Welcome to those of you who have recently subscribed to our monthly Newsletter! The purpose of our Newsletter is to keep our friends and supporters up-to-date on the materials we are making available, projects we are planning to undertake, and goals for the future at TorahResource. Very often we include a special discount on specific books or studies for our Newsletter subscribers. Besides announcing new materials and projects, I also try to include a short study on a topic of interest in each Newsletter.

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• The Shabbat Siddur – Hard Cover edition: the Hard Cover edition of our Shabbat Siddur is currently at the printers, so we should have these available sometime in July. We made many minor corrections and designed a new graphic for the front cover. However, we kept all the pagination exactly the same as our current Shabbat Siddur, so there will not be any problem using the spiral bound version and the hard cover edition together.
• Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, Vol. 2: now available, see below
• Video Projects: we have rented space to set up a small studio for filming teaching and instructional videos. We hope to begin these projects this month.
• The Letter Writer: we are continuing to make progress on a second edition of The Letter Writer: Paul's Background and Torah Perspective. Our goal is to have all of the edits completed by the end of June.
• Understanding Differing Worldviews: next week we will complete the 14 week course entitled "Understanding Differing Worldviews: An Introduction to Philosophy." The audio recordings from the class along with the textbook (R. C. Sproul, The Consequences of Ideas) and collateral readings will be made available by the end of the month. Many who have taken this class have expressed how much it helped them understand current trends of thought in our modern world. So if you're interested in understanding the philosophical backgrounds that have shaped our world, this material may be very helpful.

This past year, we continued our study of the Gospel of Matthew, completing chapters 8–12. Now available are the commentary notes for these chapters (224 pgs, 8.5 x 11 spiral bound) as well as the 37 audio classes (on CD in mp3 format). Included in this volume are two additional studies (excurses): 1) The Title "Son of Man," [4 pgs] and 2) "Three Days and Three Nights," which deals with the chronology of the crucifixion and resurrection [30 pgs].

You may purchase both the Commentary and the audio recordings as a package, or either separately. For Newsletter Subscribers only: 25% off the complete package (Matthew Commentary Vol 2 & Audio CD) during the month of June.
Enter code Matt2 at checkout.

Click the links below to purchase from our secure online store.

Commentary & Audio: $35 plus s/h (with 25% discount: $26.25)

Commentary Only: $25 plus s/h

Audio CD only: $15 plus s/h

• Do you keep hearing that the Torah is for Jewish people and not for Gentiles?
• What about the teaching that the Moral laws of the Torah remain, but the Ceremonial and Civil parts have been abolished?
• Are some of God's family required to obey more of the Torah than others?
• If you're curious about these questions and more, read on …

“Adonai, You Are Forever; So Your Word Stands Firm in Heaven” Psalm 119:89

Every verse of each section of Psalm 119 has some reference to the Torah. The rich array of vocabulary used as synonyms for “Torah” includes ‘eidut, “decree,” piqud, “precept,” chuqah, “statute,” mitzvah, “commandment,” dereq, “way or path,” davar, “word,” mishpat, “ordinance,” and others.

One of the interesting things that occurs in this great Torah Psalm (and indeed, throughout the Scriptures) is the fact that often the words chosen to denote the Torah are found both in the singular and the plural. Utilizing just Psalm 119, the following table will illustrate this phenomenon, showing how many times each of these various terms are found in the singular and plural in this Psalm:

Word	Singular	Plural
torah (instruction)	25	0
'eidut (decree)	1	22
piqud (precept)	0	21
chuqah (statute)	0	21
mitzvah (commandment)	1	21
dereq (way)	7	6
davar (word)	21	5
mishpat (ordinance)	4	19

Some of you might wonder why I would even think the word torah would be found in the plural. It might surprise you to know that torah is found in the plural 15 times in the Tanach: Gen 26:5; Ex 16:28; 18:16, 20; Lev 26:46; Is 24:5; Jer 32:23; Ezek 43:11; 44:5, 24; Psa 105:45; Dan 9:10; Neh 9:13.

But why am I interested in the singular and plural forms of these terms, you might ask? My interest lies in the fact that often (as the table notes above), the singular form stands for the whole. Or to put it simply, when the Psalmist declares “Your word stands firm in heaven,” he uses the singular form of davar, “word,” to represent all of God’s instructions—the whole Torah. This use of the singular really caught my attention when I continued to see the way the word mitzvah, “commandment” is found in the singular. Consider the following:

(Click here to read the rest of this essay)