As part of The Psalm 119 Foundation, Psalm11918.org echoes G-d's call to holy living. Some of our effort is focused on the study of the mitzvot [commandments] found in the Torah and determining if and how each of them can apply to believers in the body of Messiah today.
During our ongoing exploration, we developed the chart below that provides a view of possible levels of Torah observance in today's world (absent a Temple) for six categories of individuals:
- a king of Israel
- a Jew in Israel
- a high priest
- a regular Aaronic priest
- a Levite
- a Jew in America
To provide a comparison, we included a bar showing all 613 mitzvot in the Torah (at the top) and what many modern Christians consider as "relevant" commandments today (at the bottom). This list of accepted commandments for Christians contains things like the prohibition of murder, idolatry, and adultery, as well as commandments on morality, forbidden sexual relationships, oaths, and general criminal/law principles. [Maximize your browser window to enlarge the chart, and you can hover over it for more details.]
Our key observation is this: there is no single individual (including Messiah!) to whom all 613 mitzvot would have applied. "Fulfilling the Law" (Matthew 5:17) is not dependent upon performing all of the commandments of the Law.
The Law, itself, prevents that possibility.
If you'd like to learn more about the commandments in each category, we have an interactive view of all of them at The613.info and a more detailed study of each commandment at The613Commandments.com.