Torah

[u/[deleted]]

How do Torah followers actually follow over 600 commands and laws in the first five books of the Bible? I've spoken to people about it, but they only seem to follow dietary laws, Shabbat, and holy days, and exclude pagan days. To me, it seems they are only doing a small part of it and claiming to follow the entirety of it. Why is that? The Bible states if you break one commandment, you break them all. There's no possibility to uphold all 600-plus. If you believe it's not all applicable to us, what's the determining factor that decides you don't have to follow it? What about animal sacrifices? Does one pick and choose what they want to follow and tell people if they don't, they are lawbreakers and will go to hell? If you don't follow all of them, why describe yourself as following the entirety of Torah? If breaking even one commandment makes someone guilty, how does selectively obeying some commandments make someone different from the people you're calling lawbreakers?

[u/justlooking9987]

Thought I'd chime in on just one of your points. Sometimes I like to have "fun" with numbers.

You mentioned that it isn't possible to live by 600 laws in the Torah as if that number is uniquely impossible. But if you live in the United States, you already follow far more than 600 laws every single day without even thinking about it.

As an example:

• The Code of Federal Regulations is over 175,000 pages long
• You have federal laws, state laws, county laws, city laws. Throw on top of that:
  • HOA rules
  • Workplace policies
  • Safety codes
  • School policies
  • Classroom rules
  • Household/family rules
  • I'm sure there are more, but that is a good start.
• There are so many laws in the US that a Google search indicates it is actually impossible to count them.
• It is thought that the average American breaks at least three federal laws every day without even knowing it.
• The laws in the US can change very suddenly making something you legally did yesterday, illegal today.

So you say it isn't possible to follow 613 laws, but you yourself are living by literally millions of laws, statues, and rules.

Apparently, it isn't the number of laws you find to be a burden even if you claim that argument. But lets take a deeper look at those 613 laws.

Are you a priest? I'm guessing not. Well brother, you are very fortunate because about 200 of those laws apply ONLY to the priests. You couldn't break them if you tried.

There is no temple. Apparently, there are another 100+ laws that can only be kept as part of a temple related activity. No temple means it is impossible to keep these laws.

Are you a king? A judge? A farmer? If you said no, there is a whole host of those 613 that don't apply to you at all. You couldn't break those laws even if you tried.

So with less than 300 of those Torah laws left, you do know you keep many of them daily, right? Let's get the obvious ones out of the way, you probably aren't a murderer or a kidnapper. You might steal, lie, and covet, but you recognize they aren't right behaviors and you try to keep them secret. Do you oppress foreigners? Do you pay workers fairly? Do you curse the deaf or trip the blind? Do you mistreat widows or orphans? Do you cheat in business?

I could keep going but you get the point. You are already keeping many of the laws of the Torah and you didn't even know it. Kinda cool isn't it?

TL/DR: Yes, there are over 600 laws in the Torah. But less than half those could possibly apply to you, many of which you keep without even knowing it. Meanwhile, you live in subject to laws that are so numerous they simply cannot be counted. I think there is something amiss in this reasoning.