Torah does not mean ‘law’, it means ‘teaching’ and is not limited to just the first five books of the Old Testament. The Apostle Paul tells us “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, and training in righteousness”, (II Timothy 3:16). When Paul wrote that, he was referring to the Torah since it was the only Scripture recorded then. Now, however, we have the New Testament as well. So, for Christians and Messianic Jews, the Torah (teaching) is much broader than just the Torah of Moses , or the Old Testament. The Gospels, Acts, the Epistles, and the Revelation of John are all Biblical teachings, so can then be considered Torah as well. The entire Bible is God’s teaching built upon the foundation of the Torah of Moses.
I was taught that Torah was the ‘Law’ (bad connotation - everyone frown) that spiritually imprisoned the Jews and demanded more of them that they could deliver. (If they broke one little commandment in the law they had no hope of ever appeasing an angry God ) My early Bible teachers claimed that Paul said that the Law was a curse and done away with. But, Paul himself clears up the whole ‘law-makes-a-prisoner-of-you thing’ when he writes in Galatians 3:23-25: 23We were guarded under the Law, kept in custody in preparation for the faith that was destined to be revealed, 24 The Law served as our trainer [our guardian,] until Christ [came]… 25But now that the faith has come, we are no longer under a trainer.” Here Paul teaches us that the Torah was our GUARDIAN, much like a tutor, advisor, or caretaker. The Greek word is paidagogos, from which we get our English word pedagogue. The role of the Greek paidagogos was not that of a prison guard, but rather he was to act as a protector, guardian, and trusted guide who accompanied the child to school, and made sure the child was educated, kept healthy in every way, and did not run with the wrong crowd.
The Jews were not cursed or imprisoned by the Torah, they were actually protected by it for their own good. Paul says that “now that the faith has come, we are no longer under a trainer (guardian).” The Greek pedagogue brought the student to the teacher to be taught by the teacher. The Torah brings us to Messiah Yeshua, to be saved and taught by Him. Torah does not save anyone, salvation is only found in the Messiah Himself. But it is the Torah that is the paidagogos that brings us to Him. Shalom. 