Dear friends,
I was set straight about "the 613 commandments" by a
friend and brother. He sent me this link and
admonition:
The trappings of Judaism are a poor substitute for
having the indwelling of God's spirit and being cleansed by the
sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
I thought that the 613 commandments had been
derived from the scriptures alone. This is because a friend of mine
had faithfully identified 659 identifiable commands from the scripture
before, and later revised his study to identify many more.
I had assumed that Jewish practitioners
had gone through a similar faithful study to arrive at their
number. When I saw the list posted at the above site, I found that
some were and many were not derived out of the scripture. The 613
laws of Judaism contain some laws summarized from the scriptures, but many
of their laws are merely Jewish traditions that use some scriptural
reference that may be somewhat related to the idea, but are not laws
recorded in the scripture. According to one source, Judaism has 2800
other rules.
I wanted to let you know that I was wrong
when I thought the so called "613 commandments" were from the
scripture. Some are, but others are not.
Love,
Marlin
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, October 29, 2004 5:24
AM
Subject: RE: [TruthTalk] 613
Commands
Hi Judy:
613 commands in the Torah, yes. Directly from
God, not man. Why? Because God says Be Holy, because I AM holy.
This is HOW a holy, set-apart people live. This is how you deal
with this, this is how you deal with that. God has a whole system of
government set up. Gee, too bad we didn't follow it in the first place.
Maybe then our courts wouldn't be as messed up as they
are.
I don't understand WHY people freak out over
613 commands. They're reiterated in the newer Testament. In fact, the
newer Testament contains 1,050 commands! Yeshua made the commands
fuller, harder even.
Yes, there are 613 commands. However, YOU don't
have to follow each of them. There are commands for men, which you're
not a man, so they don't apply. I know you're not a Levitical
priest, so, whack away a whole SLEW of the 613. Let's see...how about
instructions (law) for you in particular since you're a woman.....Not to
get personal, but I believe you're an older woman, correct? Well,
then you can knock out the laws for Niddah (the monthly cycle) as well
as the child bearing laws.
When you were raising your children, didn't you
have House Rules? Why did you give the Rules of the House to your
children? To keep them safe? To keep order? To protect? God did the same
thing for us. He's a loving Father who wants to keep His children safe
and holy. Did you ever give your children a rule that they didn't
understand? You knew the reasoning behind it and it was probably a good
reason. God does the same thing. Every single one of the 613 fall under
TWO categories. Every single law of the 613 have to do with either A.
Loving God, or B. Loving your Neighbor. Funny, our house rules are just
like that. I bet yours were, too.
Kabbalah is something different, Judy. It's a
much deeper spiritual application. I would not suggest reading it. There
are also two different types of Kabbalah. God Himself says the laws He
gives are "not far from you". It is NOT impossible. Maybe we should list
all the laws and see exactly how many apply. Would that
help?
Being worn out due to learning a new one every
day is something Paul was attempting for others coming in. It's what he
speaks of in Acts...Kay's paraphrase....
Paul and the Council: Okay, we've got to DO
something with these people coming in. We can't fellowship with them.
They can't come into the sanctuary. In order to be able to do that...we
have to give them these four rules....don't fornicate, don't eat
strangled foods, don't worship other idols....they'll be coming to the
synagogue every Shabbat. They'll be hearing the Torah when they come
each week. It takes us three years to read the whole Torah. They can
handle little bits of it each week. They'll learn. Slow, but sure,
they'll build up and they'll learn. That's what we can do with them!
Wow, we solved our problem!
I've got lots of people in for the weekend. I
won't be on much. Shall we look at ALL the laws and see what they are
about? See which ones apply and then maybe we'll have a good number?
Maybe after that, we should check out the 1050 in the Newer Testament
and compare when we're done with that.
Kay
Once more I stand corrected. I
was under the impression we were all talking about the same thing.
Now I see we are not - 613
Commandments, you've got to be kidding? Last I heard mention
of this was through Ellsman..........
So I did a search and found
"Ask Moses" (modern day you understand) who tells me there are 248
positive and 365 negative commandments for a total of 613.
What a load whereas Jesus says "My yoke is easy and my burden is
light" so I would much rather learn from Him.
I'm sorry Jeff and Slade as I
thought we were talking about the same thing. When I say Torah I
mean the writings of Moses as revealed by the Spirit of God without
all of the add ons and extras. I see where the Kaballah (that
occult business Madonna is into) is attached to this in some way
also which further complicates things. One
poor soul who is just
beginning to learn of Jewish heritage wrote that every day they were
learning about another law or commandment and they were worn out and
overwhelmed by all the mitzvot!
Whew!! Kay, do you do
all this as well??
