Walking in Righteousness: How to Become a Tzaddik
Can we become a tzaddik (a righteous person) by following the mitzvot of the Torah? It might seem so. The greatest rabbis of recent memory, such as Lord Jonathan Sacks and Adin Steinsaltz, have garnered wide acclaim for the profundity of their moral insight. Their devotion to Torah has inspired Jewish people, and even non-Jews, around the world. How could the rest of us measure up to them? Surely they were tzaddikim because of their great Torah knowledge and practice of the mitzvot.
No One Righteous
In one sense, that is true: the sages of blessed memory deserve our accolades and praise. Of them it may be said, “The mouths of the righteous utter wisdom, and their tongues speak what is just” (Psa 37:30). But in another sense, according to the Hebrew Scriptures, it is not true that anyone is truly righteous in the way God requires. King David wrote in Psalm 14:2-3,
“The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.”
This is harsh language, but it fits what the Bible tells us about Israel’s greatest leaders. Moses sinned like the rest of us, and God punished him by barring his entry to the Promised Land (Deut 32:48–52). So sinned Joshua, and Samuel, and Saul, and David, and Solomon, and every character in the Bible we know. Each of these Israelites had the revelation of the Torah; each of them were well schooled in what the Torah requires. And yet, something didn’t measure up
God’s High Standard in Torah
Unfortunately for us, God’s standard for righteousness is unbearably high: keeping all the Torah. Moses said, “It will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us.” (Deut 6:25) Later on, when all Israel is ratifying the covenant, Scripture records the people saying, “‘Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen’” (Deut 27:26). A few verses later, God says that he will punish and exile Israel “if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today” (Deut 28:15).
The Torah says that we must keep all of it, or else God’s judgment rests upon us. And that judgment includes the exile and antisemitism that Jewish people continue to suffer from to this day (Deut 28—29). It would seem that “justice is far from us,” as the Prophet Isaiah wrote (Isa 59:9). What hope do we have?
Moses Points the Way
The Torah provides a standard of righteousness that we are required to live up to, but it does not provide internal means to meet its requirements. Remember: even Moses failed when he struck the rock, and he was judged accordingly. Something more is needed in order for us to live as God requires of us, and Moses hints at what that is: the arrival of the Holy Spirit to our hearts.
In Numbers 11, Moses is having a meeting with the seventy elders around his tent, and all of a sudden, God places his Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) upon everyone present. Immediately, they begin prophesying, just as Moses had prophesied and given the Torah. Things seemed to be getting out of control, especially with two men prophesying all around the camp. Some asked Moses to put a stop to the prophesying, but he saw things differently. Moses replied, “I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” (Num 11:29)
This gives us a remez, a hint, of things to come. Moses recognized that the coming of God’s Ruach to the seventy elders was a good thing that he wished all Israel to experience. But he recognized that following the Torah did not provide that kind of experience. It was something special and out of the ordinary. Even so, Moses wished that the Ruach would be poured out upon Israel. He couldn’t have been more right.
The Holy Spirit Coming to Israel for Righteousness
In Jewish tradition, the Ruach is commonly associated with prophecy, just as we have seen in Numbers 11. But the Ruach does much more. When the Spirit of God comes upon a human being, the Spirit brings life (Gen 6:3), ability, intelligence, knowledge, and craftmanship (Exod 31:3), gives wisdom (Deut 34:9), enables frail human wills to follow God (Ezek 36:27), and transforms people completely (1 Sam 10:6). Isaiah speaks of the Holy Spirit experiencing grief—hinting that the Holy Spirit is personal (Isa 63:10).
But the most important thing the Ruach was prophesied to do for Israel was to provide her true righteousness and redemption from sin.
In Isaiah 59, God looks for any human being who can save humanity from their own sin, and he finds none. So, he takes matters into his own hands and promises to send a Redeemer. Connected with the Redeemer’s coming is the arrival of his Spirit, who makes a covenant with Israel forevermore (Isa 59:20–21). The Prophet Jeremiah also speaks of this new covenant, saying that it would result in forgiveness for Israel’s sins, with the Torah written on the hearts of all Israel (Jer 31:31–34). The Prophet Zechariah adds that God will pour out his Spirit of grace and mercy upon Israel “to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness” (Zech 12:10; 13:1).
In sum, the Tanakh promises that one day, God will send his Ruach HaKodesh to Israel to cleanse her from sin, make a new covenant of grace and mercy, and to make Israel righteous. Although Moses provides a remez for these things in the Torah, the Torah itself does not provide the coming of the Ruach.
No Need to Wait: Become a Tzaddik Today
What was prophesied in the Hebrew Scriptures has already become a reality for many Jewish people living today. Like Moses wished, they have experienced the presence of God’s Ruach in their lives, transforming them into renewed and righteous people. All of this became available around 30 CE, when God poured out his Ruach HaKodesh upon Israel during Shavuot.
See, the Ruach is available for us today. Two thousand years ago, God sent the Redeemer he announced beforehand in Isaiah 59. His name is Yeshua, the one who saves us from the penalty of our sins. Just seven weeks after his Passover crucifixion, many of Yeshua’s followers experienced an outpouring of God’s Ruach upon them, and they became transformed men and women (Acts 2).
The New Testament says that when we believe in Yeshua and accept his sacrifice on our behalf, God immediately sends his Ruach to us today, just as he did two thousand years ago with that group of Jesus’s first Jewish followers. When the Ruach takes up residence in our hearts, we are made holy ourselves. God sees us as a tzaddik, as righteous ourselves. As the New Testament says,
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Messiah Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Messiah Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh. (Rom 8:1–3)
The Ruach HaKodesh is available today for you to give you life and set you free from your life of sin. You no longer need to suffer the consequences of your sin before God. What Moses wished for all Israel is available for you right now. Trust in Yeshua and receive his Ruach.
