The Way of Torah is most sublime.  It is also most misunderstood, even by many who pledge to uphold it and teach it.  Our nation received the Torah centuries ago; as we know it came from a place beyond this Earth.  That place we now call Heaven, the source of Torah we call L-rd. 

The true nature of Heaven and the L-rd are not essential for one to understand in order to embrace Torah and to live by its directions.  Torah is more about what we do than what we believe.  Torah deals with life and what is done with our hands, more so than what is in our heads and what we think.

Therefore, in order for us to walk the Torah Way, we must understand what Torah actually is and what it is not.  We must also then come to recognize the role of our holy Sages and how they apply Torah and direct its expression and observance, fitting it to the needs of the people and of the times. 

This sacred role of the Sage is a natural outgrowth of Torah and in full meaning and purpose with the Torah Way.  Nonetheless, our Sages are the first to distinguish between the Torah itself and how they have embellished it.  Without knowledge of the differences between the Torah itself and the edicts of the Sages one will never come to properly understand either one.

Torah revealed to us the Way of Heaven for our nation to follow here on Earth.  These ways were defined by many different terms, some expressing righteous laws, others expression moral directives, and still others without any apparent known reason or logic.  Of all the different ways we were told, regardless of what one understands, knows or believes, these are things that must be done.

Torah is a law to us, even as are the laws of nature.  They define our being and mold our parameters; they define for us the possible and impossible, and thus the permitted and forbidden.  Torah allows and Torah forbids, but not for haphazard or even religious reasons. 

Torah was given to us to show us the natural way, how Heaven is to become manifest upon Earth.  When we follow Torah, we are thereby naturally led to Heaven.  Torah brings heaven down to Earth.

The Ways of Torah are alive.  They are fluid and ever moving, ever changing.  As people change, as life changes, so too does eternal Torah take on new garments to go with the flow of life.  As human consciousness changes so does Torah rise to the occasion and transform its forms to met humanity in its present place.  This fluid nature reveals to us an aspect of Torah, known to the Sages but unseen to others. 

Upon reception, not all the Torah was transcribed to text.  Not all the Torah can ever be written in a book.  Words on a page become stagnant things.  They represent life but are not life themselves.  The Torah is alive and lives not only within the Book, but surrounding it as well. 

The Living Torah that surrounds the written text explains the text, outlining its principles and fundamentals and reveals it inner, discrete and sometimes secret nature.  Only one who knows Living Torah will ever truly understand the written Word.  Without the Living Torah vibrating from the Voice Above, the written word will always remain a closed text, whose words can be read but never understood.

Torah is a living organism, intelligent, sensitive, vibrant and extremely sensual.  While the written Word can enter into the mind, only the living Torah can enter the heart.  It is in the heart of the Sage where Torah’s life burns and radiates.