Q&A: The Sages and the Oral Torah
The Sages and the Oral Torah
Question
Hello Rabbi, I worked out for myself a definition of what the Oral Torah is, in order to know whether the words of the Sages are also considered part of the Oral Torah. I’d be glad if you could tell me whether my analysis is correct. Thank you in advance.
To create an entity that resembles another entity in reality, the entity has to contain the same characteristics as the entity it wants to resemble.
From this it follows that in order to create an Oral Torah, we have to see what characteristics create an Oral Torah, and if we can create them ourselves, then we can also create a new Oral Torah.
The definition of the characteristics of the Oral Torah can be defined by two possibilities, each of which contains two characteristics for the formation of the Oral Torah.
First definition:
1. The Oral Torah is an interpretation of the Written Torah
2. The Oral Torah expresses the will of God
From this it follows that if a person has a divine element through which he expresses the will of God by interpreting the Written Torah, then that person can create a new Oral Torah.
Second definition:
1. The Oral Torah is laws and legal rulings
2. The laws and legal rulings in the Oral Torah are the will of God
From this it follows that if God wants us to establish laws and legal rulings (regardless of whether these are the laws He originally had in mind), then the laws we created are the will of God.
The reason is that if God wants us to make laws, those laws must have a halakhically binding character. If they are not halakhically binding, then we have not created laws, but merely statements. Laws are statements with a binding character.
From this it follows that if God wants us to create new laws, He must want the statements we created to be upheld as well, and that means we can create an Oral Torah, because what we created is both law and the will of God.
Answer
Definition 2 is the correct one, and interpretations of the Written Torah are just a particular appearance of arriving at the will of God.
I don’t know what it means that a person has a divine element by means of which he interprets the Torah. A person interprets the Torah; leave the divine elements out of it.
I didn’t understand that entire last part.