Q&A: Correct and Incorrect Parts
Correct and Incorrect Parts
Question
Hello Rabbi, how can one know which parts of the Torah we have today (both the Oral Torah and the Written Torah) were given at Sinai, and which were not invented by people?
Answer
I am not familiar with a general criterion. The overwhelming majority was not given at Sinai. But the alternative is not that they are human inventions, but that they are interpretations of what was given there. And since interpretation has a status of its own, this is not a very important question. I have written quite a bit about this, for example in the third book of my trilogy. You can search in the notebooks for "Authenticity Is Not a Condition for Validity."
Discussion on Answer
On what basis do you want the answer? You can always claim not. There are various sources that give the sages authority to interpret ("and you shall keep My charge," "do not deviate," "according to all that they instruct you," etc.). Common sense also says that there has to be an authorized interpretive institution, as in any legal system. If that doesn't seem convincing to you—there is no better answer.
The question is whether all these verses ("and you shall keep…" etc.) were written by God or not, because there is no point at all in an interpretation based on something human. Certainly if they were written by God, it makes a great deal of sense to assume that they grant authority to the sages.
The question that is ultimately significant for the discussion is whether authority was given by the Creator of the world to the sages to interpret the Torah that He wrote, and to issue binding Jewish law on that basis—that is essentially the question I asked.