The Torah is not a law but an instructional manual, but more than that it is an activity because an activity or action without the Torah's wisdom is invalid. The word Torah comes from the root word "Horaah" which means "instruction". Of course, normally you do not need 100% pass rate to get promoted to another grade, but if there is a wilful disregard or lack of study one will fail. Unlike other intellectual systems and sciences the Torah does not separate learning from an action, it does not live in the heady world of intellectualism. Which is why even God is a verb, not a noun...another big subject.
The Torah [and the Mitzvot 613 commandments with 10 commandments being the inner circle and the other concentric circles around that, 365 commandments were for 365 days of the year being "Thou shalt" the other 248 days for the bones in a human body of "Thou shalt not"] this is useless unless translated into action by a sincere heart. To go into the metaphysical exegesis of the Torah, into Jewish Mysticism is a complicated exercise even for a Christian Mystic like oneself, that has made a study over the last 25 years of many hours a day. The Torah is a book that has descended out of the third heaven of consciousness.
The first incarnation of the Logos introduced the program of creation, which is duality hence an equal opposite creation and a second opposing power of Satan around the central dualistic theme of the Tree of knowledge the opposite of WHOLENESS the Logos: The Tree of Life...then the final incarnation of the Logos as Jesus."Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.And being found in appearance as a man, " Phil.2:5.
It is pointless in such a short post to go into the mystical side of Judaism in the Zohar and the Kabbalah...but as you do look into this an ancient perfume long forgotten in one's DNA is awakened, long since buried under the trivia of time and indoctrination of soothsayers called theologian's and as you point out their interpretations of the Bible that are not exact in translation, their true identity as the inspired writer of the Book of Hebrews points to is in the Heavenly Tabernacle from types or shadows on earth to their substance in heaven [Heb.7:24 to Heb.8:5]...this is for Bereans those who love the Truth and do not sell it for a profit or to make a living. "Many are called but few are chosen" Math.22:14. To become a son of God involves training and much wisdom, It is to deny oneself and take up his Cross, and follow Me." Math.16:24 This is not to take up Jesus Cross but your own, Jesus is the prototype for us. No, the Truth, or theHoly Spirit of truth, it does not fall down on us at some pulpit of a preacher man...the spiritual pilgrimage may start there but like with John Bunyan there are many twists, turns, and backtracks through endless obstacles...
St.Paul a scholar of the Torah and of the highest order and discipline, whose writings leaven even the Jewish mind out of the Law, using a heterodox and even a subversive new way of thinking " a more surpassing way" 1 Cor.12:31 that leads into Chapter 13.... the way of love that makes even the Torah void, as without love it is but a clanging cymbal and so Love as 'agape' pricks the many illusory bubbles of ecclesiastical doctrines, so the homecoming heretic like oneself outside mainstream indoctrination. and as an occidental person must bend his steps, not to a new religion, or to wait for a new one, as like with the Torah that came down from above into the lower consciousness of mankind to raise man's consciousness up. The Gospel St.Paul calls "My Gospel" Rom.2:16 by which Paul says God will judge even the secrets of this world by Paul's Gospel, that came to Paul from out of heaven in Galatians 1:12 and even in verse 15 says he was separated in the womb by the Holy Spirit for that "purpose of the ages." Eph.3:11.
This is our destiny as Gentiles on which our whole world stands or falls. Yes, traditions are respected and cannot be renounced, or man hangs in the void. Yet Paul's Gospel is a renewal out of stale sterile apologetics which has never assisted Christianity as we look back over the last 2000 years. Yes it is not a trimming down or an elimination of the "mystery of God" Paul refers to often, but the renewal of this mystic framework, not as some intellectual exercise but a total renewal at the very roots of primitive Christianity, that has been lost in the sands of time and the Institutionalized corruption of Truth by Religion.
The history of Christianity has show Christianity holds infinite potentials far exceeding its ecclesiastical embodiment's and holds a potential to transform the whole of human consciousness if they have the "Mind of Christ"and break down all those barriers of prior thoughts that stood out against us and "lead every thought captive to Christ" 2 Cor.10:5, even this thought of our separate "I" and like St.Paul's cry: "No longer live I, but Christ" Gal.2:20 that is the fulfillment of the Torah.....Justification by FAITH not of ourselves as Paul said but by a far greater faith "the faith of Christ"[Rom.3:22 and " we are saved through faith, but not of ourselves, but the faith of Christ"Phil.1:6....This is what the Torah points to but only the Messiah/Mashiach could establish the Torah so "Christ is the end of the Law" Rom.10:4 as FAITH that places us in Christ we have fulfilled the Law, with His Righteousness.
This is not a mere belief like Religion, but Truth substantiated by Faith. Faith is the secret that hacks Satan's programming of this world, as he is "God of this world" 2 Cor.4:4 in modern terminology the Programmer, who mimicked God's real plan in Genesis Two. All programs are based on 0 and 1 that is duality, that is the Tree of knowledge of good and evil, that is the foundation of this world, the conceptual world man's mind lives in.
Everything we know out there is just energy patterns man's brain creates into forms, his belief in the reality of his 5 senses gives them form visual form, taste sound smell touch.....that is Satan's programming who we know was in the Garden of Eden as Lucifer Ezekiel 28:13-19. WE know Adam was a perfect creation from God until sin was found in Adam, so Adam was Lucifer. Adam was placed in a deep sleep. so the Dreamer of this world is still Adam who is Lucifer, as there is no account of Adam being woken up.
Which is why St.Paul says "Wake up thou that sleepest and arise from among the dead" Eph.5:3, Of course, this is deep heady teaching, that few can digest...it is a total shock to what we have been taught generationally over millenniums. It needs deep insight and understanding of Paul's teachings to digest, else-wise you are just digesting the menu as most do and wonder why the belly is not filled, or are so used to this fare they think nothing about it.
I may add also the reduction of the Torah's 613 precepts to one foreseen in the Bible and what Jesus said it is fulfilled with just two, both being really one LOVE... to love God and your fellow men. Even Moses hinted at the simple, fundamental intent of the Law in Deut. 10:12:
"And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul."
The later day prophet Micah [There is an evolution of man's understanding of God in the Old testament another long subject] also emphasized the simplicity of the relationship with God:
St.Paul's final conclusion is ""But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code" (Rom. 7:6).
