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Presentation

In presenting this issue on Law as a Way o f Life, our aim is to concentrate on the life-giving aspects of the place of law in our lives as distinct from a legalistic approach. We have so much to learn from Judaism in this respect. The Hebrew word for Law - Torah - comes from the root YRH which also gives us the word Moreh,
a teacher and I-Ioreh, a parent, enabling us to see that Torah is a life-giving principle which instructs us on the way we should go in order to find life, to choose life. When, however, Torah is translated as law (nomos) as is the case with the Greek version of the Bible, an incomplete picture is given. Law, in the Hebrew meaning of the word, is central to the covenant of God with Israel, and so Jewish faith is less concerned with beliefs or assent of the mind, but is rooted rather in the concrete reality of life through obedience to the commandments. "All that the Lord has spoken we will do and we will be obedient" (Ex 24:7).
Michael Wyschogrod's article demonstrates clearly the unity of the Torah for the Jew for whom it is both Halakhah, commandment (from the verb to walk) and aggadah (narration) story or history. In halakhah, according to biblical tradition, there is no distinction between ethical and cultic commandments - all without exception enable the Jew to recognize the sovereignty of God in his/her life. Even if the primitive Church, following Paul, developed a new and different "Law theology" (cf. F. Mussner, p. 16 f.), and had to face the difficult problem of faith and works, yet it too, through its own commandments and code of laws, combines the ethical with the cultic.
A rightful understanding of law implies order and freedom. So much in our modern world rejects law by making the center of the universe not God but the human person. But this attitude can only lead to chaos, since one who is created cannot be a law unto him/herself, but can only operate according to that law placed in the center of his/her being by the Creator and what has been revealed as his will for the works of. his hands. Order, therefore, as opposed to chaos, lies in a balanced attitude in our responsibilities towards God and our neighbor. This interdependence of ours and of society as a whole in its recognition of legal and moral foundations is the antidote for an unreasoned search for independence, as Lawrence Frizzell brings out clearly in his article. He establishes a balanced hierarchical order when he offers as points of reference in every life God, Neighbor, Self, Nature.
It is hoped that this issue will help Christians focus on the true meaning of law for them. In this respect two dangers are to be avoided, a middle path to be found between two extremes. The first error would be to equate religion with ethical behavior, a danger against which Mary Travers warns parents and teachers. The second would be to suppose that Christ has annulled or abrogated the law, which is far from the case as Jacques Goldstain effectively shows. While it is certainly true that, for the Christian, the norm is Christ, his "new law" is not in opposition to, but rather, fulfilment of the Torah. Nor is the "new law of love" to be seen in contradistinction to Jewish law: "Hear, O Israel... you shall love the Lord your God" (Deut 6:4-5) "you shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Lev 19: 18). For the Christian, the law of love in the New Testament is new in that the model now is the person of Christ: another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one
"A new commandment I give to you, that you love another" (Jn 13:34).
Whether we be Jews or Christians constant submitting of our wills to that likeness of God who calls upon us to mercy towards us.
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then, our faith in God leads us to be obedient to his law through the of our Creator. In so doing, we act as beings made in the image and act justly, kindly and mercifully, since he is a God of lovingkindness and mercy towards us.