Q. I hear there are 613 commandments in the Old Testament. Are all these applicable to everyone, or do certain laws apply to certain people?

Q. I hear there are 613 commandments in the Old Testament. Are all these applicable to everyone, or do certain laws apply to certain people?

A. The laws and commandments of the Tanak have not been done away with as some teach, but they don’t apply to everyone just like any code of law. Many of the laws in the Torah apply when you live in the land. Tithing applies when you live in the land and it is agricultural and you paid them to the Levites. So, under the circumstances, tithing doesn’t apply today. If you aren’t a king, you don’t need to obey the rules for kings. If you aren’t a high priest, or a regular priest for that matter, you don’t need to follow those laws. If you aren’t a woman the same rule applies and so on. The context of the law will dictate whether it applies to you and whether it is “active” today. There is no Temple so the laws governing purity regulations and offerings don’t apply. Let me give you an example. The United States Constitution is active today, just like the Torah. Its laws governing citizens applies to me, voting rights and so on. But, I’m not the president so it’s laws governing presidents doesn’t apply. I’m not in Congress, so its laws governing members of Congress, re-elections and so on doesn’t apply. So, all the laws of the Torah may not apply to me, but I should know them because they teach about the Messiah, redemption, eschatology, worship, loving my neighbor and variety of subjects that will make me a better “citizen” in the Kingdom of G-d.



Q. Where is the proof Jesus and His disciples observed the Torah and taught others to do the same?

A. In Deut. 13.1-5 it says that one of the marks of a false prophet is he will teach others to follow different gods by telling them that they don’t have to follow the Torah. So, what you are asking is whether or not Yeshua and His students are false prophets. Well, let’s look at what they said themselves and what their enemies said. Matt. 5.17-19 says that Yeshua did not come to destroy the law, and He came to teach the law. John, a disciple of Yeshua said in 1Jn 2.3-4 that if we say we know G-d and do not keep the commandments, we are a liar and the truth is not in us. In Acts 6 Stephen is brought before the council and in verse 13 it says they brought false witnesses to accuse him. What were they accusing him of? They said he was teaching against the Temple and the Torah by saying Yeshua was going to destroy the Temple and change the customs that Moses handed down (Torah). Notice these are false witnesses, which means Stephen did NOT teach against the Temple and did NOT teach that the Torah was going to be changed, or done away with. That is Christian doctrine today, but Stephen never taught it otherwise it would not have been a FALSE witness. Actually, the first “martyr” was a Torah observant believer who was falsely accused of not obeying the Torah. Today, that is the normal testimony of so-called believers, but that would not have ever been the doctrine or the practice of Yeshua and the believers of the 1st century. I hope this helps.