This next section is written by my dear friend Jessie Hill. Jessie is a wonderful retired lady that lives in California. She is a mother and grandmother that has been prolific in her writing and studying over the years. Both Tom Holeman and Eddie Chumney have met and visited with Jessie in California over the years, and she has been a support of HaY=Did since the early 1990's before we were even officially organized. I ran across this article and felt that it was time that Jessie be published. Her simple way of teaching truths to beginners may help you and others to understand some basic truths about Torah and how we Christians got so far off base. Remember to always study for yourself, but I think you will understand more fully after reading Jessie=s essay on Torah does not mean law as contained in this except. Shalom and thanks, Jessie for your support, prayers and love over the years! Cheryle Holeman

I n t r o d u c t i o n to the Study of Jewish Roots

AYe shall not add unto the Word which I command you, neither shall ye DIMINISH from it, that ye may keep the commandments of Jehovah your God which I command you.@ -- Deuteronomy 4:2, ASV

While Deut. 4. 4:2 does mean that we are forbidden to add words to or remove words from the Biblical Script itself, we should not overlook its more comprehensive intent. By deleting the Prophets and other portions of the Old Testament from our studies, we DIMINISH God=s Word and are not adequatelyequipped to comply with his directives.

Even with God having spread before us an elaborate banquet with hidden delights in every mouthful, Many have chosen to partake of just a limited portion of it. This is why the Body of Believers is so weak today. We need the whole counsel of God for our proper growth and development.

Hosea, Amos, Joel, and the other Prophets all spoke in a three-fold manner:

(1) A message for that day and time.

(2) Messiah=s role and influence shown.

(3) A preview of Latter-Day events.

These three applications of prophecy will be found to overlay one another like transparencies, and this is how we are to examine the Prophets. They are historical, yes, but they are not only historical. We are also to look for Messiah in every passage. Finally, we are to study the prophets with the expectation that this history will repeat and show us what will be taking place in our day B in the ALast Days@ so frequently mentioned by them.

JEREMIAH 50:4-5

4) In those days, and in that time, saith JEHOVAH, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah TOGETHER, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek JEHOVAH their God.

ATogether,@ again calls to mind Ezekiel 37:16-28 picture of the two sticks joining together in common dedication, weeping with joy at their restoration beyond all hope, and with sorrow at the remembrance of their sins and sufferings.

5) They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces toward it, saying, come, and let us join ourselves to JEHOVAH in a perpetual covenant that shall NOT be forgotten.

A Aperpetual covenant@ would contrast with the old covenant Awhich they brake.@

H O S E A 4

HOSEA 4:1

1) Hear the word of JEHOVAH, ye Children of Israel: for JEHOVAH hath a CONTROVERSY with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.

AControversy@ is #7379 riyb or rib, meaning a contest, personal or legal. Gesenius says that it means strife, contention, and a forensic cause. Webster says Aforensic@ means public forum, characteristic or suitable for a law court or public debate.

God is making a court charge B suing them for withholding knowledge. God is the plaintiff, and the Israelites are the defendants.

It is Jehovah versus Israel and Judah, and the whole thing centers around KNOWLEDGE. In Hebrew the word for knowledge is #1847, da=ath. Just hear what was involved:

HOSEA 4:2-10

2) By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and the blood toucheth blood.

3) Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.

4) Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another: for thy people are as they that strive with the priest.

5) Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother.

6) MY PEOPLE ARE DESTROYED FOR LACK OF KNOWLEDGE.

Because THOU HAST REJECTED KNOWLEDGE, I will also reject thee, that THOU SHALT BE NO PRIEST TO ME, seeing that thou hast forgotten the law [Torah, the instruction] of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

7) As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore, will I change their glory into shame.

8) They eat up the sin of my people and they set their heart on their iniquity.

9) And there shall be, like people, like priest: and I will punish them for their ways, and reward them their doings.

10) For they shall eat, and not have enough: they shall commit whoredom, and shall not increase; because they have LEFT OFF TO TAKE HEED TO JEHOVAH.

Falling into compliance with Satan=s design, our growth was stunted and we became warped.

Lack of knowledge has become one of our most identifiable characteristics. Let us review how this came to be.

At the time of the Bar Kokhba Revolt in 135 A.D., Gentile believers began out-numbering Jewish believers, and the pressure was on the Gentiles not to do things that were Jewish.

