חדש באתר: NotebookLM עם כל תכני הרב מיכאל אברהם

Q&A: This Torah Will Not Be Replaced???

Back to list  |  🌐 עברית  |  ℹ About
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.

This Torah Will Not Be Replaced???

Question

In the formulation of the Thirteen Principles as it appears in the prayer book, we believe that “this Torah will not be replaced, and there will be no other Torah from the Creator, blessed be His name.” In Maimonides’ own formulation of the Thirteen Principles this is not written, but at the beginning of chapter 9 of the Laws of the Foundations of the Torah there is something in that vein, and this is his language:
“It is clear and explicit in the Torah that this commandment stands forever and for all eternity; it is subject to neither change, diminution, nor addition, as it is stated: ‘Everything that I command you, that shall you observe to do; you shall not add to it, nor diminish from it.’ And it is stated: ‘The hidden things belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things are for us and for our children forever, to do all the words of this Torah.’ From here you learn that all the matters of the Torah are commandments that we are commanded to fulfill forever. And so it says: ‘an everlasting statute throughout your generations.’ And it says: ‘It is not in heaven’—from here you learn that a prophet is not permitted from now on to introduce anything new. Therefore, if a man should arise, whether from among the nations or from Israel, and perform a sign and wonder and say that the Lord sent him to add a commandment or to subtract a commandment, or to give an interpretation to one of the commandments that we did not hear from Moses, or if he says that those commandments with which Israel was commanded are not forever and for all generations, but were commandments only for a limited time—such a person is a false prophet, for he has come to deny the prophecy of Moses. His death is by strangulation, because he intentionally spoke in the name of the Lord what He did not command him. For He, blessed be His name, commanded Moses that this commandment is for us and for our children forever, and God is not a man that He should lie.”
The assertion that there will be no other Torah from the Creator, blessed be His name, is seemingly an exaggerated leap from the Talmudic statement derived from “these are the commandments,” that a prophet is not permitted to introduce anything new from now on—in that it establishes that there will be no change even by God Himself. And simple logic (mine) says that we do not know God’s plans (so long as He has not revealed them to us), and it could be that tomorrow, at a new revelation at Mount Sinai, some of the Torah’s commandments would be changed.
I would be glad to hear the Rabbi’s opinion (and the readers’ as well) on this matter.
 
 
 
 

Answer

This is not talking about another revelation at Mount Sinai. When there is one, we’ll talk. Without a further revelation, there is no authority to make changes.

Discussion on Answer

Avishai (2022-03-21)

Maimonides learns from “the revealed things are for us and for our children forever, to do all the words of this Torah” that we are to observe the commandments forever. So in his view, God revealed to us that there will not be another revelation at Mount Sinai in which the commandments are changed.
I don’t know whether this has a source in the Talmud, but in any case, that is how he understood the verse.

השאר תגובה

Back to top button