Q&A: How Can We Know Whether the Jewish Law We Have Is Accurate and Matches the Original Will of the Holy One, Blessed be He?
How Can We Know Whether the Jewish law We Have Is Accurate and Matches the Original Will of the Holy One, Blessed be He?
Question
Hello Rabbi, a secular friend I work with challenged me with a question that I didn’t know how to answer. He said that even if the tradition of the Torah is reliable, how can we know that the Jewish law and the conclusions drawn by the tradition are the conclusions desired in the eyes of the Holy One, Blessed be He, and really hit on what is actually supposed to be done? I’d also be glad for reading materials, if that’s okay.
Answer
Indeed, there is no way to know. But I’ll say two things: 1. God, too, should know that there is a tradition and that it can go wrong. 2. We have no more precise version than the one that is the result of our best efforts. Beyond that, God Himself writes in the Torah, “If a matter is too difficult for you… then you shall arise and go up to the place,” meaning that if there is a halakhic doubt, we are to go to the Sanhedrin and obey its ruling. In short, when we say that the Jewish law in our hands is correct, what we mean is that this is what must be done normatively, not that this is authentically what was transmitted to Moses at Sinai.
You could ask: who told us that the judge’s interpretation of the law is accurate? Why should we obey him? Here too, it’s the same answer.
Besides that, who says the absolute truth is even required?