There were two types of thought: Jewish and Greek Hellenistic. Hellenistic thought came primarily from people like Plato. People began taking thoughts like those of Plato and reinterpreting the Bible accordingly. Men who did this became known as AThe Church Fathers.@

In 325 Common Era, the Roman Emperor Constantine who, because he was the head of the Roman religion, assumed the title of Pontifex Maximus, which the heathen emperors before him had appropriated. This put him on equal footing with heathen priests. Constantine supposedly became Christian, but he was really a true Hellenist. To be a AChurch Father@ your doctrine had to agree with Constantine, and HE decreed who the church fathers WERE:

Justin Martyr - who taught that the Jews were the seed of the devil and that anything Jewish was sinful and any type of Jewish perspective was sin.

Origen B who came along and translated much of the Bible we have today; he said the same thing that Justin Martyr had said.

These teachings continued on through time, and we are still hearing them today. Let us take a look at some of those things which have been passed on to us.

A number of denominations today have Apriests.@ In the Bible there were only two types of priests: Levitical and Pagan. If you are not of the Levitical Priesthood, but you call yourself a Apriest,@ what does that make you? A Pagan one! Additionally, Jehovah=s earthly high priest had to descend directly from the line of Aaron.

The job of a priest was primarily to TEACH. They were to teach the KNOWLEDGE (Da=ath) of the Lord. This was their primary job B it was not the doing of sacrifices, even though that is what they did. Even that was used as a tool in teaching the people.

Rabbi means Ateacher.@ A rabbi of the First Century was very different from the Jewish rabbi today. Today=s rabbi is set up after the pattern of Christianity, having to be a minister over the people. In the First Century a rabbi was simply a teacher.

In the First Century there were no pastors. There were elders who pastored and they controlled the synagogues. When they went out, they were called evangelists, carrying the good news. When they were sent out to do different jobs, they were called apostles, the Asent ones.@ These were their functions, and they worked together.

Priests changed in the days of Yeshua. To be the high priest, you had to be the firstborn son of the house of Aaron. But there were many wars and much Hellenism coming in, and the Romans had come to power. The office of high priest then came to be one that you bought. The Romans generally let you keep it for a year and then sold it to the highest bidder. The garments of the high priest were held by the Romans and only allowed to be worn on special occasions. This is why Paul in Acts 23:4-5 did not realize he was speaking to the high priest. He said, AI did not know that he was the high priest; for it is written, Thou shall not speak evil of the ruler of thy people.@

MALACHI 2:7-9

11) For the priest=s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of JEHOVAH of hosts.

12) But ye are departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith JEHOVAH of hosts.

13) Therefore, have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have NOT kept my ways, but have been partial in the law.

Christianity got its Apriests@ from Babylonian systems which the Romans had adopted.

Brothers and Sisters, we have not forgotten the Torah, the Alaw@ instruction of God. We never LEARNED it. Where are our teachers? Who is there today who can go forth and teach us? We hear much about faith. It is echoed across congregations and over the airwaves. Faith teachings are coming forth from Hellenism; they are not from the Judaic perspective in which they were given. The writers of the New Testament and Yeshua himself came from a Jewish background.

There is no such thing in the entire Bible as Ablind faith.@ You believe in God because you have come to KNOW God. As you receive INSTRUCTION from God, you SEE him, you understand him. Another part of faith (Hebrew emunah) is works (mitzah, mitzvot). In the Jewish mind, Aobedience@ is linked to knowledge. Obedience and knowledge are linked together.

Within Christianity, if you say Aworks@ many pull back because what they THINK you are saying is that you are being saved by works. NO, you CANNOT be saved by works. You can only be saved by faith; but faith without works is dead B James 2:17.

Yeshua said, AIf you love me, KEEP my commandments.@ There are 613 of them!

WE HAVE BEEN SERIOUSLY ROBBED!

Why is Christianity in such a fix? Because we have been without the instruction, the torah of God, which shows us the Messiah. Satan has done a number on us B we hear statements like, AI have freedom because I am not under the legalism of the law. I don=t have to KNOW any of that stuff; I just love Jesus.@ Yes, you are to love Yeshua, and you are to learn of him; but you are not to reject God=s INSTRUCTION that he gave you ABOUT him.

We have knowledge and learn from the instruction. What we learn HAS to be APPLIED. In Hebrew Acommandment@ is mitzvah and that is the SAME word you have for Aworks.@ Faith without commandments is nothing.

