Q&A: From Sinai?
From Sinai?
Question
1. If you were convinced that the concepts of the World to Come, the resurrection of the dead, the Messianic era, reward and punishment, are not speculative ideas of the Sages, but were actually transmitted from Sinai or that they knew them through divine inspiration, would you believe in them (like Maimonides, etc.)?
2. If not, why not?
3. If so, what would have to be the convincing proof that this really comes from Sinai?
4. Why is this different from the many laws and interpretations about which they did not explicitly say that they are from Sinai, but we accept them only because we are convinced that they are? (The thirty-nine categories of labor, for example.)
Answer
1. Yes.
3. That they should say it is from Sinai.
4. It is no different (see 3). Except that in matters of Jewish law, unlike matters of fact, even something not from Sinai can still be binding by virtue of formal authority.