There is so much talk in among Christians about the Israelites not being able keep the law. We are criticized for disobedience and we are also criticized for enforcing the law. Which is it?
Christians say they are free from the law. But they also are not free to go on sinning by breaking God’s laws. Which is it?
There is so much talk in the Christian community about "the law." By the same token, I wonder if there shouldn't be more appreciation for the value of the laws in the Torah. There are a lot of very sound principles that make sense even 3500 years after they were passed down through Moses.
Hopefully everyone is familiar with the 10 Commandment. Are there any debates about those?
I'm sure most people would agree with how the Torah commands us to treats animals. There is a prohibition against unequally yoking animals in the Tenach (Old Testament) found in Deuteronomy 22 which states: "Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together". This law prevents placing animals of different sizes, strengths, or species under one yoke, which would cause pain and inefficiency. There are other laws against cruelty or causing pain to animals. There's even law to feed them.
There are civil and criminal mitzvot in the Torah which form a tightly connected system around property, harm, money, labor, and judicial process, aimed at preserving life, dignity, and social order. Some examples include:
- The law explicitly condemns encroaching on another’s boundary marker, reflecting the integrity of private space and the protection of family holdings.
- If a person harms another, he must make monetary restitution rather than face incarceration, covering direct damage, pain, medical expenses, loss of income, and humiliation. Damage to property—by an ox, pit, fire, or negligence—likewise requires compensation, with distinctions between foreseeable and unforeseeable harm and between full and half damages.
- Deuteronomy 23 has laws about taking a pledge (collateral) for the debtor’s basic tools or clothing, forbidding a creditor from seizing items essential to survival or dignity.
Do you think those laws sound reasonable?
Torah has laws about how to do business. It explicitly commands timely, fair payment of workers and prohibits oppression of hired laborers, especially the poor and resident alien. Verses such as “On that very day shall you pay him his wages” and “Do not allow the wages to rest overnight with you” are treated as both a positive command and a negative prohibition.
Torah's “personal” laws center on marriage, forbidden unions, sexual ethics, and family status, treating the household as a covenantal unit rather than just a private arrangement. Halakhah treats marital intimacy as a mitzvah and grounds it in a framework of consent, modesty, and mutual obligation.
It Isn't Easy to be Righteous
Of the 613 Commandments, there are things Jews are supposed to do, like keeping the day of rest and honoring your parents. There are things we are not supposed to do, like commit adultery and stealing. The traditional rabbinic breakdown of the 613 mitzvot is that there are 248 “do’s” (positive commandments) and 365 “don’ts” (negative commandments).
It is true that there are a LOT of mitzvot, commandments, in the Torah. They do get complicated which is why they often require interpretation and clarity when applying them. Times change and much of what made sense in the wilderness or applied 2000 year ago, is "debatable" today. That's were the priests, rabbis, judges and sages came into play, even still.
There are also practical limits on observance. For example, many agricultural mitzvot, as well as some about inheritance and land return, are only fully in force when one is in Yisrael. All korbanot, ritual purity laws tied to the Mikdash, and many kohanic/Levitical duties are currently in abeyance.
Kashrut dietary about what is "fit" or "proper" to eat gets a lot attention. The thought of not eating pork is as unthinkable for many Christians as eating pork is for many Jews. The truth is, keeping Kosher is a big stumbling block There are a lot of Jews enjoying "seafood towers" with shellfish on them. I am guilty as charged. About 17% of American Jews keep Kosher to some degree.
LET'S BE FAIR ABOUT "THE LAW."
Without shared laws and moral standards, human community collapses. If the Israelites in the wilderness didn't have the law, I question whether Jews would have survived as a "nation." Plus, 2000 years ago when the Romans ruled ancient Israel, if the Jews didn't keep "the Law," we'd be called Romans or Greeks.
I think it is fair to say that the Torah's Mitzvot are less onerous than the many thousands of local, state, Federal and IRS laws that an American must comply with.
The Torah consistently presents mitzvot as what stands between covenant order and social chaos—think of the contrast between the judges’ period (“everyone did what was right in his own eyes”) and the ideal of a people living by God’s statutes.
Civil and ethical commandments about honesty, justice, and care for the vulnerable are not “extra”; they are the framework that prevents oppression and violent breakdown. Many rabbinic discussions of the rebellious child or the disrespectful son treat the case as a warning picture of what happens if boundaries, discipline, and moral teaching are abandoned.
Christians and Jews both stress the importance of the home and how we raise our children. Parents are commanded to be the primary transmitters of that law to their children. Deuteronomy 6 grounds this directly in parental responsibility: “You shall teach them diligently to your children… when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise.” Those words are on the doorposts of practically every Jew's home. It is not enough to just nail the Shema to our doorposts.
The Talmud famously adds that parents must also teach a trade and even “teach them to swim,” capturing the idea that safeguarding a child’s future and survival is part of moral education.
Christians are right though. It is rare indeed for anyone to be able to keep all the laws. Impossible even. Most people give up trying. All people fall short of perfection. This is true of Christians, Jews, gentiles etc. Jews and Christians agree, we all need to make atonement. We all need redemption.
Good Jews and Christians have much more in common than we have different. That's why America is a Judeo-Christian nation. That's why Christians study the entire Tenach. Pastors stress the need to read the all the scriptures, not simply the "New Testament." Yeshua (Jesus) himself said he did not come to abolish the law.
Chances are when a Christian refers to "sinning," it relates to an action that the Torah prohibits and rabbis would advise against. Although Jews certainly have commandments which do not apply to non-Jews, such as circumcision, removing unleavened bread from the home, and not mixing wool and linen fibers (sha'atnez found in Leviticus 19:19), I highly doubt Christians have the uniquely Jewish mitzvot in mind when they speak of sinning!
As I see it, the deviation between Jews and Christians centers on forgiveness. The key is what happened at the cross. Yeshua was not crucified for the miracles he performed and for healing people.
The crucifixion is not just a tragic death of a would‑be messiah; it is the fundamental question of whether it was a God‑ordained act that deals with sin and reconfigures how Jews and Gentiles relate to God. If Christ had not risen, then Christian preaching is empty and Christian faith is useless. Even the Jewish disciples didn't understand this before the ressurection.
As I understand the Gospels, Yeshua came to deliver a message about forgiveness. He came to solve a problem that goes back to the disobedience of Adam and Eve in the Garden. The death and ressurection is the "Good News" that we have of door to forgiveness and a way back to the immortality we lost when the first man, Adam, ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil.
The message is much better delivered by a talented pastor or priest such as Johnny Zacchio. He delivered that message last Sunday at Calvary Church in Poughkeepsie. Here's a link. His sermon starts about 40 minutes into the video.