Q&A: Applying the Rule: “The Torah Has Seventy Faces” in Jewish Law
Applying the Rule: "The Torah Has Seventy Faces" in Jewish Law
Question
I wanted to ask: why is it that in Jewish law there aren’t really multiple wisdoms, and there is (more or less) one binding halakhic ruling, whereas in aggadic teachings or in thought and faith / belief we say that the Torah has seventy faces? What is the logic behind drawing such a sharp distinction between Jewish law and everything else?
Answer
First, in Jewish law there definitely are multiple approaches, and there are quite a few legitimate halakhic possibilities. “The Torah has seventy faces” is said about Jewish law as well. Maimonides, in the second root, argued that only the plain meaning is interpretation, whereas derash is necessarily an extension, because every verse can have only one interpretation. To this Nachmanides writes that this is not our tradition, and that the Torah has seventy faces. There he is speaking about halakhic derash. As for aggadic teachings, I assume you mean thought (= principles of faith / belief). The reason that this area is open-ended, even though people try to present it as closed, is that we did not receive a tradition about it. A philosophical system, like that of the Kuzari or Maimonides, is the creation of the thinker who produced it, not something handed down by tradition. Jewish law is different: although it too is subject to interpretation, there is a substantive body of material that is transmitted by tradition, and the interpretations are formed around it.
Discussion on Answer
The Torah’s seventy faces include plain meaning, derash, allusion, and secret. “You shall fear the Lord your God” can be learned in its plain sense (plain meaning), and another facet comes to include Torah scholars (derash). Jewish law can take all these facets into account, since in most cases they do not contradict one another. So this is not necessarily just abstract thought. The cases in which derash contradicts the plain meaning are very few. Beyond that, it is not always about halakhic verses.
Rabbi, could I get an example of what it means that the Torah has seventy faces? What does that statement actually do for us? After all, there could be a thousand opinions; whatever Jewish law ultimately determines will follow the majority, so it is obvious anyway that there are many facets—isn’t that so?
Is studying all those opinions considered Torah study for which I receive reward, even though it is only the thought of the person who created it and not something transmitted by tradition?
Is studying Torah—the Five Books of Moses and the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh)—preferable to studying such ideas?