Mt. 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?
M:Middoth 5:2 says, “One of the chambers of the Temple was called the salt chamber.” This salt chamber was where the salt used for the sacrifices was stored. The salt came from the Dead Sea, so it was called the Salt of Sodom. This salt normally did lose its flavor in taste and smell. If it did, then it was used to sprinkle on the ascent of the altar to be trodden under by the priests to keep them from slipping on the blood from the sacrifices. According to Lev. 2:13, no sacrifice could be offered without salt. Salt is a preservative and its purpose is to continue keeping something in its original state.
Sources: Lev. 2:13; M:Avodah Zarah 2:6; M:Erubim 1:10; 10:14; M:Middoth 3:3; 5:2, 3; M:Shabbat 6:5; M:Sotah 9:14
Mt. 5:14 “You are the light of the world. A city is set on a hill cannot be hidden.”
Yeshua did not come to start a church, not did He operate outside of the mainstream of the Judaism of His day. As the Son of Man, He taught His people to become part of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom Movement started by Yeshua was never intended to stray away from Judaism. It is up to the church (kahal or witnessing body) to correctly preserve the message that Yeshua taught. When it ceases to do that, it will be trampled under foot by the outside world or absorbed by it. It will have lost its effectiveness.
Mt. 5:15 “Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lamp stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.”
Mt. 5:16 “Let your light shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven.”
The emphasis here is on action, which is the foundation that Biblical faith is built upon. The purposes of letting men see your light is so “they may see your good works.” Light dispels darkness. It should not be necessary for our light to shine in the church, as there shouldn’t be any darkness in there.
Calling the Jewish people the “chosen people of God,” a subject that many people have difficulty with, sounds like arrogance. But, what it means is that Israel has a job to do. God commissioned them to perform a certain task. He does not love Israel any more than He does the other nation; His love is universal. But, just as God calls each person to play a specific role in life, He called the Jewish people to play a particular role in history. The primary difference between Israel and the other nations is the covenants between God and Israel. Even this does not make them more special. It places more responsibility on them, just as there is on believers who are part of the New Covenant.
It was a Jewish audience that Yeshua the Messiah delivered His well-known Sermon on the Mount to. In that message, Yeshua spoke to the people about how God had chosen them to reveal His redemption and His Messiah through His Torah and their lifestyle. M:Rosh haShanah 2:2 says, “Formerly fires were lighted on the tops of mountains for the purpose of announcing the full moon.” Unless the fires were set on the hills they could not be seen. Believers were to be like the lights on the mountain tops so that others would see their good works and glorify God.
Sources: Numbers 35:33; M:Rosh haShanah 2:2; M:Shabbat 16:7
Mt. 5:17 “Do not think that I have come to destroy the Law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill.”
This verse is the only time the Talmud quotes the words of Yeshua. It is used as a reference that the Torah was binding for all time. A quote from Shemoth Rabba 6:1 says, “The one who destroys even the smallest letter of the Law, the sin is so great, that if it could be done, the whole world would be destroyed.” No Jew in his right mind would consider even the possibility of destroying the Law. To abolish the Law meant someone was misinterpreting it. To fulfill the Law meant to properly interpret it.
Sources: BT:Shabbat 116b; M:Avoth 4:9; Shimoth Rabba 6:1
God promised to restore man to the dominion ans stature that he once had. Adam had been created in the image of God. His environment was perfect, and if sin had not caused his fall he would be alive today. Man, driven from the garden following the fall, became only a diminutive of what he had been. The earth had also changed, for God had placed a curse on it. Man’s future was bleak, except for the hope seen in the prophecies of the Coming one who would conquer sin, defeat death, and bring about the restoration of both man and the earth. Prophets, kings, and priests had all spoken of this man and event. This became known as the Besorah, or “Good News.” It was well defined in the Jewish mind long before Yeshua walked on the earth. As Adam had been king over the earth under the rule of God, so the Redeemer would also be King. The Kingdom of Heaven (Malkut Shamayim) would come to earth in this King. This Kingdom was to be a time of physical as well as spiritual restoration. Therefore, healing, miracles, and divine manifestations of the power of God were to be expected. Yeshua’s words in His first coming fulfilled only part of the promised restoration. This restoration will be completed at His second coming.
A first guide to restore the Old Testament to its proper place is to follow the attitude of Yeshua and the New Testament writers toward the Old Testament. Both Yeshua and the apostles granted full authority and inspiration to the Hebrew Scriptures. Only one set of Scriptures was normative to them. They lived their lives “according to the Scriptures.” They knew no Bible but the Hebrew Scriptures, for the New Testament writings were not written nor widely circulated until many years after the death of Yeshua. Most Hebrew scholars today believe that they were not written until a few years before the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E. The Old Testament was the primary source used in teaching, and the settling of arguments with opponents (including Satan).