We can either walk in God=s ways, in God=s thoughts, in God=s instructions, OR we can do something which is a SUBSTITUTE. A substitute can be CLOSE -- it can be gratifying, but is it the way of God? AThe people who KNOW their God shall be strong and carry out exploits@ Dan. 11:32. The word Aexploits@ is not even in that Hebrew text. The text just says, AThe people who know their God shall be strong and carry out.@ Stop and think about it.

We talk about salvation and how one is Asaved@; but how much do we really understand about salvation? Much of the salvation teaching we now have came from Hellenism, as did many of the other things we have been taught all along.

What we need to do today is go back and reexamine the Scriptures. Look at them with new eyes. It is hard to hear this, but we need to forget most of what we have been taught to believe and become like babes. Christianity is Hellenistic.

Pray for teachers B real TEACHERS. If you want to grow, you need to learn. You are going to have to study for yourself and prove out everything you hear.

Get a Strong=s Concordance. You can learn to use it in just five minutes. With this book you can find out which Hebrew or Greek word was used in the Scriptures.

Professor Strong was writing mainly a concordance, but there is a dictionary in the back, though it is not the very best dictionary. Get a Gesenius= Hebrew Chaldee Lexicon that is coded to Strong=s numbering system. At times it will have three, four, five pages of definitions on just a single word; and it is NOT based on Hellenistic teachings and viewpoints.

We previously saw Romans 10:4 reading that Messiah was the Aend of the law@ for righteousness. Anybody reading that would say, AThe law is OVER.@ When we go back and look at it in the Hebrew and Greek, we find it really says, Afor Messiah is the GOAL of the INSTRUCTION for righteousness.@ (See Jewish New Testament by Dr. David Stern)

This is where the lexicons show up as imperative tools. A train can travel over parallel tracks; but if one track starts going the slightest bit in another direction, it will be very far apart down the way. This is how the slightest changes to God=s Word will impact our walk. We must find out what the Scriptures are really saying.

We read Bibles which have been translated into English from the Greek and Hebrew. If we really could be shot back in time, like in Back to the Future, and were to say to Abraham, ANot a creature was stirring, not even a mouse,@ Abraham could translate Acreature@ and Amouse@ and Astirring@ into Hebrew, his native tongue, and do it accurately, too. But do you really think he would comprehend the essence behind those words?

Just how much of Judaic writing are we comprehending? Yes, we can translate each word with accuracy. But what about the idioms? What about the essence behind the words? How much which needed no explaining then would have to be explained today? We have to learn about Jewish thought, and that is not an easy thing for we who grew up in the west. This is the United States, and we are in the 1990=s when most of the denominations are saying we do not need this type of thing. Yes, we do! We need to learn the Religious Calendar, and we need to learn the Festivals. There are books which will assist us in recovering some of our losses, not the least of which are the ones already mentioned B Strong=s, Gesenius=, and Thayer=s Lexicon. We must be able to identity the Festivals and dates in Scripture. For example:

EZEKIEL 40:1a

1a) In the five and twentieth year of our captivity, in the beginning of the year, in the tenth day of the month Y

What day is that? It is the 10^th of Nisan. Did anything significant occur on that day? How about these:

1. The lamb was tethered in Egypt, Exodus 12:3

2. Yeshua rode into Jerusalem, Matthew 21.

3. Upon crossing Jordan into the Promised Land, the Israelites were circumcised, Joshua 4.

4. The city was smitten (captured), Ezekiel 40:1.

5. Ezekiel had his Temple Vision, Ezekiel 40:1.

AIn the beginning of the year@ was NOT our month January. It was the month Nisan which is sometimes called Abib or Aviv, the first month on the Religious Calendar which God gave exclusively to Israel at the exodus. Are the five events on this same date coincidental? Since God orchestrates it all, of course not; and, if ye try, we can discover the common denominator in them.

NEHEMIAH 8:2

6) And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month.

Okay: What day is this one? It is the first of Tishri, the Feast of Trumpets. Now, when we read Nehemiah 8:2, we get this sneak preview of some Millennial Age activity. Beyond the blast of the shofar and the resurrection of the dead that we have always associated with the Feast of Trumpets, we get this additional insight. People will all hear the righteous regulations of God=s instructions. This will be of great consternation to those who have been oppressing others; but what a COMFORT it will bring to those who were being oppressed. Real justice at last!

Have you ever before seen all of that in Nehemiah 8:2? Well, knowing dates and the festivals will open other passages for you as well. Why then settle for the ten-dollar-bills, when God has scattered these hundred-dollar-bills around for those who are hungry? Why pass them by? Learn his Festivals. Learn his Religious Calendar. Be rich. It is the devil who wants you to be poor; he came to rob and steal, and it is high time we put him out of that business.

