel” and the first word in Genesis is “B’reisheet” (In the beginning). So how do we inter-relate this? One could say that “In the beginning” even before the foundations of the world, God had “Israel” in his heart and mind. We could take a step further. The last letter of the word “Israel” is the “l” (lamed) and the first letter in Genesis is “B” (Beit). Lamed and Beit (L + V) spell “Lev” which means “heart”

We could say that God had Israel always in his “heart” even at the beginning of everything. The gematria for “Lev” is 30 + 2 = 32. 3 + 2 = 5, “5” is the number of “grace”. God had grace in his heart for Israel, even when Israel walked away and went after idols. “Lev” is also “instruction for the house”. The Torah is instruction for the “House of God”.

We could go a step further. The Torah doesn’t stop at the end of Deuteronomy but continues to Malachi. The last word in Malachi is “curse” (in English) but in Hebrew, the word is “Cherem” The prophet is admonishing his people to repent or Adonai will strike the earth with a curse.

Genesis starts with a “Blessing” the perfect creation of the earth for mankind, yet at the end, we see a “curse” that man brought upon himself when he sinned, so in that way, “blessings and curses” are related. We can have one or the other, obedience or disobedience, our choice.

We can also see that the last letter in Malachi is a “mem” (m) which symbolizes “water” and in Genesis, the earth was formed out of “water”.
When we read the Book of Revelation, we see that the very last word is; "Amen" the letter "n" in Hebrew is "Nun" So when we take the first letter of the Bible/Torah "B" and add the last letter of the Bible/Torah "N" we get the word "Ben" (son) so the whole Bible/Torah directs a person to the "Son" (of God) who is Yeshua.

The Torah is about a perfect and Holy God, whose most holy name is Yod Hey Vav Hey (YHVH). Written with ancient paleo-Hebrew letters, the letters symbolize “Behold the hand, behold the nail”. A perfect revelation of Messiah Yeshua on Calvary’s cross, receiving in his hands, the nails that held him fast to the crucifixion stake. There he paid for all of our sins, past, present, and future.

Second, the Bible was written to humanity because, in the fallen state caused by sin, man had to be re-directed back to YHVH, through Yeshua. In this way, mankind could have a renewed covenant relationship with his creator. Yeshua described it as the “New Birth” in John 3:3.

Once man has a renewed relationship with YHVH, he is directed towards a holy, sanctified living through following the commandments which were written down by Moshe. Yeshua also fulfilled the commandments by giving a correct interpretation of them and how they applied to our lives. Even though there are 613 commandments (mitzvoth) in all. Not all apply to us today, since we are not under the Levitical priesthood, nor are we under the animal sacrificial system. Still, many DO apply to us, and that is the reason for Bible/Torah study.

Today, we have “commentaries” on God’s word, or, “Midrashim”. About 400 years after Yeshua, the rabbis and sages compiled the “Talmud” which are commentaries on the Torah, written by the rabbis of old. These are books, articles, and writings, that rabbis have written, giving THEIR interpretation of what the Torah means, but, it is only “commentary”. Is it good to read and study the Talmud? I would say it is good to read ALL things related to God’s Word, BUT, we should always compare commentary to the written WORD of God. If it lines up with what the Bible teaches, it is a good thing, if not, as I said, it is just, “commentary” the opinion of someone who is not God. As one rabbi said, “Reading commentary is like eating a bony fish. Throw away the bones and digest the meat!”

“Torah Parashot” or “Portions from the Torah” are read and studied every week for one year. A “Torah portion” consists of readings from the five books that Moshe wrote. Many refer to the first 5 books of Moses as the "Law of Moses." This also is a misnomer. Moses was not the author of the Torah (which many call "law") The author was God, and He gave the instructions to Moses to write down and pass along to others. Then we have the readings from the Prophets, and readings from the Brit HaDashah, “The New Covenant”. The readings start on the Day of Simchat Torah. On this day, we start from the “beginning” which is a perfect place to start any reading. Today, is the day we start reading Genesis 1:1. I'll send the Genesis study a little while later.

Ben Avraham