Q&A: The Oral Torah
The Oral Torah
Question
Dear Rabbi, hello,
How can one create a sense of obligation to observe Jewish law in all its details, if I understand most of the laws in Orthodox Judaism as stemming from later rabbinic development? I do not understand the subject as well as I should, but I have understood that there were other Jewish legal traditions as well; some are mentioned in rabbinic literature, such as the Sadducees and Boethusians, and some have been uncovered by modern research, such as the Essene sects and Qumran and the like. Is the Pharisaic Jewish law, from which the Mishnah and Talmud developed, really the “author’s intent”? Is it specifically there that the divine command is revealed more than in all the other traditions of the Oral Torah that existed among the Jewish people in earlier periods?
Thank you, and Sabbath peace.
Answer
See the fifth booklet. The assumption is that the Torah was given to us with almost no interpretations. Therefore, the Holy One, blessed be He, apparently expects us to interpret it, since without interpretation it is impossible to observe it. Which interpretations are binding or correct? Each person must decide that for himself. The public has decided that the interpretation accepted today in Jewish law is the interpretation that is binding from its perspective. Someone who does not accept that is of course not supposed to be bound by it. And if he reaches Heaven and discovers that he was mistaken, then he is under compulsion and not culpable, so long as he engaged in genuine and sincere thought when he reached his conclusion.
Beyond that, there is some importance to communal acceptance, because we are part of it. Just as we accept the laws of the Knesset even if there are some who think differently about them. Just as at Mount Sinai I am obligated even though I was not there. The community accepted this upon itself, and since I am part of the community, I too am bound.