Quit giving space to Satan who tells us that the Book of Leviticus is no longer applicable. EVERYTHING in God=s word is current and meant for life-instruction. Leviticus 23 is the key cahpter for the seven major festivals. Start there.

H O S E A 8

DEUTERONOMY 30:19

19) I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have setbefore you life and death, blessing and CURSING: Therefore, choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.

One of the things spelled out to them in the curses and blessings of Deuteronomy 28 was the following one for disobedience:

DEUTERONOMY 28:49-51

49) JEHOVAH shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle [#5404 vulture] flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shall not understand.

50) A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to the young.

51) And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee.

HOSEA 8:1-2

1) Set the trumpet [#7782 shofar] to thy mouth. He shall come as an eagle [#5404 vulture] against the house of JEHOVAH, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law [#8451 torah].

2) Israel shall cry unto me, My God, w know thee.

AI never knew you@ was the answer in Matthew 7:22-23 to ALord, Lord, have we not done many wonderful things in your name?@

HOSEA 8:3

3) Israel hath cast off the thing that is good: the enemy shall pursue him.

Did Israel possess a copy of God=s Word? Yes, they have it. Why, then, has Christianity Acast off the good@? Their excuse is an exact copy of the one Israel had. They want to do things their own way; they have stopped up their ears and in song they glorify their disobedience B AI did it MY way.@

So Gomer not only pictures Israel and Judah, but Christianity as well. We have all gone off into spiritual idolatry and have nothing to boast about. AWhy beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother=s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?@ was what Yeshua had to say in Matthew 7:3. We are in no position to point a finger.

Just like Israel, we discarded the Torah. Has the law really ended? Well, 29 years after the resurrection of Yeshua, we find Paul still keeping it. He and four other men came to the temple to go through the required sacrifices of Numbers 6 to end their Nazarite Vow of Separation. For all five men, a total of 15 animals were sacrificed. If the law had truly come to an end, are we to believe that the Apostle Paul would somehow not be aware of it? Acts 21:23-24.

Today, the first book taught to five-year-olds in Orthodox Judaism is the Book of Leviticus. For the most part, Christianity has deleted that Book. Can we answer, for example, which of the sacrifices had the kidneys removed first? No. But the Orthodox Jewish child knows.

Torah instructions show us Messiah=s identity. At his first coming, every Jew should have said, AThat is HIM!@ Why was it that so very few did? It was because at that time a very different picture of Messiah had been presented to them; and when he came as Messiah ben Joseph, the Suffering Servant, many did not accept him.

Israel developed under many advantages, but Israel fell. The church has also developed under many advantages. It, too, will miss the mark. People will be expecting the Jesus that has been portrayed to them.

HOSEA 8:4

4) They have set up kings, but not by me [without my consent]: they have made princes, and I knew it not [without my approval]: of their silver and gold have they made them idols that they may be cut off.

We have Amade princes.@ We have brought in many high salaried ministers to say what we would like to hear, thus taking control from God and placing it in the hands of erring men. Paid ministers feel under obligation to say what is expected of them by their congregations.

Let us check out what Pace-Setter Paul had to say along this lilne:

ACTS 20:33

33) I have coveted no man=s silver, or gold, or apparel.

Psalm 119 discloses that the Torah is the thoughts and ways of God. And it was applied to man long before having been written down at Mount Sinai. Adam had it; Noah had it; Abraham, Isaac, Jacob had it. The Torah was in the mind of God long before ever he created anything. It was his very nature.

There are 613 commandments in the written Torah. No one can keep them all because some apply exclusively to the high priest B for instance, he cannot tear his garment. About one hundred apply to women only= some ninety apply to the temple.

Can sacrifices and offerings be carried out today? No. These were to have been performed at the temple. The temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. Given back the temple, who could do sacrifices? Only the Jews. It was never given to Gentlies. Does that mean that we are to discard God=s teachings about the sacrifices and offerings? No. What God had written down was for our edification, whether we perform sacrifices or not.

But when the temple DID EXIST, WHY DID God=s people turn away from it? They were misinformed; they were deceived. AMy people PERISH for LACK OF KNOWLEDGE.@ The leaders, those to whom the people looked for guidance, brought in their substitutes, like the golden calf. We in Christianity have our own golden calves. I bet you can name some. Don=t be deceived! STUDY to show yourself approved!