I rather think the vine is an 'Olive Tree' and the 'Olive Tree' is Isra'el.

Isra'el is the focus of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation - not us Gentiles. We were probably not on the original guest list for the party. We shouldn't forget this and become arrogant - for we have been warned how easily we can be cut off again from the olive tree!!! Do we see arrogance in the churches attitude to Isra'el? - Think we might, just a little bit!

So why the interest in 'the old ways'.

Well firstly, I believe the bible makes it clear that YHWH has not finished with physical Isra'el - there will always be a remnant. This should put the debate about Torah observant Judaism and its relationship to Christianity on the minds of all followers of Yeshua and equally on the minds of observant Jews.
Remember, YHWH, who seems to have been totally relegated to the side lines by mainstream Christianity (although not by His Son when He walked the earth), doesn't change - He is the same One God today as He was throughout the Tanakh and the same One God who will rule at the end of time.

He taught His people the ways He wanted them to behave. Nowhere did Yeshua say this had changed. In fact, He taught just the opposite. The Heavens and Earth are still in existence and if we take a glance at Matthew 5, we can see that this means that the Torah has not been made redundant - Yeshua Himself said this was the case.
So now we have to ask, 'Would YHWH have given imperfect rules to His people'? Doesn't really seem likely to say the least. As an unchanging God, are His views of required behaviour likely to have changed? That is one for you to ask yourself but to me, it seems more than unlikely.

Thus, for Isra'el, what is here being called the 'Old ways' are, according to Yeshua, the Current ways and as such should certainly be studied and taught for, we are also told in Matthew 5, 'Whoever disobeys the least of these mitzvot and teaches others to do so will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven .....'.

In fact, all the following section of Matthew 5 (The 'You have heard' bits) make no sense whatsoever unless viewed in the context of existing Torah law - Yeshua is correcting false interpretation, He is not destroying the underlying principles.

So is all this relevant to us Gentiles? The biblical answer, seems to be 'Yes'. We, as Gentile believers, formerly strangers and aliens, are now graftees onto the Isra'el rootstock thus forming 'One new creation' - there is 'no difference between Jew and Gentile'.

I know most will shout 'Paul says 'It is all history, everything has changed since Yeshua - just read Galations'. I would agree that, on the surface, it appears he might say this in some places but then in other places he seems to uphold the law - Paul can be a bit difficult to rationalise to say the least.

But assuming for a moment that we arrive at a position where we think that Paul is saying that the law is no longer relevant, how can we make this work with Yeshua's affirmation that He has not come to do away with the law?

I can see only two possible answers to this ...
either there is a conflict between the teachings of Yeshua and Paul
or, as Gentiles living in the 21st century. we just cannot get our heads around the intended message being given in the first century by one or other of the two.

Whichever of these is the case, it seems wise really to follow the teachings of the Master Himself rather than His disciple (the church always seems to do exactly the opposite for some reason I just cannot fathom).

When I survey the church as it now is, I see tremendous presumption - God won't mind us ignoring the Sabbath. God doesn't care about us not following His 'Forever' commands, God won't mind us celebrating Easter(a full on pagan festival) etc. I have had to ask myself 'does this matter'? The Bible suggests it does - big time!! Examples from the Tanakh include 'Abihu and Nadab' and also Nebuchadnezzer. Just in case someone might say that, as well as everything else He supposedly changed, Yeshua also did away with a need to be wary of presumption, you could also consider 'Ananias and Sophia' and Herod from the post Yeshua writings. All these incidents might seem trifling to us, just the sort of thing about which we might say 'God wont mind if....' - but look at the response of Adonai.

For the sake of unity, it would be a very good idea if we were to ditch the terms 'Old' and 'New' which I believe were coined by the heretic Marcion in about 140 AD . As I understand it, Marcion coined the terms "Old and New Testament" to effectively differentiate between YHWH - who he saw as Bad and Yeshua - who he saw as Good and to make them two separate, and incompatible entities. This has subsequently caused the dualism in Christian churches that use the terms Old and New Testament to uphold replacement and dispensational theology. Far better would it be if we could instead get an understanding that the scriptures as a whole provide an ongoing picture of Adonai's continuing salvation story for Isra'el first, but also for the Gentile.

Hopefully, this overview might go someway to answering why some of us do see All scripture to be equally important, why we don't regard any of it as 'Old' or 'New'. In choosing to follow all YHWH's commands, we are just doing what Yeshua told us we should do.

This is, of course, one of many New Testament commands - there is no avoiding it by shouting legalism, there are commands to be obeyed throughout the whole of the scriptures.

Shalom

David