Understanding the Oral Torah: An Introduction

Menashe asked another question that had been bothering him for a long time, "What exactly is the Oral Torah, and why is it called 'Oral'? Is the Oral Torah the entire Mishna/Gemara? Did we receive it at Mount Sinai too? Because I understand these are laws given by rabbis, so how does it all fit together?"

Hello Menashe, and once again, thank you for your important questions touching on the foundations of the Torah of Israel.

In previous articles, we learned that Moses brought down the Tablets from Mount Sinai, and taught the people of Israel all 613 commandments orally (both the Written Torah's commandments and explanations in the Oral Torah).

Before his passing, Moses gave the Israelites the Torah scroll (- the five books known as the "Written Torah"), while the "Oral Torah," which explains all the commandments written in the Torah and their details, was passed down orally from generation to generation until the destruction of the Second Temple - at which point it was written in the Mishna and further elaborated in the Gemara.

The Oral Torah consists of two main parts: Biblical commandments (-"from the Torah") and Rabbinic commandments (-"from our rabbis").

1. Biblical Commandments

Biblical commandments are all those written in the Torah scroll, and their manner of observance is learned in the Oral Torah. In these, we find details of all 613 commandments that Moses taught orally to the generation of the wilderness, such as the 39 categories of work forbidden on Shabbat, proper and improper slaughter methods, the olive size measurement for forbidden consumption, the shape of tefillin and the passages within them, etc. These important details are called "Halakha le-Moshe mi-Sinai" - they are not derived from exegesis but were passed down as uncontested oral tradition. In "Halakha le-Moshe mi-Sinai," we never find disputes among the sages.

All the commandments of the Written and Oral Torah were transmitted word-for-word, just as we received them from the mouth of Moses to the people of Israel. These are the foundations of the Written and Oral Torahs: 613 commandments and their details that were handed down to us orally.

Additionally, we received 13 principles by which the Torah is interpreted. Just as courts rule laws in monetary and capital cases by the power and authority given to them by the Torah, so too does the investigation of the sages into Biblical commandments carry a Torah obligation.

The Torah clearly states: "If there arises a matter too difficult for you in judgment, blood, or law between cases or between words of discord within your gates... and you shall inquire, and they shall tell you the word of judgment... according to the Torah which they will teach you, and according to the law they shall tell you, do not turn from that which they say to you right or left" (Deuteronomy 17:8-11).

Moses handed down to Israel orally the 13 principles by which the Torah is derived, like a logical deduction and equivalence. These principles are methods to investigate the verses and derive practical laws. For example, a woman is consecrated for a value of money, but the question of what amount (a pruta or a dinar) was left to the sages to rule according to each generation's needs.

The learning methodologies of the Torah were received by the elders from Moses, and through them, they ruled laws and decrees for Israel from the wilderness era to the end of the Second Temple. In the Book of Judges (chapter 21), we find an example of a Talmudic investigation conducted by the elders of Israel into the laws of an oath to permit the daughters of Israel to the tribe of Benjamin.

The Torah prohibits counting Israel (Exodus 30:12-13), but through Talmudic investigation, a way was found to count the people for military mobilization: "And he counted them in telaim, 200,000 footmen and 10,000 men of Judah" (1 Samuel 15:4).

The sages learned through the 13 principles about betrothal with money, hence, one who is intimate with a woman betrothed by money is liable to the death penalty from the Torah.

The intellectual strength of the 13 principles by which the Torah is interpreted is so great that even if a law was forgotten, Heaven forbid, by the people of Israel - it could be relearned from the Torah using these 13 principles! This is narrated about Othniel ben Kenaz, who restored forgotten laws through his pilpul (—a dialectical probing of logical deduction and scribal precision) after Moses' death (Talmud Temurah 16a).

How do we learn this from the Torah?

The Torah commanded explicitly to listen to the sages of the generation, as we saw in the previous article, but besides that, it continues to say that since its giving, no further prophecies are needed to know how to observe its commandments: "For this commandment that I command you today, it is not hidden from you, nor is it far away, it is not in heaven to say, who will ascend for us to heaven to bring it to us and let us hear it and do it... for it is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart to do it" (Deuteronomy 30:11-14).

These verses testify that the sages have been given the ability to study the Torah and explain it properly to the children of Israel. For this reason, even a prophet is not permitted to change a mitzvah of the Torah due to prophetic inspiration. The Torah is not in heaven - since its descending to the people of Israel, Hashem granted the sages authority and power to determine the law correctly according to the tradition's rules, without needing further prophecy to explain it. The Torah is perfect as it is and doesn't require "completions" from heaven. Hashem promised that His Torah would never be forgotten in Israel (Deuteronomy 31:21; Isaiah 59:21).

Of course, only a learned scholar, thoroughly versed in the entire Torah, can appropriately rule laws from it. The sages strongly warned against misinterpreting the Torah: "One who interprets the Torah counter to the halakha, even though he possesses Torah and good deeds, has no share in the World to Come" (Avot 3:11), and learned this from verses (Talmud Sanhedrin 99a).

Since the destruction of the Second Temple and the sealing of the Talmud, no new legal rulings are derived from exegeses, as the sages thoroughly investigated and explained all the Torah laws in the Mishna and the Talmud (-called in Aramaic "Gemara").

2. Rabbinic Commandments - "Make a safeguard for My safeguards" (Yevamot 21a) - these are enactments and decrees from the post-Torah era, ruled by the Sanhedrin and prophets in every generation according to the authority given to them by the Torah to prescribe boundaries for strengthening and protecting the Torah.

In the final article of this series, we will delve deeper, with Hashem's help, into the topic of rabbinic ordinances, and we will see examples of them from the books of the prophets.