This whole topic has been a subject of wearisome debate for centuries. But it seems to me JC's message was that the faithful shouldn't get bogged down in the minutia (jot or tittle) of divine law. I think his point was that the followers of the Old Testament had lost sight of the forest for the trees. By ensnaring themselves in a mare's-nest of of debate about the myriad petty restrictions of Halakha, they had become blind to the basic principles of morality. So, in that sense what JC was saying is: "I come not to alter a jot or a tittle of the Law. Frankly, I wouldn't waste my time. Screwing around with the wording or interpretation of picayune rules concerning religious rituals or personal behavior is a lawyer's game that has nothing to do with people's primary obligations to God and each other."
That seems inescapably to be the meaning of Matthew 22. Arguably, the following lines therein could be presented as the Executive Summary, so to speak, of the Gospel in total:
--------------------------------------------------------------------- 34 But when the Pharisees had heard that he [JC] had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together.
35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Carl
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