Johanna argues that Torah "can be understood only from within the experience of covenant" (1). God gives the Torah to God's covenant people: "the covenant bond addresses the question of identity, while torah responds to the question of how the community should conduct its life" (19). Put simply: "the covenant without torah is meaningless and torah without covenant is hopeless" (19). "Torah is considered to be God's special and exclusive gift to the Jewish people and is thought of as the source of its life" (6).
Far too often, Christians assume that Torah is nothing more than antiquated laws, leading to legalistic religion. Johanna corrects our thinking. Torah is primarily about "instruction." "In Scripture it is assumed that the people taken into covenant by God are in need of divine instruction, that left to their own devices they would not know how to live a life that is reconciled both to God and the neighbor" (11). She reminds us that "the word often translated 'obey' in Hebrew primarily means 'listen'" (11). God calls his people to "listen and learn" (Deuteronomy 31:11-13).
Outside of offering fascinating insights on the torah, Johanna highlights Israel's relationship with "aliens," "foreigners," and "strangers." In their engagement with these groups of people, the fact that the people of Israel "were once 'strangers in the land of Egypt' is a strong part of their identity ... It is remarkable that the appeal to personal experience of past suffering from hostile behavior of host to stranger became a motivation not for revenge but for avoiding the same behavior" (30).
What made Jesus unique was not so much new teaching - his teaching was rooted in the torah - but his life: "The uniqueness of Jesus resides in that Christians believe he not only taught these Torah convictions but embodied them to the utmost, and that in his person the devotion of God for the world became uniquely manifest. It is the person rather than the teaching that is distinctive" (267). Great resource!
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