Fence Around Torah

There is a non-canonical Jewish writing from around the time of Jesus titled “Pirkei Avot”, which is translated as “Chapters of the Fathers.” It records the oral transmission of Jewish teaching from a couple of centuries before Jesus until a couple of centuries after him.

The work begins with the following statement. “Moses received the Torah from Sinai and handed it down to Joshua; Joshua to the Elders; the Elders to the Prophets; the Prophets handed it down to the men of the Great Assembly. The latter said three things: Be cautious in judgment, raise up many disciples, and make a fence for the Torah.”

The first two of these, be cautious in judgment and raise up many disciples, were certainly characteristic of Jesus. He famously commanded, “Judge not, lest you be judged.” He also gave instructions for making disciples in one of his last talks with his followers. So far Jesus seems to be in harmony with these men of the Great Assembly.

But what about the third item, making a fence for Torah? What does that even mean? And is it something that Jesus bought into?

The rabbis considered it to mean setting guidelines for what you do, so that you don’t even come close to breaking God’s Law. One example of this is the command not to boil a young goat in its mother’s milk. This command is given three times in the books of Torah, and the rabbis decided that a good way to keep from accidentally doing that would be to never serve milk and meat together at the same meal. Hence the intricate traditions about keeping kosher, with even different sets of dishes for meat and dairy.

Many Christians think that the Pharisees overdid this idea of a fence around the Law by developing traditions that kept people from God. We’ve seen in a previous posting that Jesus doesn’t criticize the Pharisees for being too zealous for the Law, but for not being observant enough. What would Jesus think, then about this idea of making a fence around Torah?

Interestingly, Jesus seems to do exactly that in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. There are five different topics on which Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said…, But I tell you…” In each of these cases he first cites a command from the Torah, and then gives the fence that he wants to make to prevent anyone from getting close to breaking it.

For example, he cites the prohibition against murder, and then extends it to say that you should not even be angry with someone. Likewise he cites the command aginst adultery, and then extends it to say that you shouldn’t even look at a woman lustfully. If this isn’t building a fence around Torah, I don’t know what is.

It’s clear that Jesus was zealous enough for the keeping of God’s Law that he instructed his hearers to avoid even getting close to breaking it. Jesus, like the men of the Great Assembly, advocated building a fence for Torah.