Firstly something I have had on my mind whilst writing a different article. We as Christians believe we will come back with Jesus to this earth to rule for 1000 years, so my thought is, if we are to rule we need to know the laws by which we rule. If we do not know the laws then how can we rule. Many Christians will say that God or Jesus will actually write these Laws onto our hearts during the rapture before we come back. However if you read the Gospels, they say that the New covenant is written on our hearts when we accept Jesus, as we will find out the word translated for "New" as in new covenant is actually correctly translated as Re-Newed so it is a re-newed covenant that we have, Jesus has in his life, crucifixion and resurrection re-newed the Torah back to the original format and getting rid of all the religious paraphernalia that the various religious groups have added over time. Where are these laws then? Funny you should ask that question.
The Torah - the first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Without the Torah the Bible and in particular the Gospel have no foundation on which to stand. The Hebrew word for Torah is often translated as "The Law" in most of our English Bibles but it is far more than just a legalistic set of rules by which to live. The literal translation from the Hebrew word Torah is "to instruct," or "to teach". It is God's instructions and teaching, written down by Moses and sometimes called the Law of Moses. The Torah is also the story of creation and how the Jews became God's chosen people.
If you decide to read the Torah, you will find out that the Book of Deuteronomy is the book most quoted by Jesus. The Apostle Paul is often described as the most difficult Apostle to understand, this is because of his in-depth understanding of the Torah. The basic sacraments and rituals you find in all the various churches such as baptism, communion, prayer and blessing all come from the Torah. The concepts of Christianity such as God, holiness, righteousness, sin, sacrifice, repentance, faith, forgiveness, covenant, grace and the kingdom of heaven on earth all have there origin and start in the Torah. Our faith as Christians has no foundation without the Torah, and yet you very seldom hear it taught, preached in the church today. If you remove the Torah, you have nothing left to teach, the remaining books of the Bible have no grounding on which to stand. Many Christians will tell you that the Torah is no longer relevant, it was nailed to the cross with Jesus, and that we as Christians are saved by grace. It is that mis-understanding that we wish to have a part in changing. We wish to show that the Torah has as much relevance if not more today than it has in the past.
When a Jewish child starts school at the age of 5 years they will study the Torah for the next 5 years, usually in a synagogue under the leadership of the Rabbi. O and by the way, for most of them this will be done in Hebrew.
The Torah is read in the Synagogues ever Sabbath and has been for thousands of years. "King James Bible : Acts 15:21 For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day." The Torah is split into 54 sections and one section read aloud each week. Certain Feasts that do not fall on the Sabbath have a section read which makes up for the 52 weeks in the year and the extra 2 sections.
In addition to the Torah weekly reading, there will be a reading from the Prophets and in Messianic synagogues there is a reading from the Gospels.
The Prophet reading was started when the Jews were banned from reading the Torah when they were sent into the nations. The reading will have a close association or hold a similar meaning to the Torah reading but in those days it was far too dangerous to read the Torah section. The connection between both sections may not be so obvious with our English translation.