Q&A: Torah from Heaven
Torah from Heaven
Question
Hello Rabbi,
Regarding the classic criticism about the time when the Torah was written: seemingly, it would be correct to say that the moment I accept the assertion that the Torah is from Heaven, it is not really relevant.
After all, on the principled level, God could also write the entire Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), the Mishnah and the Talmud, and also, to make a distinction, the books of Kofiko and Chipopo.
So it’s not that I’m calling to ignore questions of style, content, and so on, but once I believe that the Torah is from Heaven, all these questions—important as they are in themselves (and after all, I very much love the world of the Hebrew Bible)—turn from historical questions into theological questions, whether or not they have an answer. (In the end, I’m not God’s secretary, and I have no information about what writing style, in principle, He chose. All I can say is that empirically it is evident that He chose to use a range of styles [I also have no problem using the conventional names from the world of biblical criticism, for that matter], and perhaps theological conclusions can be drawn from this analysis, and perhaps not—more or less like the question of the reasons for the commandments.)
What does the Rabbi think?
Answer
I’m not sure I understood the question.
The debate about the styles takes place in the context of the discussion of whether the Torah really is from Heaven. If you accept that a priori, then you can follow Rabbi Breuer’s path in his “aspects approach,” and argue that the Holy One, blessed be He, chose different styles in order to teach us various things. Of course, different conclusions can be drawn from this, since the different styles were not chosen for no reason.
Discussion on Answer
It is not correct to deny any connection, but there is no necessity to tie them together.
Tradition is not something compelling, and it too requires justification. By the way, accepting something on the basis of tradition is not a priori acceptance.
Alright, thanks
Okay, thank you very much.
The question is whether it is correct to deny any connection between the question of the styles and the question of Torah from Heaven?
And another thing—is there a reason not to accept it a priori (by force of tradition)?