Torah
by Brad Scott
One of the most popular songs of the 60's was called "I fought the law and the law won". One of the most poplular songs of the 70's was called "I shot the sheriff". From the Keystone Cops to the Police Academy movies, the concept of law in this country was demonized at worst and ridiculed at best. It took a long time to redefine this word in western cultures, and by nature we take that paradigm into the Scriptures. Nevertheless, the King James translators chose this English word to express the Greek word nomos (νομος), to express the Hebrew word torah (תורח).
The Hebrew word torah is the feminine singular absolute form of the parent root yarah (ירה). Its root letters being yud, resh and heh. The pictographic meaning is to behold (heh) (ה) the man (resh) (ר) who casts forth (yud) (י). In most lexicons this word is defined as to throw or shoot. Can you still see a negative nuance here? Agriculturally, this word was used to express the casting forth of rain. This word was prayed every planting season, for the husbandman planted the seed, but then waiting for the rain to bless the seed. This is why we are told over and over again in the Tanakh that if we obey His commandments (Torah) we will be blessed. The rains (Torah) do not plant the seed, the rains only bless the seed once it has been planted. If there is no seed, then the rains (Torah) cause the ground to flood and curses the soil. Yeshua‘ told us that the field is the world. We can understand our place in this world if we simply observe what goes on in a field. Below are a couple of examples of this word in its agricultural form.
Hoshea (Hosea) 6:3Then shall we know, if we follow on to know YHVH: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.
Hoshea (Hosea) 10:12Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek YHVH, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.
Now can you imagine a westerized preacher standing in a pulpit proclaiming that the rain is no longer for us?
Shalom Alecheim! ◊