Odd Answer

We sometimes read a passage in the Torah or the apostolic writings and the wording seems odd, just does not make plane sense at all.  I guess if we travel back in time and use words such as email, or tweeter me, we know because it was wickipedia, it would make absolute nonsense to the audience of yesteryears.  It is for this reason that I started looking at some these passages that at face value make and do not make any sense at all. 

Now let me warn you! as Jew I make a few statements "in judaism", the reason for this is that the Torah and the Apostolic writings were written, under the guidance of the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit of HaShem), by Jews for Jews.  Therefore they need to understood under the cultural lens of a Hebrew mindset, otherwise it will be misrepresented or misunderstood. 

In Yohanan (John) 3:1-7 Yeshua is talking to a teacher of the Torah, and makes a profound statement, "unless one is born of water and spirit, he can't enter into the Kingdom of God!".  We all know this story, we have heard it at Sunday school, from the pulpit on countless teaching.  Very well used in many teachings and preaching a as part of evangelism.  I have heard so many angles on this but most of these revolve around two typical concepts.

One- The concept that first you must have a physical birth, in other words you must be born.  No rocket science here, if you are not born, then you cannot be born again, that makes sense one logic follows the other.  A lot has been taught that we are dead because of sin. Therefore in order to look at this passage we need to define some things.  First lets start with Torah, it does not equal law, it means instruction, guidance from the root word Yarah a term used in archery, meaning to hit the mark.  Sin, Chatah in Hebrew, is the opposite to Torah, is missing the mark.  So now that we have a couple of definitions we can continue with this odd statement.  

So we are born in the flesh but are dead in the spirit, we need to be born again, but it says that we need to be born of water and of the spirit.  So the Nicodemus was right to be puzzled, how can one be born again in the flesh and be alive in the spirit?  It is a logical question that requires some thought. Two- What was Yeshua talking about, what does it mean being born of water?  In the physical and I have heard this many times in churches and sermon's, when we are in the womb we are suspended in water, hence before our birth the breaking of water.  In Judaism the mikvah (a body of water that one can be fully immersed) has to be in natural running water termed מים חיים   mayim chayim "living water" so in order to tevilah (Immerse ) the waters must be living waters. Judaism has the same concept that being in the water is like being in the womb and once we come out the third time out of the water, the sages say we are reborn to the world.  For the same token when one goes under the waters of in the act of tevilah, one must be as he came into the world no personal belongings and it is a very private occasion.  Ofcourese if you are making a public testament by your actions decorum and modesty must prevail. So the connection has always being made to the waters of immersion to the first part, being born of water, the association is made to tevilah or commonly known as baptism from the Greek language, that means immersion. On the surface this is a good analogy, but I believe that there is more to it.

Let me explain why, I believe there is a deeper meaning and Yeshua choses this terminology for a good reason.  In Judaism it is common to use word association to describe sacred objects or names or persons of repute. As you know the name of G-d is spelled by four Hebrew letters that to this day there is all kinds of disputes as to how it should be pronounced, no I am not going to tackle this now, but I will use it as an example. יהוה YHVH in Hebrew letters as it is written is never pronounced out loud for fear of taking His name in vane or profaning His name.  Therefore there are a number of ways of saying the name without saying it, examples are HaShem the Name, Adonai my Master, HaShamayim The Heavens etc, you get the drift. 

In Judaism the Torah is sometimes referred to as water, in other words come drink of the waters of life, implies come partake of the Torah, He plants me by the water, Psalms 1:3: He will be like a tree planted by the streams of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also does not wither. Whatever he does shall prosper. Additionally he also uses the analogy of living water when he addresses the Samaritan woman, Yohanan 4:10: Yeshua answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”  In the same Book of Yohanan (John) it starts with the assertion: Yohanan 1:1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Yohanan 1:2: The same was in the beginning with God. Yohanan 1:3: All things were made through him. Without him was not anything made that has been made. Yohanan 1:4: In him was life, and the life was the light of men. Yohanan 1:5: The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn’t overcome it. 

Again the word here is Torah, same as living water. One more resource that speaks of Torah being synonymous with water, Thirsty For Torah It is the midrash that lifts the episode out of the ordinary. On the verse, "They travelled three days in the wilderness and found no water" (22), some mystically inclined Rabbis opined: "Water actually stands for Torah, as it is said (by Isaiah, 55:1), 'Ho, all who are thirsty, come for water.' Having gone for three days without Torah, the prophets among them stepped forth and legislated that the Torah should be read on the second and fifth days of the week as well as on Shabbat so that they would not let three days pass without Torah" (Babylonian Talmud, BavaKama 82a), (Source http://www.myjewishlearning.com/texts/Bible/Weekly_Torah_Portion/bshalah_jts.shtml).

So if we now take Yeshua’s statement "unless one is born of water and spirit, he can't enter into the Kingdom of God!" we can re write it as "unless one is born of the Torah and spirit, he can't enter into the Kingdom of God!".  Yeshua came to uphold the Torah and not do away with it, He Yeshua is the doorway to HaShem, the Father.  Through Teshuvah, that is repentance, turning away from our own ways and facing HaShem, we can only be born of the Torah, which then makes us be born of the spirit through his mercy and grace, as we were dead in the spirit but now we are alive in and through Yeshua.  The operative word here is teshuvah, repentance, with true repentance then we can be born of the living Torah, a new creature a member of the kingdom of HaShem. Remember repentance is not just a once off it is a constant check and balance of our life and our guide the Torah is the mirror by which we guide ourselves.