B"SD
On the Oral Torah
by Gretchen S.
The big question is, does the Tanach support the existence of the
Oral Torah and its authority? The answer is a resounding yes.
First of all, there are many areas of the Torah that one cannot
understand without knowing some of the Oral Torah, hence the need for
commentaries.
Deuteronomy 17:8-13 tells us that case laws, that is the application of the
Torah (Oral and Written), the interpretation of the same Torah, is to be
the responsibility of the judges who will judge, be they priests, or rabbis:
"If there arises a matter too hard for you in judgment, between blood
and blood, between plea and plea, and between plague and plague, being matters
of controversy inside your gates; then shall you arise, and get to the
place which the L-RD your G-d shall choose; And you shall come to the
priests the Levites, and to the judge who shall be in those days, and inquire;
and they shall declare to you the sentence of judgment; And you shall do
according to the sentence, which they of that place which the L-RD
shall choose shall declare to you; and you shall take care to do according to
all that they inform you; According to the sentence of the Torah which they shall
teach you, and according to the judgment which they shall tell you, you shall do;
you shall not decline from the sentence which they shall declare to you, to the right
hand, nor to the left. And the man who will act presumptuously, and will not
listen to the priest who stands to minister there before the L-RD your G-d, or to the
judge, that man shall die; and you shall put away the evil from Israel. And all
the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously." (Davka Tanach on CD-ROM)
It seems G-d wanted the judges (today Betei Din [courts] of rabbis, in the
time of the Second Temple both Betei Din and the Sanhedrin Gadol), to have the
power to decide cases as needed. Okay, so that shows that the
constitution of the Jews (the Torah, Written and Oral) has a judicial system,
but how does that show that the Oral Torah is from Sinai?
First of all, there are many places in the Tanach where it states
"as I have shown you". Clearly the details of such were not written down, but shown.
There are examples of commands that could not be carried out at all
without the Oral Torah, for example, we are told to put them for
"signs upon our head and frontlets between our eyes" Just what does this mean?
Only the Oral Torah tells us how to make tefillen and how they are to be worn.
The same holds true for work on Shabbat, without the Oral Torah we would not
know how to abstain from work and would violate Shabbat therefore. There are
many more examples, but those are the ones that come to my mind at present.
"And all the people gathered as one man in the open place before the Water
Gate; and told Ezra the Scribe to bring the book of the Torah of Moses, which
the L-RD had commanded to Israel. And Ezra the Priest brought the Torah before
the congregation both of men and women, and all who could hear with understanding,
on the first day of the seventh month. And he read from it in front of the open
space before the Water Gate, from early morning until noon, before the men and
the women, and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were
attentive to the book of the Torah...And Ezra opened the book in the sight of
all the people; for he was above all the people; and when he opened it, all
the people stood up; And Ezra blessed the L-RD, the great G-d. And all the people
answered, Amen, Amen, lifting up their hands; and they bowed their heads, and
worshipped the L-RD with their faces to the ground. Also Jeshua, and Bani, and
Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodijah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah,
Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites, helped the people to understand
the Torah; while the people stood in their places. So they read in the book
in the Torah of G-d clearly, and gave the interpretation, so that they understood
the reading. And Nehemiah, who was the Governor, and Ezra the priest the scribe,
and the Levites who taught the people, said to all the people, This is holy to the
L-RD your G-d; do not mourn, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard
the words of the Torah." (Nehemiah 8:1-9)
Notice many people were gathered while Ezra, a priest (Kohen) as well as a
scribe read the Torah. After it was read, there were 13 people, plus the Levites
who helped the people to understand the Torah and gave its
interpretation. That is, they explained it in light of the Oral Torah.
It would seem that the Tanach supports the authority of the Oral Torah and
its existance.
See also the entire Aish HaTorah series begining with
"Is Torah True?"
Don't forget to click on all the other links on the left, ranging from "Integrity
of Text" to "Maimonides' Explaination"
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