salvation the word itself can have different meanings depending on whom you ask for those who follow Jesus Yeshua salvation means eternal life in the presence of God as a result of yeshua's payment of the penalty for sin however what does salvation mean to a Jewish person who does not yet believe in Jesus for most Jewish people today the Jewish Bible or Tanakh does not hold the answer for the secular Jewish person salvation is not an issue at all there is no Heaven Nor Hell and therefore no need to be saved this life is all there
is however there is a tremendous difference between what a Jewish person believes about salvation and what Judaism teaches about salvation from the Torah to the talmud to today salvation meaning a right relationship with God is of the utmost import an in Jewish thought as a result any exploration of this topic must start with the tanak the Old Testament the Hebrew word for salvation is Yeshua it only appears four times in the Torah Genesis 49:18 Exodus 1413 and 152 and Deuteronomy 32:15 it means salvation Deliverance Victory or help in the Jewish mind the greatest example of
Salvation in the Torah is The Exodus from Egypt the Lord promised to free the Israelites deliver them redeem them and take them for his people in Exodus 6: 6 and 7 which sounds a great deal like salvation Deliverance Victory and help the pivotal moment in God's salvation in the Torah was when the Israelites crossed through the Red Sea on dry ground immediately before the waters parted Moses told the Israelites stand by and see the salvation of the Lord immediately after Moses saying the Lord is my strength and my song and he has become my salvation
God's salvation for the Israelites was the freedom deliverance and Redemption he provided to take them to be his now God's goal in providing salvation is to have a relationship with his people following The Exodus from Egypt God made a covenant with Israel their inability to keep the Covenant meant that God had to provide the sacrificial system to make up for the people's sins the system required the shedding of blood to provide atonement and restore the relationship with the Lord and this remained in force for more than a millennium this system gave rise to the levitical
priesthood which presided over the sacrifices and restored the relationship with God a relationship that could only be found through an atonement for sins this atonement was offered first in the Tabernacle in the wilderness and then at the temple in Jerusalem it was the only way to the god of Israel for Israelites and Gentiles alike since according to Judaism a relationship with God was possible only through atonement provided by the sacrificial system the sacrifice and the atonement it bestowed became the way of Salvation the atonement provided by the sacrificial system disappeared in 70 CE when the
Romans destroyed the temple some say the effectiveness of the Priestly offerings had already ended decades earlier the writing of the Jewish sages confirm this detail we read in the tud rman barit said the ordinance was with regard to the strip of crimson wool used on Yung Kapur as it is taught in a Bara at first they would tie a strip of crimson wool to the opening of the entrance hall of the temple on the outside if after the sacrificing of the offerings and the sending of the scapegoat the strip turned white the people would rejoice
as this indicated that their sins had been atoned for if it did not turn white they would be sad and it is taught in a Bari during the 40 years before the second temple was destroyed the strip of crimson wool would not turn white rather it would turn a Deeper Shade of red in the talud it's tractate rosashana 31b since the strip turning white indicated the atonement of sins the strip remaining Crimson must indicate sins have not been atoned for the lack of atonement which in the Jewish mind is the key to Salvation created a
conundrum for the leaders of the Jewish Community with no atonement for 40 years and no way to make the sacrifices without the temple they had to find another way the attention then shifted from the process to the results the world to come in Hebrew Olam habah became the focus and there is much in the writings of the Jewish sages about it to start all of the Jewish people even Sinners have a share in the world to come from tractate s h9a this theme is predominant in the Jewish understanding of Eternity all it takes to have
a place in eternity is to be a descendant of Abraham Isaac and Jacob in addition there were three elements to righteous living according to the rinic writings Simone the righteous was among the last members of the great assembly he would say on three things the world depends on Torah study on the service of God and on bestowing kindness from pavot 1: 2 regarding the service of God the editor's note that this refers to is the sacrificial service in the temple and in the absence of the temple study of the laws regarding the service in its
broader sense service refers to prayer and the performance of The Commandments evidently in the minds of the designers of the post second temple Traditions there was a need to replace the biblical requirement with something else these relatively new requirements form the foundation for most of what we call Rabbi Judaism whether adherence realize it or not the study of Torah prayer and doing good deeds and giving to Charities are worthwhile Endeavors and should continue regardless of one's belief about atonement and salvation however there are still less than perfect replacements for a system provided by God for
a personal relationship with the Lord a system requiring the shedding of blood for the atonement of sin and reconciliation with the god of Israel without a doubt the world needed a replacement however the replacement needed was already provided a perfect replacement even before the destruction of the temple far be for God to leave the world without a means for atonement God provided the sacrifice for us just as he provided the sacrifice for Abraham on Mount Mariah in Genesis 22 through the sacrifice of the unblemished Lamb of God Yeshua shed his blood to take away the
sins of the world making any other replacement system unnecessary Jesus Yeshua is sufficient as seen in Hebrews 7:26 and 27 for it was fitting for us to have such a high priest holy innocent undefiled separated from Sinners and exalted above the heavens who does not need daily like those High priests to offer up sacrifices first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people because this he did once for all when he offered up himself and this is God's means of atonement for and through the Jewish people and for the rest of
the world da knew it would have been enough [Music]
