 The way we frame an idea is extremely important. For example, in the conflict in the Middle East, whether we refer to land as occupied territory or disputed territory makes a world of difference in terms of how we see the conflict. When it comes to the interface between Christianity and Judaism, one of the central topics is the topic of the Torah. And what I'd like to look at is how Christianity and Judaism see the Torah very differently. Christians often refer to Torah as law, LAW as the law. And that comes from the way the Greek scriptures, the Christian Bible, translates the word Torah. It becomes the Greek word nomos, which means law. Now, what's interesting is that when Jews translated their scriptures into the vernacular, we didn't translate the Torah into Greek. We translated the Torah into Aramaic. And this is the official Jewish translations, the Targum of the Hebrew Bible is into Aramaic. And the word Torah in Aramaic is orisa. Some people might pronounce it orita. And there's a tremendous difference between the meaning of this word and the meaning of the Greek word, nomos. Nomos, again, is law. Orisa is really related to the word or, which means light. And I often ask students to meditate on the valence of these two words, how they feel. How do we feel when we think about these two words? If you close your eyes for a moment and think about what does the word law sound like? And what does it feel like? And then how do you feel when you hear the word light? Now it seems to me that the word law is a fairly cold term. You can be driving in your car and find a sign that says, you know, speed limit 80 miles an hour or 60 kilometers per hour, that's a law. It's not very sexy or warm or dynamic. So the word law is often associated with something that is fairly cold. It's not dynamic. It's not very warm. We're often thinking about instructions and commandments and do this and don't do that. And that is often the way people react when they hear the word law. The word light, on the other hand, is the exact opposite. The word light is very warm. It's not cold. It's very spiritual. It's very life-affirming and life-giving. And it has a very, very different feel than the word law. So whether we think of Torah as law or light makes a world of difference. So we see, for example, in the Christian scriptures, Paul has a relatively negative assessment of Torah. Paul refers to the Torah as a ministry of death engraved on stone. Paul speaks about the commandments of the Torah as commandments that are useless, as unprofitable, as a curse. And so Paul consistently tells his readers that you are no longer under the curse of the law. And that's essentially the way Paul looks at and views the commandments and the Torah as something that's not positive, as a law, a burden, something that is really, he says, is against us. Whereas if we look at the way the Torah itself speaks about Torah and the commandments and the testimonies and the statutes that are in it, we find the exact opposite assessment. For example, the longest chapter in the Bible is chapter 119 in the book of Psalms, which has 176 verses that are one long, beautiful love poem to the beauty and the importance and the centrality of the Torah and its mitzvot, its commandments and its hukim and mishpatim and testimonies and statutes. And the author of this psalm speaks about how they are the center of his life and that they're more precious than gold, they're more sweet than honey, that his entire life is drawn just to be in contact with these teachings. And then in chapter 19 in the book of Psalms, we're told Torah Tashem Tamima, that the Torah of God is perfect, it restores the soul. So when we go through the entire literature of the Hebrew Bible, we find literally that the Torah itself and its commandments are seen as the most important, beautiful, special thing in the world that God gave us as a gift. And therefore, the Torah says that it is to be kept forever, eternally, throughout your generations, unto a thousand generations. Paul, who has a very negative assessment of the Torah and its commandments, never speaks about them positively. So Paul insists that you're no longer bound to keep them. He says that you're at liberty if you want to keep them, fine. But Paul insists that your salvation is not based upon whether you keep the commandments or not. And so we have two very, very different views of what Torah is. And what is interesting and significant now historically is that as more and more Christians begin to study the Hebrew scriptures more seriously and try to understand the roots of their own faith, they're discovering that there is a wide chasm between what the Hebrew scriptures say about the Torah and what their own Greek scriptures say about the Torah. And many, many Christians today are moving in the direction of greater appreciation for the Torah itself, more of an interest in the Torah, more of an interest in living according to the commandments of the Torah, there's more of an embrace of the practices of the Torah, even in the Christian world because they feel that there is some discrepancy between what God originally revealed publicly to three million Jews standing at Mount Sinai and what this one person, Paul of Tarsus, is claiming that he received as revelation.