Q&A: Does the Torah We Have Today Still Reflect God’s Will?
Does the Torah We Have Today Still Reflect God’s Will?
Question
Hello,
I heard that the Rabbi argues that most of the Oral Torah was not given at Sinai, but rather developed later, toward the end of the Second Temple period. Also, early Jewish law was mostly a kind of interpretation of the Written Torah, unlike the Oral Torah as we have it today. And it served as a kind of channel for transmitting reports and tradition, as opposed to human innovations, as seems to emerge from Tractate Avot.
So I wanted to ask: if there are such major changes between the Oral Torah of today and what God gave at Sinai, why does the Rabbi assume that the Torah we have in our hands today still reflects God’s will?
I would be happy if the Rabbi could answer….
Answer
It reflects God’s will by definition, not because the Sages’ interpretation necessarily hits on what the Holy One, blessed be He, intended. The Torah was given to us almost without explanations, so it is clear that the Giver of the Torah assumed that we would interpret it, and He gave it on that basis. Moreover, we have a tradition that “it is not in heaven”—meaning that even when the Sages interpret the Torah in a way that is not accepted by the Holy One, blessed be He, that is still what He wants us to do. This is, of course, a story and a homiletic teaching of the Sages, but what they are saying is that truth is not what matters here; authority is.