1. R' SCHOCHET WAS A CHASSIDIC JEW Out of respect, I want to make it perfectly clear that during R' Schochet's life, he didn't believe [Is 5...
1. R' SCHOCHET WAS A CHASSIDIC JEW Out of respect, I want to make it perfectly clear that during R' Schochet's life, he didn't believe [Is 53:1] the Gospel—here, he merely "inadvertently" clarifies Paul's "exemption/liberty from the Law". 2. HOW THIS CLARIFIES PAUL'S NEW COVENANT DOCTRINE OF *EXEMPTION FROM TORAH Even this renowned Hasidic scholar (a man unquestionably keen on keeping the Mitzvahs) believed (as did Paul) that death brought about an *exemption from the obligation upon Jews to keep the Mitzvahs; that if/when the same were resurrected, their *exemption will not have expired: they'll have holiness without the obligation to observe Torah! Therefore, when we hold that (in dying to the body of sin and rising to a new life lived exclusively for God) we are free from the obligation ("[Biblically *exempted from the Laws—because {we} have died..."], "...resurrected... new realit[ies]!"—as Paul says, "...neither circumcision... nor uncircumcision counts but a new creation." [Ga 6:15])—but still holy—it should be nothing strange. We're exempted because we died; yet this *exemption in no way precludes holiness—even as R'Schochet explains concerning the resurrected ones who will live *exempt from obligation to perform Torah-Mitzvahs. Ro 6:22-7:6 22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end: eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. 7:1Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the Law—that the Law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2For a married woman is bound by Law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the Law of marriage; 3accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive—but if her husband dies, she is free from that Law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. 4Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the Law through the body of Christ; so that you may belong to Another—to Him Who has been raised from the dead—in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions—aroused by the Law—were at work in our members to bear fruit for death; 6but now we are released from the Law (having died to that which held us captive) so that we serve in the New way of the Spirit and not in the Old way of the Written Code." 3. TRANSCRIPT R' Eli Cohen: You mentioned (that if you talk about Torah, Mitzvahs, etc.), "Nothing of Torah-Mitzvahs can change 'one iota'". Can you please explain what "The Mitzvahs will become void in the future Age (in the Messianic Age)" means? R' Schochet: [jokingly] "Are you on MY side? Let them ask their 'silly' questions which are 'easy' to answer!!" First of all, there is a whole dispute exactly as to what that means; so, therefore, I cannot give you [a definitive] answer. They will not "change". They may be "perceived from a different angle"; they may "go"—for that matter—"on a deeper level". The ultimate aspect thereof (that "[Torah-Mitzvahs] will become void in the [Messianic Age]") is talking about the year after the resurrection of the dead. The resurrection of the dead introduces a whole new picture into the world. When a person dies, "A dead person is not obligated to observe Torah-Mitzvahs." For example: I. When people [die and] are buried, we put them in shrouds; these shrouds are made from cloth. II. A living Jew is not allowed to wear any garment that is (what is called, "shatnes") a mixture of wool and linen (that's a Biblical prohibition—to wear anything that mixes wool and linen together ["woven" together]). III. Shrouds you can make of "shatnes"—Jewish Law! "Why?" IV. "Once you're dead, [the Law] doesn't apply to you anymore"—[the Law] is only for the living person. Therefore, when we talk about a time of the year of the resurrection of the dead, (according to that view) once you have been exempted (*Biblically*-exempted) from the Laws (because you have died), now you are resurrected—now you are kind of a completely new reality! This is not the person who is normatively born [to whom Law applies]; the resurrected-dead are not born of father and mother [the Law doesn't apply]. In their original existences, they were born of father and mother—no, they will rise from their graves [Dn 12:2], and their bodies will somehow be reconstituted/rebuilt—but they have now reached a stage where the obligation of Torah-Mitzvahs [had been] removed from them; and there's nothing to remove that [exempted] state from them (just because they are alive, nothing has changed [their exemption]—there's no new giving of the Torah [or] revelation of Torah). So (from that context) [Torah-Mitzvahs] "remain"—except (in that context), we say, "Mitzvahs are [indistinguishable]." Less
