Significance of the Torah meaning "Law" in Judeo-Christian theology?

Moses is the ostensible author of the Torah (5 books of Moses).

It is the Geneology, the law and the history of the Jewish people from deliverance from Egypt to entering the Promised Land.

The "law" is referred to as the practices that all Jews were supposed to undertake towards God and each other, in order to preserve their relationship, as a nation, with God, as God's chosen people.

That is the "law".

Well for Jews, the Torah is basically the Divine written Law God gave them.

For Christians, it is a foreshadowing of Christ

God sets forth standards that are right and just as well as practices that are both prophetic and practical. The main focal point was the day of atonement. This was the day that all the sins of all the people would be covered for the year. In the tabernacle was a most holy section that only the high priest could enter in on this special day. He was not permitted to enter until first he had offered his own sacrifice. This is the main part of the covenant yet God promised another covenant in Jer 31. Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, [fn1] says the LORD. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

Jesus took the cup at the last supper and said this is the cup of the new covenant made in my blood. The ethics of the old covenant as to moral standards have not changed and yes we all are sinful so the new covenant is one which God promises to remove the sin. Hosea 3 says this

For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ephod or teraphim. 5 Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They shall fear the LORD and His goodness in the latter days.

The second coming of Christ is when Israel is saved and brought under the new covenant. Paul teaches blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles comes in. Psalm 118 declared the stone rejected by the builders has become the chief corner stone. Dan 2 saw this as the stone cut without hands descending and crushing the kingdoms of man and this kingdom filling the earth and having no end. Amos 3 ​Surely the Lord GOD does nothing,

​​Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.

8 ​​A lion has roared!

​​Who will not fear?

​​The Lord GOD has spoken!

​​Who can but prophesy?

Now the Christian can look at how much warning and specific prophecy God gave Israel prior to captivity in Babylon yet do not ask the big question as to why it happened in 70 AD. As amos says god does nothing without revealing it first through the prophets. Dan 9 says this. Know therefore and understand,

​​That from the going forth of the command

​​To restore and build Jerusalem

​​Until Messiah the Prince,

​​There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks;

​​The street [fn3] shall be built again, and the wall, [fn4]

​​Even in troublesome times.

​

26 ​​“And after the sixty-two weeks

​​Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself;

​​And the people of the prince who is to come

​​Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.

You see a specific chronology Messiah comes after the order to restore and rebuild and he is cut off then the city Jerusalem and the sanctuary are destroyed. He wrote this before the order was given and there was no temple and Israel was in captivity. Deut 4 before they were a nation said this And the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD will drive you. 28 And there you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. 29 But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the LORD your God and obey His voice 31 (for the LORD your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.

The latter days they would be brought back and their they are. I am a bit off track but the new covenant is promised in the old right down to the end.

The Torah deals with God 'birthing' the nation of Israel, delivering them from Egypt and forming them in the wilderness to be his covenant people. As a Christian, I look on those books as God revealing what is required of people who are called to be sanctified, set apart as those who bear his name.

God sets the terms of his covenant and the people agree to abide by his laws. The sign of the covenant is given as circumcision. I view this as highly significant and necessary to understand if Christians are to grasp what the new covenant is, in Christ's shed blood.

Jews still follow it, Jesus freed Christians from the ceremonial and civil laws, but said to adhere to moral laws of Torah.

I think "torah" actually means "enlightenment".

This site says "instruction" or "teaching":

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_does_Torah_mean