Mt. 5:18 “For assuredly I say to you, till Heaven and earth pass away, not one jot not one tittle will by no means pass from the Law until all is fulfilled.”
The jot refers to the letter yod, the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet. Devarim Rabba 5:11 says, “If all the world gathered to destroy the smallest letter in the Law, they would not succeed.” Shemoth Rabba 6:1 says, “Not a letter from the Law shall be abolished.” Vayyikra 19:1 says, “If even one letter of the Law is destroyed, the sin will be so great that it would destroy the whole world.” The kotz (tittle) is the part of the Hebrew letter that distinguishes certain letters that look alike. An example of this would be the “dalet” and the “pesh,” which are basically the same except for the “tittle” sticking out on the dalet. Another example would be the “bet” and the “hard kauf.” This is thought to be a play on a story first century Jews would have been familiar with concerning Solomon removing a “yod” from Deut. 17:17, making the text read he could multiply wives. Such changes were known as “destroying the Law.”
Sources: Devarim Rabba 5:11; Shemoth Raba 6:1; Vayyikra 19:1; M:Menachoth 3:2; M:Berachoth 5:4; 8:8; M:Shevuoth 4:3; M:Sotah 2:5; M:Taanith 4:8
Although the early church identified Marcion as a heretic, today many theologians have accepted his view of the Law. It was Marcion who adopted this verse as a key theme of ending God’s Law and taught that the grace of God superseded it. Marcion changed the meaning of the verse by inverting the order of the clauses so as to give exactly the opposite sense. According to Marcion’s teaching, Yeshua said, “Think not I have come to fulfill the Law. I have not come to fulfill it, but to abolish it.” While few modern Christians would change the words of the Bible, they do interpret the words of Yeshua in a way that upholds a sharp contrast between Law and grace. There is not one instance where Yeshua or Paul attacked the Law or its ordinances, but in every case supported them as the Word of God. We, as believers, are commanded to walk by faith and to fulfill the Law by applying its moral principles to our relationships with fellow believers. Yeshua regarded the Torah, with all its jots and tittles, as a world complete in itself, on which the existence of the real world depended. He was, therefore, faithful to the Torah in its entirety.
Mt. 5:19 “Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.”
Here Yeshua’s position is made clear. He speaks of keeping the Torah without transgressing against a jot or tittle. Anyone transgressing against the least commandment will one of the least in the Kingdom of Heaven, and anyone who keeps the “minor” commandments and teaches others to keep them shall be called great in the Kingdom. He emphasizes that the righteousness of His disciples in keeping the commandments must be greater than those of the scribes or else they will not be any greater than they are.
The rabbis made a distinction between a light and heavy or weighty commandment. M:Avoth 2:1 says, “Be equally attentive to the light and heavy commandments.” M:Avoth 4:2 says, “Be swift to obey the light as well as the weighty commandments.” The line of thought was that if transgressing a light commandment was wrong, how much more was the transgressing of a weighty one? If you keep people from transgressing the light ones, they will never break the weighty ones.
Mt. 5:20 For I say unto you, that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”
The term Sopherim, or scribes, was used two ways in the Mishnah: (1) teachers or expounders of the Law (M:Yadayim 3:2); and clerks of the Sanhedrin (M:Sanhedrin 4:13; 5:5). The Mishnah says the Sanhedrin was like a half-circle of a threshing floor in order that the members might see each other. Two scribes stood before them, one on the right and the other on the left, to record the votes of the not-guilty and guilty. The term Yeshua used referred to the most well-qualified individuals in both the Written and Oral Law.
Source: M:Yadayim 3:2; 4:13; 5:5
The original Old Testament definition of tzedakah (righteousness) meant deliverance or salvation. By the time of Yeshua it had come to have a more restricted meaning - almsgiving. In the eyes of the Pharisees, almsgiving, prayer and fasting were the three most important components of righteous living - almsgiving being the most important. Many Jew believed they could work out their own salvation instead of submitting to the righteousness of God. But, Yeshua told them that if their righteousness was reduced to the almsgiving of the Pharisees, they would not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. “Unless your concept of tzedakah exceeds that of the hypocrites, you will no wise enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” The reason for the use of the word hypocrite is that not all Pharisees were hypocrites, Only a small percentage were. In fact, if Yeshua Himself was not a card-carrying Pharisee, He did espouse just about all of their doctrines. The Pharisees represented the mainstream of Jewish thought for centuries. Most of them by far were great, honorable, righteous men. But, they were all sarcastic. There was no one who was more critical of a Pharisee than another Pharisee. BT:Sotah 22b tells us of the seven different types of Pharisees. If we don’t understand ths, we are not going to understand many of the things that Yeshua says.
Source: BT:Sotah 22b
